Matadors Need Big Three in Big Sky Championships

Seniors Clinte Motley, D’Marcus Williams and Tim Brown of Cal State Northridge will need quality performances Friday and Saturday for the Matador men to win their first team title in the Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships at Idaho State.

Northridge, which will join the Big West Conference in the fall after a five-year run in the Big Sky, was projected as a middle-of-the-pack finisher in the conference championships at the start of the season.

But the Matadors have improved greatly and are considered title contenders along with three-time defending champion Weber State, Northern Arizona, Idaho State and Montana State.

The four-day meet began Wednesday with the decathlon and heptathlon, but no Northridge athlete will compete until Friday.

“The winner is going to be whoever gets the breaks going their way,” Northridge Coach Don Strametz said. “We’ve got a lot riding on a few people.”

Motley, who placed first in the triple jump, second in the high jump and third in the long jump in the California-Nevada championships at UC Irvine on April 28-29, is entered in those events and in the 110-meter high hurdles.

Williams, the 200 champion and 400 runner-up in the California-Nevada meet, will run in those events and in the 400 and 1,600 relays.

Brown, fourth in the 100 in the California-Nevada championships, is entered in that event, the 200, long jump, triple jump and 400 relay.

Northridge has won three of the last four Big Sky women’s titles, but the Matadors aren’t expected to be among the top three finishers this year after redshirting three key performers so they could field a stronger team in their initial season in the Big West.

Junior Francis Santin, the Big Sky record-holder in the 400 low hurdles at 56.64, will run in that event as well as the 100 high hurdles, 400 and 1,600 relays.

Lucais MacKay of Moorpark College will try to complete a hat trick Saturday, when he competes in the men’s shotput, discus and hammer throw in the state junior college championships at American River College in Sacramento.

MacKay, who transferred after struggling academically during his first three semesters at USC, won the shotput, discus and hammer in the Western State Conference championships in April and in the Southern California championships last week.

He has the best marks in the state in those events.

Jody Hay and Shelaine Larson of Moorpark, Kim Lorimer and Jorge Lopez of Glendale and Jerrick Holmes of Antelope Valley are also expected to contend for individual titles in the two-day meet that starts Friday.

Hay won the women’s 10,000 in the Southern California championships and Larson won the discus and placed second in the shotput and hammer.

Lorimer won the women’s 3,000 and 5,000 in the Southern California meet and Lopez was second in the men’s 3,000 steeplechase.

Holmes cleared 7 feet to win the men’s high jump in the Southern California championships.

Jason Lovell of Cleveland High will run in the boys’ 400 in the City Section preliminaries at Birmingham High today, but it isn’t known if he’ll compete in any other events in the meet that starts at 2 p.m.

Lovell, defending City Section champion in the 400 and the state leader at 47.58 this year, strained his left hamstring at the end of the 400 relay in the West Valley League finals last week. He came back to win the 400 in 47.88 while running with a heavily wrapped left thigh but didn’t run in the 200 or in the 1,600 relay.

Without Lovell, Cleveland finished third in the 1,600 relay in the league finals. With him, the Cavaliers are state-title contenders.

“We won’t make any decisions about which events Jason will run until right before the meet,” Cleveland assistant Bill Paden said.

They’ll be no more second chances for the boys’ 400 relay team at Taft.

If the Toreadors botch their passes in the City preliminaries, their season will be over.

Taft, the co-state leader at 41.30, finished second to Birmingham in the West Valley League finals, but were disqualified for passing the baton out of the exchange zone.

Rules allow each team to enter one individual and one relay team as an extra entry in the City preliminaries, however, giving the foursome of Steve Smith, Chris Morgan, Peiman Lahsaei and Noah Smith, no relation to Steve, a second chance.