UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / MIKE REILLEY : Fresno State Leaves Big West Track Open

With Fresno State in the Western Athletic Conference this season, a new power will emerge in Big West men’s and women’s track and field this weekend.

But who?

That question will be answered at the conference championships Friday and Saturday at UC Irvine’s track stadium.

Field events will begin each day at 12:30 p.m. and the running events start at 3:30 p.m., with the exception of the women’s 10,000 meters, which begins at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Fresno State has won the last 10 conference men’s titles and the last two women’s championships. Irvine has finished second in six of the last seven men’s meets and the Anteater women, along with UNLV, have challenged Fresno State the last four years.

“Long Beach, on paper, has the depth in the women’s meet,” Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle said. “Utah State has the numbers that we don’t have and UNLV has speed, like they always have.

“Realistically, we can be in the top four. If everything falls into place, the top three. We’re solid on the track. We just don’t have a lot of people in the field events.”

Some of the best races in the women’s meet will be the sprints, where Irvine’s Pam Kurtela, a junior from Los Alamitos, will go against UNLV’s Judy Fraser.

Kurtela has the conference’s top 200-meter time (24.62 seconds), is third in the 100 (12.04) and is fourth in the 400 (56.42). Fraser is second in the conference in the 200 (24.64) and first in the 400 (53.65).

Irvine’s Andrea Dean, Jame Karrer and Lana Banks will team with Kurtela in the 400 relay. They ran a school-record 45.98 last month, second-fastest in the Big West behind Cal State Long Beach (45.89). Dean, Banks, Kurtela and freshman Michelle Merritt have the conference’s fourth-fastest time in the 1,600 relay (3:56.34).

Other top performers in the women’s meet include:

--Anteater senior Jade Preato, who leads the conference in the 5,000 with a time of 17:35.4.

--Cal State Long Beach sprinters Lisa Moxley (12.07 in the 100) and Marquita Knight (12.22 in the 100), and 49er long jumper Angie Scott, who leads the conference at 19-1 1/4.

--Utah State shot putter Wendy Matthews (conference-best 46-2 1/2) and the Aggies’ Agneta Westen, the defending conference heptathlon champion.

Utah State is favored in the men’s competition. Irvine’s Mike Nielsen enters the meet with the conference’s top times in the 1,500 (3:48.72) and the 5,000 (14:26.36).

Other top entries include:

--Cal State Fullerton’s Mike Tansley, the defending Big West steeplechase champion who’s second in the conference in the 5,000 (14:27.9).

--Utah State sprinters Bode Osagiobare and Troy Johnson. Osagiobare leads the conference in the 100 (10.33) and 200 (20.93), and Johnson has the top 400 time (46.84).

--Irvine senior Mike Hewitt, who’s second in the pole vault at 16-5 1/4.

--Nevada’s Sherman Morris and Kevin Dallas, who lead the conference in the 110 high hurdles and the 400 hurdles, respectively.

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O’Boyle said the Anteater women will be even stronger next season with the addition of standout distance runners Tiffany Burt of Agoura High and Laura Monson of Claremont High and Sara Kaminskis, a hurdler and long jumper from Castroville North Monterey County High. Monson finished fifth in the State cross-country championships. Burt was the No. 3 runner on Agoura’s State champion cross-country team, and Kaminskis has run the 300 hurdles in 45.6 seconds and long jumped 16 feet 7 inches.

Notes

Basketball: He’s signed and sealed, but will he deliver? Georgia Tech’s athletic department announced last week that it had received a letter of intent from New York City prep basketball standout Ed Elisma, who chose the Yellow Jackets over UC Irvine. But Elisma’s eligibility for next season is still in question. He is waiting for the results of his college entrance exam that he took for the third time last month.

Add basketball: Irvine basketball fans might remember the names Jan van Breda Kolff and Kathy Olivier. Both had interviews for the Anteaters’ men’s and women’s coaching jobs.

Van Breda Kolff, who went to Cornell two years ago after Irvine hired Rod Baker, was hired by Vanderbilt on Monday. Olivier, a UCI assistant for one season who had an interview for the Anteater women’s job that went to Colleen Matsuhara, was named the UCLA women’s coach Monday.

Fund-raising: The Carl’s Jr. restaurant at 18032 Culver Dr. in Irvine will donate 25% of its food and beverage sales on May 14 to the UC Irvine Athletic Foundation. Baker and several Anteater players will be on hand to sign autographs.

Tennis: For the second time in her career, Irvine’s Ali Yoshimoto has been named to the all-Big West second team. Yoshimoto, a senior from Alhambra High, finished 12-17 at No. 1 singles.

Yoshimoto also was named to the second team in doubles with senior partner Cori Crigger, a Long Beach Millikan graduate. They finished 9-7 this season.