SAN DIEGO COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : UCSD Meet Attracts Big Names in Track

SAN DIEGO —  When UC San Diego unveiled its new all-weather track one year ago, it didn’t take long before all in Tritonville realized what they had: one of the fastest surfaces on the West Coast. College and amateur athletes, competing at the new facility for the first time, set personal-best, school-record and even conference-record times.

UCSD Track and Field Stadium showed instant promise that it could be the setting of national and even world-record performances. The Greater San Diego Sports Assn., the group that brings us the Holiday Bowl, noticed.

The GSDSA grabbed the baton and is running with it, in hopes of making UCSD a mini-Mt. SAC. Along with UCSD, the group will co-sponsor the first UC San Diego Open Saturday. Both track and field events will begin at 10 a.m.

Among the entrants:

- Joaquim Cruz: an Olympic gold medalist for Brazil in the 800 meters in 1984 and a silver medalist in the same event in 1988.

- Steve Scott: the American record holder in the mile.

- Al Joyner: the gold medalist in the triple jump at the 1984 Olympics who is now attempting to make the team as a 110-meter hurdler.

- Jose Luis Barbosa: a 1,500 finalist for Brazil in the 1988 Olympics.

- Ramona Pagel: the former San Diego State thrower who is the American record holder in the shot put and currently ranked fourth in the discus.

There are other big names confirmed on the registration list. Athletes from Brazil, Sweden, Track West, Nike Coast and Long Beach Track Club have come to test the new track. Nine college teams, including SDSU and Point Loma Nazarene, have entered the Tritons’ meet.

UCSD’s best athlete, however, won’t be there.

One thing the stadium designers left out was an infield area or turfed section beyond the track. So Scott Sargeant, the defending NCAA Division III hammer champion and UCSD record holder in the discus, must do his throwing down the street at a place called Mile-High Field.

Heave-ho for USIU: U.S. International baseball Coach George Kachigian probably has better memories of being thrown out of ballgames by red-faced umpires than the heave-ho he got last week from the university’s administration. The financially imperiled school has discontinued all of its sports programs. But the baseball coach played anyway, after he was able to raise enough money to fund the season himself.

Last week, Kachigian argued with administrators that the Gulls should be allowed to play in 1992 under the same circumstances.

This time USIU said no. So Kachigian was sent to the showers.

Kachigian argued that the university would lose $50,000 in tuition and other fees paid by the players should the sport be discontinued. The plea fell on deaf ears.

Last December, the board of trustees supported USIU President Kenneth McLennan’s plan to suspend all Gulls sports indefinitely, and the university began an economic reorganization after filing Chapter 11.

But in January, the trustees accepted a pay-to-play proposal by Kachigian. It’s now apparent that USIU is taking a hard line on its sports ban.

Kachigian said McLennan will submit his latest USIU Activity Plan for board approval some time this week. The plan calls for the athletics suspension to continue for at least two years, through the 1992-93 academic year.

Kachigian has been the only coach on campus since February, and in that time he has developed a reputation as a rebel with administrators. He vehemently opposed McLennan and argued for what he calls the “rights” of his players.

“(McLennan) turned us down, and it wasn’t because of money,” Kachigian said. “We had bunch of alumni called him. He said, ‘All your phone calls didn’t do you any good.’ I feel good that we got it done for the guys this year. We accomplished our main purpose.”

Women of May: San Diego State’s women’s tennis team has played just two league matches since joining the Western Athletic Conference this season. The Aztecs are 1-1. But history says SDSU should not be overlooked at the WAC team tournament, which starts Thursday at Canyon Racquet Club in Salt Lake City. The Aztecs, 12-8 overall and ranked 16th in the ITCA poll, are coming off a five-year stint in the Pacific Coast Athletic-turned-Big West Conference during which they won all five postseason team championships.