Throwers Put Forth Strong Effort for Frazier, CSUN

John Frazier learned much as a shotputter during his four seasons at UCLA under Art Venegas. Saturday, Venegas had proof that the lessons have not been forgotten.

Led by a one-two finish in the javelin, the Cal State Northridge weight-events competitors, coached by Frazier, surprisingly held their own against their UCLA counterparts, coached by Venegas, in a triangular track and field meet at UCLA.

UCLA won the men’s meet with 93 points, followed by Houston (50) and Northridge (37). UCLA and Houston tied in the women’s meet with 66 points each, followed by CSUN with 38.

In dual-meet scoring, UCLA defeated CSUN, 104-48, and Houston beat the Matadors, 85-58; the CSUN women lost to UCLA, 74-60, and Houston, 75-61.

But the team scores were of just mild interest to the Matadors, who are beginning their second season at the NCAA Division I level. And while CSUN could not hope to match the depth of either UCLA or Houston, several individuals proved to be more than competitive.

Garrett Noel and Gil Carrillo swept the top two places in the javelin, for example, and Kirsten Dunn won the women’s javelin. Noel and Carrillo, both juniors, produced two school records and three personal bests between them.

“I was a little worried coming in here,” said Frazier, a three-time All-American in the shotput for UCLA in the mid-1980s. “I thought we were going to throw pretty well, but I was worried that Art’s kids might explode early and blow us out.”

Carrillo, who redshirted last season after he injured his right elbow, led after a first-round throw of 219 feet 2 inches.

He followed that with a school-record toss of 227-4 in the next round--breaking Noel’s mark of 225-11--but Noel immediately erased that with a 231-11 throw.

Carrillo improved to 229-5 in the next round, but he could not catch his teammate. Nevertheless, both throwers moved closer to the automatic qualifying standard of 242-9 for the NCAA Division I championships in June.

“I was really impressed with (Frazier’s) javelin throwers,” Venegas said. “For (Carrillo) to have that kind of consistency a year after an injury is impressive. It shows that John must be doing a lot of things right.”

Freshman Tyrone Gayles got the ball rolling for the CSUN throwers when he finished second in the hammer--the first event of the meet--with a mark of 165-5, a personal best by more than 18 feet.

Fellow frosh Dunn followed that with her winning toss of 146-7 in the javelin and teammate Teresa Stricklin placed third in the shotput with a personal best of 45-4 1/4.

Senior shotputter Ryan Vierra and freshman discus thrower Jodie Warr also posted personal bests, Vierra placing second with a put of 58-3 3/4 and Warr finishing third at 149-1.

On the track, Sasha Vujic won the two-mile in 8 minutes 58.81 seconds, the second-best time in school history, and the women’s 400-meter relay team finished second in 45.67, the third-best time in school history.