Behind Williams, Northridge Men Are Runners-Up

Sprinter D’Marcus Williams won two events to lead the Cal State Northridge men to a second-place finish in the Big Sky Conference track and field championships Saturday at Pocatello, Idaho.

Hurdler Frances Santin won two events, but the Northridge women were denied a third consecutive title and finished fourth.

Weber State captured the women’s championship and its fourth consecutive men’s championship, outscoring the Matadors, 181-166, in the men’s competition and notching 153.5 points in the women’s meet.

Montana State was second in the women’s meet with 134.8 points, Idaho State was third with 133 and Northridge had 98.7.

Coach Don Strametz of Northridge, which will move to the Big West next year, was pleased with the men’s result.

“That was the best score we’ve ever had [in the conference meet] and was 36 more points than we expected to get,” Strametz said. “The coaches were talking about it earlier, that if you’d have told us we were going to score 166 on the men’s side, we’d have just stayed in L.A. and let somebody else try to beat it.”

Williams won the 200 meters in 21.57 seconds and the 400 in 46.86.

He anchored the victorious 400 relay team that clocked 40.45.

Williams also ran the third leg in the 1,600 relay, helping Northridge to second place in 3:12.26 behind Weber State (3:11.73).

Clinte’ Motley of Northridge won his third conference triple jump championship at 52-4 1/2, with Charles Clinger of Weber State second at 51-6 1/2.

In the high jump, Clinger set a conference and meet record of 7-8 1/2, best in the world this year, with Motley second at 6-11.

“They’ve dueled against each other for three years in the long jump, triple jump and high jump,” Strametz said. “It was phenomenal to see the class they both displayed this weekend.”

Santin, a three-time City Section champion in the hurdles at Taft High, won the 100 hurdles in 13.68 and the 400 hurdles in a meet-record 57.66.

She anchored Northridge’s winning 1,600 relay team (3:42.04) and ran the third leg for the fourth-place 400 relay team (47.18).

The women’s finish didn’t bother Strametz.

“We redshirted some people this year and we are looking forward to next year,” Strametz said.

Baseball

Pepperdine 10, Gonzaga 0--Noah Lowry struck out 10 and the Waves evened the best-of-three West Coast Conference championship series at Pepperdine.

The teams play today at 1 p.m., with the winner advancing to the NCAA Regionals.

Lowry (14-1), a junior left-hander from Nordhoff High, allowed six hits in eight innings.

Dan Haren and Jared Pitney each drove in three runs for Pepperdine (40-16).

Cal State Northridge 5, UC Riverside 2--J.T. Stotts had three hits and drove in a run for the Matadors (33-22) in a nonconference game at Northridge.

Andy Davidson (8-4) allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings and Mike Frick pitched two scoreless innings to earn his ninth save.