Articles on this page are reprints with additions and corrections by John Crawford from the original articles out of the Tri-City Herald with their permission.
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62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08DISTRICT RECORDS BETTERED AS IKE WINS 1ST PASCO INVITE
April 14, 1962
Two Yakina Valley district track records were bettered, two others were equaled and Eisenhower won the team trophy at the first running of the Pasco Invitaional Track and Field Meet yesterday at Pasco Memorial Stadium.
A large crowd watched athletes from eight Valley schools better district and stadium marks in the 880 yard run and javelin, and two Richland youths equal district and Memorial Stadium high school records in the 100 yard dash and field times of the season.
Perfect weather helped entrants form eight schools turn in some of the best track and field times of the season.
Eisenhower was first with 55 points. Kennewick, getting outstanding performances from its runners, won both relay events to finish second with 45 points. Pasco was third with 42 points. Dale Stovall of Toppenish and Stan Emerick of West Valley shared individual honors with Richland's Ron Mitchell and Dave Simpson.
Stovall ran the 880 in 1:59.9, beating Pasco's Tom Egan. It was Egan's first defeat in 880 competition. George Stimack of Cle Elum set the record of 2:02.2 in 1947. Stovall's time erased the Pasco Memorial Stadiun time of 2:02.6 set last week by Egan Egan posted a 2:00.5 time yesterday, the best of his career.
Emerick, who has thrown the javelin 208 feet, 7 inches this season, heaved the spear 190-11 yesterday bettering the district mark of 190-1-and a half set in 1956 by John Douglas of Wapato.
The efforts of Emerick and Stovall won't officially be recognized as district records. District records can only be set in the district Championship, meet in May.
Mitchell set the crowd to buzzing with his 10-flat effort in the century. It was a thrilling race, with Fred Bieber of Kennewick second with a 10.05 clocking, and Bruce Jacobs of Kennewick third with 10.1. Mitchell's century mark equaled both the stadium and district records.
Simpson, who has added one foot to his broad jump in each of his last two meets, sailed 21 feet, 10 inches yesterday to equal previous stadium and district performances. Simpson jumped 21-10 twice, and in none of his jumps went under the 21 district mark.
Kennewick nosed out Pasco for second place with its two relay victories. Both relay times were within two seconds of existing records. Gary VanDinter, Pasco's outstanding junior miler, caught Steve Scruggs of Walla Walla on the second lap and had the track to himself as he posted a 4:35.6. Only double winner was Eisenhower's Bill Roe, who took first in both hurdles.
EIGHT MEET RECORDS RECORDED AT PASCO
April 14, 1963
The sun and the dustless weather at Pasco Stadium proved a boon to the second annual Pasco Invitational Track and Field Meet and the athletes showed their appreciation by establishing eight meet records and five stadium marks before a small, enthusiastic crowd.
Eisenhower of Yakima ran off with the team trophy, almost doubling the output of the Lewis & Clark Tigers from Spokane. The Cadets got 61 points to win, Davis of Yakima 45, L&C 35, Pasco and Walla Walla 26, Richland 21, Wapato 9, and Kennewick 2.
The record assault started from the first when Bill Roe, the tall Ike hurdler, went 14.4 in the high sticks. That was exactly one second better than his winning record time last year, in the meet's inaugural. It also broke the stadium record of 15.2, held by him and two others. Later Roe won the low hurdles in 19.6, again setting two records. Jack Glover of Richland held the old mark of 20.5, set back in 1960. But there was more to come.
Another double winner was undefeated Wilson Kerns, the short sprinter from Walla Walla who won the 100 and 220 and paced the Blue Devil half-mile relay foursome to a first place for 11 1/4 points and high individual honors of the day.
Roe's 880-relay quartet ran second, so he finished up with 11 points and it was an anchor lap by Kerns that won it for Wa-Hi. He took the baton about five yards behind and won in the last foot by a fraction of an inch. Behind Roe in both hurdles came teammate Dale Sunitsch and Barry Fancher of L&C. J.W. Brown of Davis finished second in both dashes.
Another Brown of the Pirates, Pete, ran a stadium-record mile, winning in 4:30.9, bettering the 4:34 of Gary VanDinter, set in last year's inaugural. Spokane's Lonnie Hallett got a field record in the 440, the 50.2 bettering the 51.1 by Les Rucker of Davis, set in 1960.
