NOTEBOOK : Cal State Women Run Down Foes to Win Title

Greg Ryan makes a better coach than a prognosticator.

But the Cal State Los Angeles women’s track coach isn’t complaining.

No matter how much time he spent trying to project the outcome of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships he always came to the same conclusion: the Golden Eagles would come up short of points.

However, the Golden Eagles won their second consecutive CCAA title May 15 and 16 at UC San Diego.

Cal State L.A. totaled 182 1/2 points to outdistance Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (172) and Cal State Bakersfield (67). It was a repeat performance for the Golden Eagles, who last year dethroned 10-time conference champ San Luis Obispo, 202-197. The conference was formed in 1982.

“On a marginal day for SLO and a good day for us, I thought we should have lost by three points,” said Ryan, who was selected the CCAA Women’s Coach of the Year. “We were two points behind schedule on the first day and it looked like it was going to cost us but it didn’t matter in the end.”

Mostly because of Marsha Guialdo. The 5-foot-5 senior was selected CCAA Female Athlete of the Year after setting conference records in the 100-meter hurdles (13.38 seconds) and the 400-meter hurdles (58.90).

Guialdo, who also won the 100 (11.96), joined Felicia Howard, Kim Bly and Jean Yokoyama on the Golden Eagles’ 400-meter relay team, which won in 47.79.

Guialdo also teamed with Bly, Howard and Alisha Lopez on Cal State L.A.’s winning 1,600-meter relay team (3:48.80). Guialdo overcame a five-meter deficit with a 54.2-second anchor leg to open nearly a four-second advantage over San Luis Obispo (3:52.64).

Cal State L.A.’s Janet Hill set conference records to win the shotput and discus with marks of 51 feet 9 inches and 172-6. Marisol Cossio, who placed third in the 1991 state junior college cross-country meet at LACC, won the 3,000 and 5,000 in 9:46.01 and 16:55.79.

Rosetta Hunter of Cal Poly Pomona, the City 1,600- and 3,200-meter champion for Locke in 1988 and ‘89, won the 800 and 1,500 in 2:14.28 and 4:35.86.

In the men’s competition, Cal State L.A. finished second with 115 points behind four-time defending champion San Luis Obispo with 208; Pomona was third with 106.

Running in his first 10,000 on the track, Jose Padilla, the former Roosevelt school-record holder in the 1,600, attained the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying standard in winning in 30:42.18 and placed second in the 5,000 (14:49.75).

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Signings--Genet Grebigorgis of Trade Tech and Oshonda Posey of North Hollywood High have made verbal commitments to attend Cal State L.A.

Grebigorgis, a former member of the Ethiopian junior national team, won the 3,000 at the Southern California junior college championships at Long Beach City College on May 15. She competed in the 3,000 and 5,000 in the State meet Friday and Saturday at Shasta College.

Posey was the runner-up in the 100 and 100 hurdles at last year’s City finals. She finished third in the 1990 City cross-country finals as a sophomore.

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Plan B--The Interscholastic Athletics Committee announced Monday that Bee football will be phased out and replaced with a frosh-soph division to help put the City Section in line with the state’s other sections.

Commissioner Hal Harkness said the change will be instituted for at least two of the City’s eight-team conferences in the fall.

The committee also approved a proposal to prohibit off-season contact between and players and coaches. The move, which eliminates winter-league baseball, spring basketball and football, was designed to relieve pressure on players from coaches who wanted them to specialize in one sport.

In other changes, the field for boys’ soccer playoffs will be increased from 16 to 32 teams next season.

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They’re out--The East L.A. College baseball team, which won its first conference title since 1975, lost the first round of the State Junior College tournament for the second time in three seasons.

The Huskies (23-17) suffered 12-1 and 7-3 losses to Riverside in a best-of-three series in the first-round of the Southern California Regional May 15 and 16. East L.A., which advanced to the second-round last season, was swept in two games in the first round by Citrus in 1991.

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Getting physical--Carolyn Thompson, a physical education teacher at Bell Gardens High, has been chosen as the state’s Outstanding Physical Education Teacher by the California Assn. for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Thompson, who also coached cross-country and track at Bell Gardens, helped guide the Lancer girls’ cross-country team to its first appearance in a Southern Section final in 1988 and the Bell Gardens girls’ track team to its first league title in 1989.