CSUN Relay Team Running With the Pact

A pact to concentrate on competing--and not on running a specific time--paid off with a school record for the Cal State Northridge 1,600-meter relay team in Saturday’s quadrangular track and field meet against Houston, Colorado and host UCLA at Drake Stadium.

The Northridge foursome of sophomore Marshall Evans, senior Nate Wright, junior Troy Collins and sophomore Jason Stein placed third behind Colorado (3 minutes 8.39 seconds) and UCLA (3:09.07) with a time of 3:09.81, lowering the school mark of 3:10.61 set in 1984.

“It’s been a long time coming,� Northridge Coach Don Strametz said. “We’ve been capable of running this fast for the last couple of years, but we never put it all together. We always seemed to press too much when it came to the race.�

Stein and his fellow relay team members had noticed the same pattern, so they decided not to enter races with a particular time in mind.

“We agreed not to talk about times and just race,� Stein said. “We figured if we did that, the good times would come.�. . .

Matador assistant Tony Veney figures the Matadors can run substantially faster in the 1,600 relay under the right conditions, noting that Wright (400 intermediate hurdles), Collins (800) and Stein (intermediates) competed in another event within 70 minutes of the 1,600 relay.

“I think we can knock another three seconds off that (3:09.81),� Veney said. . . .

Wright finished second in the intermediate hurdles for Merritt College in the 1991 state junior college championships, and he ranks fourth (51.83) on the all-time Matador list in that event, yet he says he only recently has begun to understand the technical aspects of the event.

“When I was (at Merritt), no one really coached me in the hurdles,� Wright said. “I just went out there and ran them. (Veney) is the first real hurdles coach I’ve had and I’m learning a lot.�. . .

Matador sophomore Teresa Stricklin exceeded the provisional qualifying mark (47-10 3/4) in the women’s shotput for the NCAA championships when she finished fifth in the meet at UCLA with a mark of 47 feet 11 3/4 inches.

Provisional qualifiers will be invited to compete in the NCAA championships if the number of automatic qualifiers is below the desired number. . . .

Dave Rynearson set a Northridge freshman record of 16-0 in the pole vault to finish third in Saturday’s meet.

Rynearson and teammate Joshua Bailey shared the previous freshman record at 15-11 1/4.

SOFTBALL

Scia Maumausolo, Northridge’s slugging freshman designated hitter, put the Matadors in the NCAA record books with a prodigious home run last Friday against Utah.

Maumausolo’s drive carried over the scoreboard in left-center field at Matador Diamond. It was her second homer of the game, fifth of the season and Northridge’s fifth of a doubleheader and 30th of the season, breaking Texas A&M;’s mark of 29 set in 1985.

The following day against Southern Utah, Northridge added four home runs, two by Beth Calcante, giving her a school-record 11 for the season.

Obviously, the five home runs in the doubleheader against Utah didn’t come out of left field. On two other occasions this season--against Nevada Las Vegas on March 19 and against San Diego State on April 3--Northridge hit five in a doubleheader.

The Matadors have homered in eight consecutive games and nine of their last 10. In five of its past six games, Northridge has more than one home run. The Matadors have a slugging percentage of .442. In Western Athletic Conference games, it is .617. . . .

Northridge has a 13-game winning streak, one shy of the school Division I record set last year. The Matadors, who have lost only once in their last 26 games, are outhitting opponents .284 to .174. In WAC games, Northridge is batting .318, the opposition .142. . . .

Calcante, who is batting .381, has been selected WAC player of the week twice in the three weeks the conference officially recognized a standout player.

Calcante, a junior from Newbury Park, last week ripped three home runs--including a grand slam--giving her 24 in her collegiate career. Calcante is tied for sixth on the NCAA all-time home run list, 10 behind Liz Mizera, who clouted 34 for Texas A&M; in 222 games from 1985-88. Calcante has played in 169 games.

GOLF

Only seven of Northridge’s 25 District 8 opponents have better records in head-to-head competition with the Matadors.

Northridge is 5-0 against Stanford and Cal State Long Beach, 3-0 against Cal State Sacramento, San Diego and Washington State, 2-0 against UC Irvine, San Francisco, Portland and Utah State, 1-0 against Loyola Marymount, St. Mary’s and Santa Clara, and 2-1 against UCLA.

The Matadors are 2-2 against Nevada, Washington and California, 1-1 against Pacific and 1-1-1 against UC Santa Barbara. Northridge is 2-3 against Oregon and Oregon State, 1-2 against San Jose State and New Mexico State, 1-2-1 against Pepperdine, 0-2 against Arizona and 0-3 against USC. . . .

Jeff Sanday of Northridge shot a 215 to tie for seventh in the Southwestern Intercollegiate Invitational last week at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village. Sanday, a senior, has a team-high six top-10 finishes and he paces the Matadors with a 73.5-stroke-per-round average. Northridge, which finished in an 11th-place tie with UC Santa Barbara in the team competition, concludes its regular season April 23-24 in the BYU Cougar Classic in Provo, Utah.

CAL LUTHERAN

SOFTBALL

The Regals, ranked 13th in the NCAA Division III, will play host to Pomona-Pitzer today in a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m.

Heidi Stevens leads Cal Lutheran (17-7-1) with a .474 batting average and 21 runs batted in. The freshman from Salem, Ore., also is 9-4 with a 2.40 earned-run average.

THE MASTER’S

BASEBALL

The Mustangs (20-15) will begin a four-game series against Biola (10-14-2) today that is key to the playoff hopes of both teams. The teams also will play each other three times next week.

The Master’s and Biola are the only two independents in NAIA District 3 and the team that has the upper hand after the seven games likely will get a postseason invitation. The games at Master’s, today and Friday, will start at 2:30. The series will move to Biola on Saturday for a doubleheader starting at noon.

JUNIOR COLLEGES

BASEBALL

After belting six home runs in a six-game span in mid-February, Mission has not hit a home run in its last 10 games, entering Thursday’s action. Marlon McKinney hit the last Free Spirit home run in a 4-3 victory over East L.A. on March 16 in a Southern California Athletic Conference game. . . .

Canyons slugger Andy Shaw has not hit a home run since he connected for his eighth in a 15-10 loss to Santa Barbara in a WSC game March 27. Shaw, a left-handed-hitting first baseman who will play at Cal State Northridge next season, leads the conference in home runs. He smashed three in a 12-2 victory over Santa Monica on March 18.

SWIMMING

Bettina Aubermann, a freshman from Switzerland, has set four Pierce women’s records this season. She holds school records in the 100-yard freestyle (54.88 seconds), 200 free (1:58.03), 500 free (5:23.23) and the 100 backstroke (1:05.50). Shaw said Aubermann should qualify in all the events for the state championships April 29-May 1 at Hartnell College in Salinas. The best 16 times in the state during the season qualify for the meet.

“She’s definitely qualified on the basis of last year’s times,� Shaw said. “She’s way under (those) qualifying times.�

Staff writers Fernando Dominguez, Mike Hiserman and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.