Fast Times, Short Meet Goals in Northridge Track Opener

Track and field fans weary of collegiate meets that drag on for six or seven hours are in for a pleasant surprise when Cal State Northridge opens its outdoor track season this afternoon with a nonconference meet at home against USC, UC Irvine and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

A new format designed to reduce the length of scoring meets to about 3 hours will be in effect at today’s competition, which starts at 12:45 p.m.

The schedule, the brainchild of the recently formed California-Nevada Track & Field Coaches Assn., is designed to pack events into a shorter time frame in order to make collegiate track more appealing to the sporting public.

Although the format might be more taxing on athletes who compete in several events, Northridge Coach Don Strametz supports the new set-up.

“It’s long overdue,” Strametz said. “Scoring meets that took five, six and sometimes seven hours in the past were just killing the interest in our sport.”

Three big changes are evident in the restructured format.

First, competitors in the long jump, triple jump, and weight events will be allowed only four attempts instead of six.

Secondly, an athlete will be limited to seven total attempts in the high jump and pole vault. Previously, it was common for athletes to take between 12 and 15 attempts during the course of a competition.

Finally, the number of long-distance races--those further than 1,500 meters--has been reduced from two to one for both men and women.