Armanski at Finish Line as Cal State L.A. Coach

It will mark the end of an era when the Cal State Los Angeles women’s track and field team competes in the NCAA Division II championships Thursday through Saturday at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Tex.

The meet will be the last for longtime Coach Gudrun Armanski, who has announced that she is retiring after coaching the program since its inception in 1973.

Armanski, 52, has coached an impressive list of athletes, including sprinters Rosalyn Bryant, Diane Williams and Denean and Sherri Howard and distance runners Sylvia Mosqueda and Gretchen Lohr.

The Golden Eagles have another strong contingent of athletes this season, including Christy Opara in the sprints and long jump, Marlene Wilcox in the 800 meters, Brandi Gail in the shotput and sprinter Margo Grant, and appear in good position for the future.

Armanski was honored as California Collegiate Athletic Assn. coach of the year after guiding the Golden Eagles to the conference title May 16. The team unseated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which had won 10 consecutive titles since the conference was formed in 1982.

But Armanski, 52, feels as if the time is right for her to step down as coach.

“It’s just not fun for me anymore,” Armanski said. “It’s too much work. I’ve been spending less and less time coaching and too much on other duties.”

She said that wasn’t the case when she became coach 20 years ago and the program competed in the Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. But since the program moved from the AIAW to the NCAA in 1981, Armanski said, she has had to concern herself with an increasing amount of administrative duty.

“In the beginning, there was a lot more time being spent outside with coaching, and now there’s just so much bookwork and concerns about things other than coaching,” Armanski said. “You’re required to spend so many hours in the office checking on things like eligibility and budgetary matters.”

Armanski said she still enjoys coaching.

“There’s nothing wrong with coaching a team, and I’ve had some great athletes and some nice memories,” she said. “But it’s the coaching and teaching that I enjoy the most. Coaching has always been in my blood, and I will always like coaching.”

Only Armanski doesn’t expect to be coaching another track team in the future.

“I don’t think I’ll ever want to coach in terms of a team thing,” she said. “If I coach, it will be an individual or two and under my terms.”

After she retires, she also plans to spend a little more time horseback riding.

But in the meantime, Armanski has been enjoying a memorable final year as coach. It started with the team’s second-place finish at the NCAA Division II indoor track and field championships in March at Saginaw Valley State in Michigan.

It was the best finish ever for the women’s team in indoor competition. But Armanski was even more pleased with the team’s performance outdoors at the CCAA finals.

“What we really accomplished as a team was the conference championship,” she said. “That’s something that was very satisfying.”

After a fourth-place showing at the Division II outdoor championships last season, the Golden Eagles are expected to finish among the top teams at this week’s meet, although Armanski isn’t about to make any predictions.

“It always has to do with who’s healthy and who shows up,” she said. “On paper, we’re strong. But depending on how things go, we can be anywhere from first to fifth.”

Regardless, Armanski says it is one of her best squads.

“One thing I can say for sure, we have a well-rounded team and a very deep mixture of athletes,” she said. “The program is really quite rounded and that’s definitely a first. In the early years, we were great in the sprints and then we were good in the distance events for a time and didn’t have any great sprinters. Now we have both.”

She also knows that the program will be left in capable hands with coaches such as assistant Greg Ryan, who also coaches the women’s cross-country team.

“(Ryan) has really been my co-coach, and he’ll do an excellent job with the people who will be coming back,” Armanski said.

For the Azusa Pacific men’s track team, it was business as usual at the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics track and field championships last week at Abbotsford, Canada.

In finishing with 93 points, Azusa Pacific won its second title in a row and ninth in the last 10 seasons by 17 points over Central State of Ohio. It was the first time that the NAIA meet was held outside of the United States, but that didn’t seem to faze the Cougars.

Leading the way for the Cougars was junior sprinter Davidson Ezinwa, who won the 100-meter dash in 10.05 seconds. Ezinwa, who won the event for the second year in a row, is the British Commonwealth, African and Nigerian record-holder at 100 meters with a 1992 world best of 9.91 seconds.

The Cougars also benefited from first-place finishes by pole vaulter Vince Beresford and shotputter Jason Wyatt, who turned in their best performances of the season. Beresford, a junior, went 17-3 in the pole vault and Wyatt, a sophomore, posted a mark of 58-8 in the shot put.