Pasco's Lonnie Fricke threw the discus 151-10 for records. The old Memorial Stadium mark was by Ralph Winters of Ike, 146-6 1/2 in 1961. One record was also tied, the pole vault. Paul Adams of Ike went 12-11 3/4. The old mark was by Chuck Blakley of Pendleton in a 1962 triangular. Meet records were in the shot, by Ted Spearman of Davis, 53-11, in the 220 by Kerns in 22.2, in the 880 by Leonard kunz of Davis in 2:02.3.
Coach Ron Wells got points also from Brian Kilbury, Mike Bernard, Larry Richwine, Mike Burke, Tom Egan, Willie Orange. Both relay teams were fourth and Fricke finished third in the shot for eight points. Coach Art Dawald's Richland Bombers with points were Joe Evans, a fifth and two fourths, Jim Steckline, third and fifth, Larry Gross, Dave Simpson and George Barnett. Simpson won this round of his duel with Kilbury in the broad jump by a half inch. Barnett won the high jump in 5-10 3/4.
Kennewick got only two points, by the mile relay team (when L&C was disqualified for a late pass) and by Dennis Calvin in the pole vault for Dick Bona. The Cadets were blanked in only three events, mile, 100 and 880, with Davis losing out in two, L&C in four, Pasco in four.
CADETS WIN THIRD STRAIGHT PASCO TRACK TITLE
April 4, 1964
The Eisenhower Cadets are not only still great, they're getting better. The Yakima track powwerhouse won its third straight title in the Pasco Invitational Track Meet at Memorial Stadium yesterday, scoring 66 1/2 points to swamp cross-town rival Davis and the others in the eight-team field. After Ike, the remainder of the entries were fairly even. Coach Don Holden's Cadets won the first meet by 10 points over Kennewick. Last year they won by 15 points from Davis. The margin this time was 22 1/2 points.
Individual performances were lower than expected because of the dust-blowing wind. At times it was hard for the runners to even see the finish line, much less reach it in record time.
One star lived up to advance billing, although he fell considerably short of earlier performances. Carl O'Donnell, Wenatchee's javelin ace, heaved the spear 196 feet, 10 inches, almost six feet farther than the old mark but 19 feet short of his season's best. It was also a stadium record.
That was one of the four records set. One of those was in a new event, the two-mile run, with Pasco's Carl Kinion winning in 10:30.2, also a school record.
The other two marks were in field events. Ted Spearman, Davis, only returning record-holder from the assault of 1963 when eight marks were bettered, did it again in the shot put. He pushed the iron ball 54 feet, 6 1/4 inches. Jim Windell, Port Vancouver, threw the discus 153 feet, 1/2 inch, beating a mark held by Pasco's Lon Fricke.
Behind Yakima in team points came Pasco 30 1-3, Richland 26, Kennewick 24 1-3, Wenatchee 17 1-3, Fort Vancouver 16 1/2, Walla Walla 15.
There was no double winners. Ike took four firsts in individual events, tied for another and won one relay. The Cadets also won five second places and were second in the other relay. They got points in all but two events. High individual was Dale Sunitsch, Ike hurdler who won the lows, was second in the highs and ran a leg on the winning 880-yard relay team for 9 1/4 points. Bob Turner, Davis sophomore had 9 points. Davis won three events and tied for one, Kennewick won 2 and a tie, Pasco one and a relay, Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Fort Vancouver one each.
Evans was nipped at the tape by Russac in the 220 by "sticking out his chest further," as the judge called. Pasco's Tom Egan was ahead at the end of one lap, then looked back near the end and lost by a yard in the 880 to Bob Bullis, Kennewick in good time for a windy day.
BORAH WINS PASCO INVITATIONAL MEET
April 17, 1965
The Borah Lions of Boise walked away with the team championship and seven new records were written into the books Saturday in the sun-kissed fourth annual Pasco Invitational Trophy Track and Field Meet at Pasco Stadium.
The Lions, setting two new records in the process, won five first-place trophies and amassed 67 1/2 points. Lewis-Clark finished second with 62 points, followed by Eisenhower 52 3/4. The balanced field produced no double winners, but nevertheless were some outstanding individual efforts. High-point honors went to Borah's Jim Cafferty with 12 points on a victory in the high hurdles, second in the lows and third in the broad jump. Ike's Steve Dale totalled 10 points.
Eisenhower won five firsts and shared a record-setting tie for first in the pole vault. Lewis-Clark won four firsts while Richland and West Valley each managed one.
Most impressive of the new records was by Borah discus-thrower Rich Smith. He hurled the platter 168 feet, 3 inches, shattering the old record by 15 feet. Kennewick's Howard Roth was second with a toss of 149 feet, 1 1/2 inches.
