TRACK : ELAC Reinstates Men’s and Women’s Programs

East Los Angeles College has reinstated its men’s and women’s cross-country and track programs for the 1994-95 school year.

Dean of Students Ron Dyste said the move was made to comply with Title IX, a 1972 federal law that bans gender discrimination in athletics and all areas of education. The addition of cross-country and track will increase the number of women’s sports at the school to four and the number of men’s programs to six. It is the first phase of a plan to add five women’s sports over the next five years at the 14,600-student community college in Monterey Park.

This year the school only offered volleyball and softball to women. It presently fields men’s teams in soccer, basketball, wrestling and baseball.

Women’s basketball is tentatively scheduled to be added in 1995-96, followed by soccer, tennis and swimming in succeeding years. Only the additions of cross-country and track have been approved by Ernest Moreno, the school’s acting president.

Funding will likely come from a $1.4-million windfall that East Los Angeles College expects to receive from the Los Angeles Community College District in the next fiscal year, thanks to a 7% increase in enrollment over the past year, according to Dyste.

However, Dyste said, football’s return does not appear promising. The program was eliminated in April, 1993, for budgetary reasons.

“Bringing football back would throw the balance between men’s and women’s sports out of whack again,” Dyste said. “It would be like starting from scratch.”

The Huskies have not fielded teams in cross-country and track since 1991. The sports were discontinued after the 1985-86 academic year because of budget cuts. They were revived in 1988-89 but suspended again three years later.

Economics and the past success of cross-country and track were the driving forces behind their reinstatement, said Athletic Director Gil Rozadilla.

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Janet Hill of Cal State L.A. won the shot put and discus for the second year in a row in the May 26-28 NCAA Division II championships in Raleigh, N.C., to lead the Golden Eagles to a third-place finish. Hill broke her meet record of 172 feet 10 inches in the discus with a throw of 176-8 and won the shot put with a heave of 51-3 1/4.

Alabama A&M; won its third consecutive team title with 117 points, followed by Abilene Christian and Cal State L.A. with 81 1/2 and 69 points.

Angeleta Graham was second in the 400 meters in 53.85 seconds and also ran on Cal State L.A.’s 1,600-meter relay team, which was fifth in 3:45.96.

Marisol Cossio was second in the 10,000 (35:49.59) and came back to place sixth in the 5,000 (17:04.22). Marisa Avendano and Marisol Pedraza recorded personal bests to place third and fourth in the 3,000 (9:44.07) and 1,500 meters (4:33.40), respectively.

Keadrick Washington paced the Cal State L.A. men to 10th, placing third in the 110 high hurdles (14.16) nd anchoring the 1,600-meter relay team of Ruben Benitez, John Hensley and Glenn Stewart to fifth in 3:11.08. Robert Clark added a second-place finish in the hammer (195-9).