Coach Sees Long, Short of CSUN Track Squad

There are two ways Cal State Northridge track and field coach Don Strametz views the American West Conference championships that start today and end Saturday at Cal State Sacramento.

The first is that if this season’s Matador teams are comparable to last year’s, Northridge will post runaway victories in the four-team meet that also features Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Sacramento and Southern Utah.

The second is that Strametz should be thankful Northridge will even have a men’s program in the years ahead. Even though the Matadors fell on hard times--for a variety of reasons--this season, the inaugural AWC meet is a steppingstone toward better times.

“This to me is rock bottom,” Strametz said of 1995. “Now, we have to just start building back up again.”

The departure of long-time assistant Tony Veney in December, injuries to key performers such as long jumper-triple jumper Tannel House and the uncertain future of the men’s program until a fee referendum to increase sports funding passed on the third--and final--vote in March combined to make 1995 the most trying season of Strametz’s 15-year tenure. But there have been positives. Kristin Dunn broke an 18-year-old school record in the women’s javelin, Dunn and Kel Watrin swept the women’s and men’s javelin titles in the California-Nevada championships and Colorado transfer Kristina Mataafa has moved to second and fourth on the all-time Matador lists in the women’s discus and shotput.

It’s just that last year’s Matador teams had superior depth and would have been heavily favored in this meet. Instead, San Luis Obispo is tabbed to turn back Northridge in the men’s and women’s competition.

The Mustangs are expected to score points aplenty in the distance races. Northridge’s strengths should be in the sprints, 110-meter high hurdles, hammer throw and decathlon in the men’s meet and in the weight events and the long jump in the women’s competition.

“I doped it out the other day and I have them winning by about 10 points in the men’s meet and by about 14 in the women’s,” Strametz said. “We’ve just got to hope that Sac State and Southern Utah break them up in the distance races.”

Sprinter Marshall Evans, high hurdler Chris Youngblood, Watrin, hammer thrower Tyrone Gayles and decathlete Chris Kanowsky will lead the Northridge men.

Evans, who has personal bests of 10.78 seconds in the 100 and 21.36 in the 200, will run in those events and on the Matadors’ 400 and 1,600 relay teams.

Youngblood, fourth on the all-time Northridge list in the highs at 14.29, is favored in that event.

Watrin has a season best of 197 feet, 9 inches in the javelin, but is recovering from an elbow injury sustained in a meet May 6.

Gayles ranks eighth on the all-time Northridge list in the hammer at 189-4 and Kanowsky finished fourth in the decathlon in last year’s State junior college championships for Long Beach City College, but hasn’t competed in a 10-event meet this season. Kanowsky has also thrown the javelin 193-7.

Dunn, third in the women’s javelin in last year’s NCAA championships and the school record-holder at 176-4, is an overwhelming favorite in that event.

Mataafa, who has personal bests of 47-9 1/4 in the shotput and 167-1 in the discus, should contend for top-two finishes in each. The same goes for Cherice Ellison (19-0 1/2) and Carlene Jones (18-4) in the long jump.