Richland's Fred Milton was the lone Tri-City winner and record setter, winning the shot put with a heave of 55-11 1/2. Three others-Gary Bills of Borah, Roth and Terry Antles of Eisenhower-also eclipsed the previous mark of 54-6 1/4, set last year by Ted Spearman of Davis. Bills edged Roth for the runnerup spot by one-half inch with a 55-3 effort.
Eisenhower's Dave Cook posted the Valley's top effort in thev pole vault as he and Lewis-Clark's Bill Devine finished at 13-3 1/4. Pete Remillard of Richland and Ken Privratsky of LC tied for third at 12-9 and Jim Repp, Pasco, cleared 12-6.
The other individual effort was a 9:49.4 clocking in the two-mile LC's Larry Marker. Tim Ohlund of Eishenhower set the pace most of the way, but succumbed to Marker's strong finish in the final 300 yards. Ohlund was clocked in 9:53.5- best time in the Valley this spring.
Borah shaved 8-10ths of a second off the 880 relay record set in 1962 by Kennewick, posting a 1:31.1 finish on the running of Bob Barclay, Don Bradley, Jim Owsley and Dave Rolfe.
Lewis- Clark getting 52-seconds efforts from Tom Keasal and Jim Stephans, erased the mile relay record with a 3:31.6 finish wiping out another 1962 Kennewick mark. Richland was a respectable second in 3:34.5.
The other record was Eisenhower's "laugher" win in the fat man's relay. The Cadets anchored by basketball star Terry Nicholls, closed in 46.1, more than two seconds off the record set by the Cadets in 1964.
Among the top Tri-City efforts were Bob Schaaf's 15.0 clocking in the 120 high hurdles prelim-he finished second to Cafferty in the finals. Richlander Bruce Kasey had a 2:03 effort in placing second in the 880 yard run.
RILEY RUNS RAPID TWO-MILE
April 16, 1966
Rick Riley, a l22-pound package of stanina from Spokane, turned in one of the greatest individual efforts in interscholastic track history Saturday to steal the spotlight at th;e fifth annual Pasco Invitaional Track and Field Meet.
Riley, running for Coach Herm Caviness' Ferris High School aggregation, covered the two-mile in 9:01.0, third best performance in that grueling event in prep track annals.
Riley's remarkable performance, bearing more resemblance to a quater-miler than an eight-lapper, won most of individual accolades, but didn't completely overshadow a great team victory for the Eisenhower cadets.
Coach Don Holder's Cadets, by sprinters Tom Amos and Bob Cooper and a brilliant double win by; hurdler Jim Dale, piled up 59 points to out distance Riley and Ferris with 40 1/2.
Pasco, which got a fine l2-point effort from jumping-jack Phil Kisro and upset win by Rich James over Fred Milton in the discus, tied Richland for third, each with 33. John Rogers had 32 1/2, Kennewick 21, Mercer Island l2 and Walla Walla 9.
Kirso won individual scoring honors with l2 points, setting a new mark of 6- 1 1/4 in ;the high jump, running second in high hurdles in l5.0 and taking third in the broad jump with 20- 10 1/2.
Dale tu;rned in the state's best time to date in the high hurdleses with a spectacular l4.6 clocking, then won the lows in 20.25, despite slightly losing his timeing when he hit the next-to-last hurdle.
Riley, one of several Spokane prepsters who have achieved stardom as distance runners since Gerry Lindgren popularized that pahse of track with his heroic, won the state two-mile last spring at Pullman in 9:11.1 and he proved yesterday that he can have the title again this time if he elects to enter the eight-lapper.
The stubby senoir moved out ahead of the pack at the outset yesterday and never looked back. By the time he had completed his record-setting race, he had lapped all but about four of the entries. Stiffer competition probably ould have put him under the nini-minute mark. Second was Steve Rodgers, 39 seconds behind Riley.
The national interscholastic record is 8:56.2 set two years ago by Lindgren, racing for John Rogers, in a meet at Central Balley in Spokane. Jim Ryan, Wilcox, Calif., is the only other prepster to better Riley's effort. Ryan ran about 8:58 two years ago, also.
Besides the new records for Riley and Kisro, the 880-yard record fell when Rogers' Fred Lake toured the oval in 1:59.3, shaving 6-10ths of a second off the old mafk. Also broken was the mile record of 4:30.9. Bill Longford, Rogers, ran 4:25.5 as three entries bettered the old mark. Joe Ross, Ferris ran second in 4:28.9 and Dennis Kilbury, Pasco, finished in 4:29.9.
