CSUN Ready to Test the Great Indoors

The Cal State Northridge men’s and women’s track teams are 30% better than they were at this time a year ago, but they’ll have to improve another 30% to contend for team titles in the Big Sky Conference indoor championships on Feb. 21-22.

That’s the opinion of Coach Don Strametz, whose squads open the indoor campaign today with a nonconference meet against New Mexico, Southern Utah and host Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Ariz.

The Northridge men and women were tabbed to finish second and third in the Big Sky championships in a preseason poll of conference coaches, but Strametz says those projections are a little high.

“I don’t think we’re going to be quite that good,” he said. “I think those were based more on what we’re capable of doing outdoors than what we’re capable of doing indoors.”

The Matador men are expected to be strongest in the hurdles and sprints with the throwers, hurdlers and jumpers leading the women into their first season in the Big Sky.

Seniors Marquis Jones, Akiem Brown and Chris Brown and junior Joe Criner should be mainstays for the Northridge men.

Jones ranks fourth on the all-time Northridge list in the 110-meter high hurdles with a personal best of 14.27 seconds and has run 52.97 in the 400 intermediates.

Akiem Brown used last year as a redshirt season, but clocked 47.26 in the 400 in 1995, fifth on the all-time Matador list. Chris Brown--no relation to Akiem--ran 47.73 last year, ninth on the list.

Criner timed 10.65 in the 100 and 21.32 in the 200 outdoors last year, and placed fifth in the 200 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor championships.

Jason Hammond, Clinton Lane and Jeff Beam head a list of talented newcomers for Northridge.

Hammond, from Fowler (Calif.) High, was the No. 5-ranked high school shotputter in the nation last year and won the state title.

Lane was academically ineligible last year. He competed for San Diego Patrick Henry High in 1995 and finished fifth in the 400 in the state championships.His best is 47.07.

Beam is a transfer from Moorpark College who placed seventh in the pole vault in the 1996 junior college state championships.

As usual, the Northridge women are well stocked in the weight events.

Senior Beth Burton placed eighth in the NCAA indoor championships in the 20-pound weight throw and holds the school record (59 feet 4 inches) in that event and in the shotput (52-3 1/4) and hammer throw (170-10).

Freshman Cheree Hicks and fifth-year senior Scia Maumausolo should give the Matadors depth.

Hicks placed sixth in the shotput and ninth in the discus for Littlerock High in last year’s state championships.

Maumausolo, a three-time softball All-American at Northridge from 1993-96, hasn’t competed in track since 1992 at San Diego Mt. Carmel High. when she placed third in the discus in the state championships.

Senior Elinor Tolson and sophomore Mickey Rogers give the Matadors a solid 1-2 punch in the hurdles. They rank seventh and eighth on the all-time Matador list in the 100-meter highs with bests of 13.98 and 14.30.

Seniors Cherice Ellison and Margo Hammerstrom are Northridge’s top returning performers in the long jump and triple jump with bests of 19-6 and 38-8, respectively.

Freshman Brandi Prieto, seventh in the triple jump for North Torrance High in the state championships last year, gives the Matadors depth in that event.

However, Northridge’s sprint corps have been weakened with the loss of Zarinah Tillman, who will undergo vascular surgery in a leg. She clocked 11.89 in the 100, 24.04 in the 200 and 54.71 in the 400 as a freshman last year.