Criner Outruns Trouble, Bids for NCAA Title

Run a shade over 20 seconds in the 200-meter dash and your goals can change in a hurry.

Just ask senior Joe Criner of Cal State Northridge.

Criner, who will compete in the 100 and 200 and run on the Matadors’ 400 and 1,600 relays in the California-Nevada track and field championships at Radcliffe Stadium in Fresno this weekend, began the outdoor season with a goal of 20.40 seconds in the 200.

But he’s looking for a sub-20 clocking and an NCAA title after running a wind-aided 20.14 to win a university-open race at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays last Sunday.

“I was shocked when I ran it,” Criner said. “But it’s settled in now and I’m more like, ‘Where is the 19 at? Where’s the 19.9 I could have ran.’ . . . There are so many things that are great about it, but there are so many things that are frustrating about it right now.”

Criner’s greatest frustration came from staying out late with friends the night before Mt SAC. He entered the meet worried he would embarrass himself.

“I didn’t get as much rest as I needed,” he said. “I’m just completely frustrated with myself to run such a great time and to have so much more possibilities there.”

Criner’s time, which preceded world 100 champion Maurice Greene clocking a world-leading 20.03 in the invitational 200, had spectators shaking their heads and asking, “Where did he come from?”

Criner, 23, was born and reared in Inglewood.

He attended Playa del Rey St. Bernard High, where he played football and basketball, and ran track.

He placed second in the 100 and 200 in the 1993 Southern Section Division III championships as a senior. Northridge Coach Don Strametz said Criner had barely scratched the surface of his potential when he signed with the Matadors.

It took three years for the 6-foot-4 1/2 Criner to start meeting that potential.

He ran in two meets for Northridge in 1994 before being asked to leave the team. He stopped attending class and flunked out of school.

He returned to Northridge in the fall of 1995 after working for a year, but he attended practice only about half the time.

Last season he got serious about practice and won Big Sky Conference titles in the 100 and 200 with wind-aided times of 10.51 and 20.85.

The biggest change, however, took place last fall.

That’s when Criner began to apply himself in workouts on the track and in the weight room. He also started to watch his diet.

“It’s maturity,” Criner said. “It’s from being an 18-year-old freshman who couldn’t keep his eyes off of girls, who couldn’t stop drinking and going to parties, who got himself kicked out of school, to being a 23-year-old man who’s taking care of himself, living on his own and paying his own way.”

That doesn’t mean Criner hasn’t tested his coaches’ patience at times.

Jeff McAuley, a Northridge assistant, chewed out Criner in February after Criner pulled off the track and threw his baton after being bumped in a 1,600 relay at an indoor meet in Reno.

Criner had run a then-career-best 20.92 in the 200 earlier in the meet, but McAuley was angered by Criner’s conduct in the relay.

“I went off on Joe like I’ve never gone off on an athlete before,” McAuley said. “What he did was a total embarrassment to the program.”

Criner redeemed himself by placing fourth in the 200 at the NCAA indoor championships in Indianapolis in March. He might have won the race had he not stumbled coming out of the starting blocks, McAuley said.

A disappointed Criner wrote McAuley saying he owed him a national title.

A sub-20 clocking, which only 18 men in history have run, would make Criner a favorite at the NCAA championships in Buffalo, N.Y., in June, but he’s trying not to think too far ahead.

“Whether or not I’m going to go 19 [seconds] this weekend is not what I’m thinking about,” Criner said. “I’m thinking about winning some races.”

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Track notes

UCLA and Fresno State are expected to battle for the men’s and women’s titles in the California-Nevada championships today and Sunday.

Northridge freshman Clinte Motley, Big Sky Conference indoor champion in the high jump and triple jump, is one of two entrants in the high jump to have cleared 7 feet 1/2 inch. His outdoor best of 49-4 1/2 in the triple jump ranks fifth among competitors.

Matador junior Nancy James is seeded first in the women’s 800 with a season best of 2:07.15 and sophomore teammate Brandi Prieto ranks second in the triple jump at 41-7.