CS Northridge Men Set School Mark in 1,600-Meter Relay

The Cal State Northridge men’s track team saved its best effort for last in Saturday’s quadrangular meet against Houston, Colorado and host UCLA at Drake Stadium by timing 3 minutes 9.81 seconds in the 1,600-meter relay, a school record.

The Matador foursome of sophomore Marshall Evans (47.8 seconds), senior Nate Wright (47.2), junior Troy Collins (47.9) and sophomore Jason Stein (46.7) finished third behind Colorado (3:08.39) and UCLA (3:09.07) and lowered the previous mark of 3:10.61 set in 1984.

UCLA, the defending Pacific 10 Conference champion, won with 84 1/2 points, followed by Houston (54), Colorado (27 1/2) and Northridge (27).

The Bruins won the women’s meet with 70 points, followed by Houston (42), Northridge (33) and Colorado (29).

The strong showing in the 1,600 relay enabled Northridge to finish the meet on a positive note.

“Marshall getting out fast was a big key for us,” said Tony Veney, Northridge sprint coach. “We’ve had teams capable of running this kind of time in the past, but we’ve never been able to get that good solid opening leg out of them. The difference today was that we were in the hunt right from the start. That allowed us to just get out there and race. We weren’t playing catch-up like we have in the past.”

Wright, who competed in four events, was in a good position when Evans handed him the baton.

“I was totally shocked when I heard the time,” he said. “But Marshall put us in the money and all we had to do was run.”

Wright, a former standout at Merritt College in Oakland, had an excellent all-around meet. He ran the first leg on Northridge’s 400-meter relay team--which finished third in a season best of 40.67--timed 14.92 to place seventh in the 110-meter high hurdles--a event he rarely runs--and finished third in the 400 intermediate hurdles in 51.83, the best time of his Northridge career.

“I think the highs helped me in the intermediates,” Wright said. “Because it reminded me that I had to keep my trail leg up.”

Garrett Noel, the Northridge record-holder in the men’s javelin (244-9), suffered his first loss to a collegian this season when he finished second behind Erik Smith of UCLA.

Noel had defeated Smith, a two-time All-American, to win last week’s Sun Angel meet at Arizona State, but Smith (235-8) won by four inches Saturday.

Sophomore Derek Scurry was the lone Northridge winner in the men’s meet, spanning 25-6 in the long jump.

Sophomores Tannel House (19-3 1/2 in the long jump) and Kristin Dunn (149-6 in the javelin) and junior Dorothy Byron (2:15.24) were individual winners for the Matadors in the women’s meet.