NCAA Champion McBride Wants to Leave CSUN for UC Irvine

Erick McBride of Cal State Northridge, who won the men’s 800-meter run at the NCAA Division II championships in May, said Friday that he will transfer to UC Irvine in January.

McBride, who set a school record of 1 minute 49.09 seconds in the 800 as a freshman last season, would not say why he wanted to transfer, but said that the resignation of Northridge assistant coach Bob Augello last month had a bearing on the matter.

“I had thought about transferring before (Augello resigned),” McBride said. “But now that he’s gone, it has a huge effect on my decision.”

Augello, an assistant with the Northridge men’s and women’s cross-country and track teams the past two years, became an assistant coach of the Subaru Cycling Team.

McBride wanted to transfer to Irvine in the fall but failed to meet some of the academic requirements at the Big West Conference school.

“Basically, I just have to get my grades up in the next semester,” he said. “I didn’t do real well in a couple of classes last semester.”

Don Strametz, the Northridge men’s and women’s cross-country and track coach, would not comment on McBride’s transfer, but he expressed doubt that McBride would have enough academic units to transfer to a University of California branch within a year.

McBride said he will run for Northridge during the cross-country season and, provided he raises his grades sufficiently, will enroll at Irvine for the winter quarter in January.

According to NCAA rules, McBride would have to sit out the 1991 track and cross-country seasons before resuming collegiate competition in 1992.

He will run for the Santa Monica Track Club during that period and would have three seasons of eligibility in track and two seasons in cross-country remaining.

“I just have a lot of personal reasons for transferring,” McBride said. “I’d rather not say what they are because I don’t want to offend anyone or make any enemies.”

The 1989 Southern Section 4-A Division champion in the 800 as a Palmdale High senior, McBride struggled early last season before peaking in May.

On May 5, he lowered his personal best to 1:51.36 at the Modesto Invitational. He won his qualifying heat at the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships in 1:51.39 six days later, then placed second in the final the next day in 1:51.84.

He timed 1:49.09 in winning the 800 at the Santa Monica Distance Carnival six days later and won the Division II title in 1:49.34 the next week.

“Everything just came together for me in the last month,” McBride said after winning the Division II title.