Depth Makes Cross-Country Team One of Northridge’s Best

It’s still early in the season, but the Cal State Northridge men’s cross-country team already has established itself as one of the best in school history.

The Matadors won their first invitational title in more than a decade Saturday when they finished first in the UC Riverside Invitational. Don Strametz, CSUN’s coach since 1979, cannot remember the last time the Matadors emerged victorious in an invitational.

“I know it’s been since at least 1977, and I think it’s more like ‘75,” Strametz said. “The problem is our records don’t go back that far.”

Four Northridge teams (1979, ‘80, ’86 and ‘87) have qualified for the NCAA Division II championships during Strametz’s tenure, but none of them had as much depth as this season’s team.

In 1986, CSUN’s top five runners had a combined time of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 28 seconds (or an average of 25:17.6 per man) over Riverside’s five-mile course, the best mark of any previous Matador squad on that course. On Saturday, Northridge’s top five ran 2:05:43.3 (25:08.7 average), and its ninth man, freshman Erick McBride, finished in 26:12--three seconds faster than CSUN’s sixth man in 1986.

“This is the tightest-knit team I’ve ever had here,” Strametz said, “and it shows in their performances. They’re not a bunch of individuals in a team sport. They run together as a team. They know that the fifth man is just as important as the first.”

Jorge Castro, the Matadors’ No. 2 runner, said that the team will improve more as Derik Vett, Jorge Rodriguez and Jeff Gilkey narrow the gap between themselves and the squad’s top two runners.

“It’s really exciting because we’re going to get better,” Castro said. “Derik’s improving and Jorge and Jeff are both capable of running right there with us.”

The gap between Sasha Vujic, the Matadors’ top runner, and Gilkey, its fifth runner, was 53 seconds at Riverside.

Strametz is hopeful that the difference will be closer to 30 seconds by season’s end. “That’s what we’re working for,” he said. “And if we do that, we’re looking at a top-five team at nationals.”

Northridge, the ninth-ranked team in Division II, placed second in the 1975 Division II meet and was eighth in ‘87, 10th in ’79 and ‘86, and 14th in ’80.