The Week Ahead At Cal State Northridge ...

May 12, 2008

The Week Ahead ...
Matador Track & Field, a shining example on and off the track ... Bob Vazquez, Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations, offers his weekly insights on the accomplishments of the teams, coaches, and student-athletes who compete for CSUN.

Matador Minute ...
Not only has head coach Don Strametz built an outstanding track & field program, but many members of the team are outstanding students in the classroom ... At last Thursday's Varsity `N Academic Athletics Honor Roll ceremony at the University home of President Dr. Jolene Koester, nine members of the track & field team were among the 55 Matador student-athletes who were honored for their excellence in the classroom ... And two members of the team also walked away with two of the top three scholar-award individual awards ... Jessica Beach, who has chalked up a perfect 4.0 gpa in her four years at Cal State Northridge, was given the Outstanding Graduate Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award ... Beach, who competes in the hammer, is a pre-med/biology major, and last year was given the prestigious Wolfson Award, given to the top senior student at Cal State Northridge ... Nick Saylor can also stake claim to academic prowess in the classroom ... Saylor, who also has compiled a 4.0 gpa, will graduate from Cal State Northridge with a degree in Sociology ... Saylor, like Beach, is a hammer thrower ... Saylor doesn't spend all his time hitting the books in pursuit of academic excellence ... Saylor often listens to the music of "Flogging Molly" and "Reel Big Fish" ... In case you were wondering, Flogging Molly is a seven-piece Irish American celtic punk band that was formed in Los Angeles in the late 1990's ... Saylor can tell you that Flogging Molly was influenced by such groups as The Pogues, the Dubliners, and The Clash ... Reel Big Fish is an American punk rock band from Huntington Beach, best known for the 1997 hit "Sell Out." ... Beach's free time is a little more mainstream ... Beach, who hails from Olympia, Washington, roots for the Seattle Mariners, and is a big favorite of Ichiro ... Always the promoter of track & field, Strametz informed the large gathering at the Varsity `N Academics Athletics Honor Roll ceremony that Cal State Northridge is again the host school for the Big West Championships (May 16-17) and the NCAA West Regionals (May 30-31) ... The Matador women have won two straight Big West titles, while the CSUN men have captured the league title three of the last four seasons ... In an Olympic year, the NCAA West Regionals features an abundance of top collegiate runners, jumpers and throwers from all the top schools in the Western United States including several national track powers such as Arizona State, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Cal State Northridge ... Mark down Nov. 29., 2008, as the date the Cal State Northridge men's basketball team travels to the East Coast to face Rider College ... It's a return matchup from the 2007-08 season in which Rider scored a 73-72 upset win at The Matadome ... The trip also means a return trip home to New Jersey for redshirt junior center Jermaine Smith ... Smith, who didn't play this year because of a knee injury, hails from Irvington, NJ. ... Gary Victor, CSUN's respected women's tennis coach, served as an NCAA representative at last weekend's NCAA men's tennis regional at Pepperdine ... With the school year rapidly coming to a close, this is the final "This Week in Matador Athletics" for the 2007-08 year ... We'll be back in the Fall ... Have a Great Summer!!! ... B.V.

Athletic events THIS WEEK at Cal State Northridge

Monday, May 12
Baseball vs Portland, Matador Field, 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday, May 13
Baseball vs Portland, Matador Field, 1:00 p.m.

Friday, May 16
Track & Field, Big West Championships, Matador Track & Field Complex, All Day
Baseball @ Pacific, 6:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 17
Track & Field, Big West Championships, Matador Track & Field Complex, All Day
Baseball @ Pacific, 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 18
Baseball @ Pacific, 1:00 p.m.

Go Matadors ...