Matador Women Favored for Title

Cal State Northridge will defend its Big Sky Conference women’s outdoor track and field championship when the four-day meet starts today at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

The decathlon and heptathlon will be held today and Thursday. Preliminaries and finals of the other events are Friday and Saturday.

Northridge was favored to win the women’s title in a recent poll of conference coaches, but Matador Coach Don Strametz regards Weber State as a slight favorite because of the Wildcats’ overwhelming strength in the middle- and long-distance races.

“They could score 90 points in the 800, 1,500, 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 alone,” Strametz said.

Northridge, which defeated Weber State, 133-116, last year, is expected to score the bulk of its points in the weight events and sprints.

Senior Beth Burton and sophomores Christina Tolson and Cheree Hicks are the top three shotputters in the conference with Hicks leading the discus and Tolson and Burton ranking 1-2 in the hammer throw.

Junior Erika Bowling is ranked second in the 400 and fourth in the 200 for Northridge and will also run legs on the Matadors’ top-ranked 400 and 1,600 relay teams.

The Northridge men were picked to finish second in the coaches’ poll, but Strametz figures the Matadors will finish about sixth.

A tender hamstring could limit the number of races that senior Joe Criner runs in and a groin injury could do the same to junior Clinton Lane.

Criner is the defending conference champion in the 100 and 200 and Lane won the 400 last year.

Freshman Clinte Motley, who won Big Sky indoor titles in the high jump and triple jump in February, is entered in those events and the long jump.