Criner’s 200 Makes Matador History

Joe Criner of Cal State Northridge placed fourth in the men’s 200-meter dash in the NCAA Indoor track and field championships at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis on Friday.

Criner clocked 20.95 seconds to finish fourth behind Clemson’s Shawn Crawford (20.69), North Carolina’s Milt Campbell (20.79) and Texas Arlington’s Elston Cawley (20.85).

The 6-foot-3 Criner became the first Northridge athlete to earn Division I All-American indoor honors in a track event. The top eight finishers with U.S. citizenship in each event are honored as All-Americans.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Pepperdine d. Penn State, 15-6, 15-10, 15-9--George Roumain had 21 kills, Scott Wong had 12 and Kurt Nelson added 43 assists for the Waves (13-1), who needed less than two hours to dispose of the Nittany Lions (10-13) in a nonconference match at Pepperdine.

Long Beach State d. Cal State Northridge, 15-9, 15-9, 15-5--Chad Strickland had 13 kills and John Baxter added 41 assists for the Matadors (4-11, 2-11), who had a .083 hitting percentage and were outblocked, 51-27, by Long Beach State (12-6, 5-6) in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Pyramid in Long Beach.

MEN’S SWIMMING

Pierce 52, Canyons 50--Eric Caprani and Jared Meyer each won two individual events and were part of the winning 400-yard relay team (3:35.60) for Pierce (1-4, 1-4) in a Western State Conference meet at Canyons.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING

Canyons 86, Pierce 46--Amy Edmonds won the 50- and 100-yard butterfly events for Canyons (1-1, 1-1) in a Western State Conference home meet.

MEN’S GOLF

Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational--Bobby Rodger, Pepperdine’s top golfer, shot an even-par 72 in the first round at the Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas.

Rodger’s score tied him for 16th place. As a team, Pepperdine is last, in 15th place in the 54-hole tournament.

MEN’S TENNIS

Pepperdine 5, Purdue 2--Eni Ghidirmic scored two points for seventh-ranked Pepperdine (14-4) in a nonconference match at Pepperdine.

Ghidirmic downed Derek Myers, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, at No. 3 singles, then teamed with John Lundquist at No. 3 doubles to defeat G.T. Cozad and Dan Swan, 8-2.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Cal State Northridge 7, Portland 2--Kendra Segura and Isabella Painter accounted for three points for the Matadors (8-0) in a nonconference match at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Segura and Painter defeated Erin Smith and Amy Dames, 8-6, at No. 2 doubles. Painter defeated Stacey Stewart at No. 2 singles, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, and Segura won her No. 4 singles match against Samantha Kluger, 6-1, 7-5.