Northridge’s Sweep Is No Watered-Down Affair

Perhaps it was fitting that several members of the Cal State Northridge track team dumped two buckets of water Saturday on Coach Don Strametz after the Matadors won the men’s and women’s American West Conference championships.

One bucket for each year that he has led both teams to the title in a conference that will disband after this season.

The Matadors completed the repeat in the final day of a four-day meet at their own track by scoring 230 points in the men’s meet to 190 for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 111 for Cal State Sacramento and 104 for Southern Utah.

In the women’s meet, the Matadors had 248 points; Cal Poly finished second with 206, Sacramento was third with 87 and Southern Utah was fourth with 73.

“This is very gratifying,” Strametz said. “No one picked us to win the conference. It’s a real tribute to our team. It was a total team effort.”

Matt Carrillo, named the AWC athlete of the year in track, won the long jump Friday then on Saturday captured the 100 and 200 meters and anchored the winning 400 relay team to pace the Matador men’s come-from-behind victory.

They trailed Cal Poly, 78-57, heading into Saturday and still trailed, 137-116, with six events remaining.

But Northridge runners captured the top four spots in the 100, three of the top four in the 400 hurdles and five of the top six in the 200 to take a 212-183 lead over the Mustangs.

“We were talking about it before the meet,” Carrillo said. “We knew we could get points in the sprints if it was close. It was important for us to do well in those.”

John Greene, a former Agoura High standout, sealed the Matador men’s victory by clocking 15 minutes 21 seconds in the 5,000--good enough for second place in an event Cal Poly was supposed to score well in but got only one point.

“Everyone around the meet was talking about [Cal Poly’s] distance runners,” said Greene, who finished second in the 10,000 on Friday. “So any time they say you can’t do something it’s special motivation.”

The Matador women had the meet in hand after taking a 175-148 lead over Cal Poly by finishing in five of the top six spots in the 400. Zarinah Tillman, who also won the 200 and ran a leg on the victorious 1600 relay team, led the way with a personal-best 54.76 seconds.

“We knew we were going to win,” Tillman said. “We had the best times coming into the sprints. I wasn’t worried. I was staying focused on my own events.”

Elinor Tolson also was a triple winner for the Matadors, running 13.98 in the 110 hurdles, 1:00.84 in the 400 hurdles and a leg in the 400 relay.

“These guys made it go down to the wire,” Strametz said. “It seemed like the men’s team couldn’t catch a break. A hundredth of a second here, a centimeter there. . . . No matter what we did, it wasn’t working.”