Northridge Women Make First Impression in Big Sky

Senior Elinor Tolson won the 100-meter high hurdles and freshman Brandi Prieto took the triple jump to help Cal State Northridge win the women’s title in the Big Sky Conference track and field championships at Eastern Washington University on Saturday.

The Matadors totaled 133 points to win the title in their first year in the conference. Weber State was second with 116 points, followed by defending champion Northern Arizona with 114.

Northridge, paced by 100 and 200 champion Joe Criner, won seven events in the men’s meet Saturday to finish fourth with 96 1/2 points. Northern Arizona totaled 126 points to edge pre-meet favorite Weber State by three points. Montanta State was third with 97.

Tolson, whose sister, Christina, placed second in the shotput and hammer throw on Friday, clocked a wind-aided 13.77 seconds in the 100 hurdles, with freshman teammate Mickey Rogers second in 13.80.

Prieto bounded 39 feet 6 1/2 inches in the triple jump and senior Cherice Ellison finished fourth at 37-5 1/4.

Ellison, who won the long jump Friday, placed second in the 100 with a wind-aided 11.91 and was fifth in the 200 in a wind-aided 24.58.

Sophomores Erika Bowling and Nancy James placed among the top five in two individual events for Northridge.

Bowling finished second in the 400 in 56.32 and was fourth in the 200 at 24.51.

James placed second in the 800 in 2:13.94 and fifth in the 1,500 in 4:37.40.

Criner, a junior, was named men’s track athlete of the meet after winning the 100 in 10.51 and the 200 in 20.85, both wind-aided, and running the anchor leg on the 400 relay team that won in 41.19.

Other Northridge winners were freshman Clinton Lane in the 400 with a career-best of 47.06, senior Marquis Jones in the 110 high hurdles with a wind-aided 13.87 and sophomore Billy Bush with a career-best of 57-11 in the shotput. The Matadors won the 1,600 relay in 3:15.92.

State Junior College Championships--Eleazar Hernandez of Moorpark College placed third in the 3,000 steeplechase and 5,000, and teammate Josh Canales was fourth in the decathlon to help the Raiders finish sixth in the men’s meet at Fresno City College.

Hernandez clocked 9:31.59 in the steeplechase to finish behind Riverside’s Neil Smart, who ran 9:20.89, and Glendale’s Julio Serratos, who timed 9:28.13.

Smart also won the 5,000 in 15:00.55 with Hernandez at 15:06.39. Canales totaled a career-best of 6,219 points in the decathlon.

Charles Lee of Valley, Jamaal Chase of Ventura and Kristine Bostick of Antelope Valley turned in some of the other top performances by athletes from the region.

Lee placed third in the men’s 100 in 10.41 and third in the 200 with a school record of 20.76.

Chase finished third in the men’s triple jump with a wind-aided leap of 50-1 1/4 and Bostick finished third in the women’s 400 low hurdles with a school record of 1:02.52.