CSUN Threesome Faces Challenge at NCAA Meet : College track and field: Matador assistant believes Dunn, Hicks and Stricklin can achieve All-American status.

One of them has been competing on an injured knee that will require surgery after the season.

Another did not compete last week because of a strained hamstring. The third was the last qualifier in her event.

Still, Cal State Northridge assistant John Frazier figures that javelin thrower Kristin Dunn, shotputter Joe Hicks and discus thrower Teresa Stricklin are capable of earning All-American honors in their respective events in this week’s NCAA track and field championships at Boise State.

The top eight finishers with U.S. citizenship will be awarded All-American certificates at the meet, which began Wednesday and ends Saturday.

Stricklin will compete today, followed by Dunn on Friday and Hicks on Saturday.

With Dunn’s knee feeling “as well as it has all season,” and with Hicks’ hamstring “getting better every day,” Frazier, the team’s weight-events coach, expects his athletes to perform well.

“They’re ready to go,” Frazier said. “It’s just a matter of them getting out there and competing.”

Dunn, a junior who finished 13th in last year’s meet, is seeded third behind Canadian Valerie Tulloch of Rice and Jenny McCormick of Stanford.

Tulloch, second last year and the NCAA champion in 1992, has a best of 186 feet 3 inches this season. McCormick placed fifth last season and threw a personal best of 179-5 to win the Pacific 10 Conference title last month.

Dunn rifled the javelin a distance of 174-9--topping her previous best by nearly 11 feet--in a meet at Cal State Long Beach last week.

“We’ve been waiting (for a big improvement) for a long time,” Frazier said. “I think she got a little reality check last week when she looked at the national list and saw that she was only 16th.”

A season-long battle with an injured left knee also slowed Dunn’s progress.

Dunn suffered ligament damage during a workout last September, nursed it back to relatively good health by late March, but re-injured it before the Sun Angel Invitational at Arizona State in April.

Last year’s experience should help her immensely, Frazier said.

“Last year, she was the last thrower to get into the meet,” he said. “She was a little bit too in awe of the other throwers. But this year, she knows she belongs. . . . Last year, she had her baptism of fire. Hopefully, Joe and Teresa can skip that.”

Hicks, a senior, is ranked 14th in the 17-man shotput field with a personal best of 60-6 3/4. The distance between him and the No. 6 qualifier, though, is less than 18 inches.

“I think a finish among the top six is definitely possible,” Frazier said. “There is a very tightly bunched group of guys between 60 and 62 feet where a lot can happen.”

Stricklin, a junior who has a personal best of 164-8, is the 21st--and final--qualifier in the discus, but Frazier figures that a top-14 finish is a possibility.

“She had her second-best meet of the season last week so she’s ready to go,” Frazier said.