Milton won the shot put with mediocre 54-9 1/4 showing, then failed to approach his top form in the discus, hitting only 147-2 compared to James' all-time best of 148-5 1/2, good enough for first-place honors.
Other Richlan winners were Robbie Williams, who ran the 880 in 51.55, and broad-jumper Steve Jech, who cleared 21-3 to outduel a highly touted field. Richland also won the nonscoring fat man's relay on Milton's strong anchor leg.
Besides close finishes in the dashed, the closest race of ;the day was the mile relay, when Skip Wallace spurted agead in the final five yards to give the Blue Devils first place in 3:34.2. Ike won the 880 relay in respectable 1:32.9. Jerry Carpenter, Eisenhower, turned in the state second best effort in winning the javelin with a heave of 189-6.
OLSEN, WILLIAMS SPARK PASCO INVITATIONAL
April 15, 1967
Hurdler Dick Olsen of Spokane's John Rogers and Richlander Rob Williams led an assault on the record books at the sixth annual Pasco Invitational Track and Field Meet Saturday, but the Eisenhower's Cadets walked off with the team championship. Olsen and Williams established the best marks in the state this season in three events and broke records in the process. Three other records also were wiped out in the annual eight-team classic. Eisenhower took the team championship with 55 1/2 points while Richland nipped Pasco for second, 41-40 1/2. The Dalles totaled 30 for fourth.
Olsen streaked in a preliminary victory in the high hurdles in 14.3 seconds, breaking the old mark of 14.4 held by Bill Roe of Eisenhower, then came back to to win by a full second in 14.6. He also eclipsed the meet record in the lows with a 19.3 victory, cracking Roe's old record of 19.4.
Williams, the talented Richland senior, won the 440 in 50 seconds flat, best of the year in state prep ranks. He broke the record of 50.2 set four years ago by Jim Hallet of Lewis-Clark. The other records broken yesterday were by Eisenhower's Dick Duncan, who streaked to victory in the 880 in 1:56.5; Ferris' Joe Ross, who turned in an impressive 4:20.0 clocking in the mile and a 21-11 1/2 leap by The Dalles' Luther Goin in the broad jump.
Duncan, who broke the 1:59.3 record held by Rogers' Fred Lake in the 880 was chased to victory by Richland's George Kinney, who set a new school record with his second place finish in 1:58.4. Dick Prugh, Ferris, failed in his bid for a new pole vauld record, winning in 12-10. Pasco sophomore Dave True was second with his career best of 12-6.
Pasco's Rich James won his specialty-the discus-as expected, but was six feet off the meet record, reaching 162-0. James also was third in the shot. Pasco's Tony Dedmond, who earlier had registered a 9.8 clocking, whipped Ike's Bob Cooper with a 10.1 effort in the 100. Dedmond later ran second to Cooper in a 22.3 clocking in the 220. Dedmond also anchored Pasco's near-record-setting 880 relay squad, winning in 1:32.7.
RICHLAND EDGES PASCO FOR INVITATIONAL CROWN
April 13, 1968
The Richland Bombers captured the team trophy in the Pasco Invitational Track and Field Meet Saturday, edging the host Bulldogs 51-46, in the process. It was the first win for Richland in the seven-year history of the meet. Placing close behind the two Tri-Cities teams were Ferris of Spokane with 39, Capital of Boise 36 and John Rogers of Spokane with 30.
A crowd of several hundred watche the record field of 16 teams from three states vie for points in 21 events. The turning point in the meet probably came in the 880 relay. Until this event, Pasco had a narrow lead over the Bombers. Hudson's Bay and Davis had the fastest clockings in the 880 relay with Richland third. The Bombers were awarded first, and more important six big points, after Hudson's Bay and Davis were disqualified for rule infractions.
Records were set in three events and tied in another. The record that pleased the hometown crowd the most was David True's 13-4 1/2 inch leap in the pole vault. The Pasco vaulter beat out Dave Gregory of Richland and snapped the 13-3 1/2 record set by Cooke of Eisenhower in 1966. True saved his record-setting vault for the final moments of the meet after all other events had been completed. The crowd roared its approval as he cleared the record height. Gregory missed on his three attempts at the mark.
Wayne Sepolen of Ferris, one of the state's best long-jumpers, leaped 22-1 1/2 inches to top the previous record of 21-11 1/2 set last year by Goin of The Dalles. Hudson Bay's 440 relay team swept to a 44 flat victory to shave a full second off the previous mark established by Pasco last year.
Larry Gonclaves, Ferris' flashy sprinter, one of two double winners, equalled the 100-yard dash mark of 10 flat. Gonclaves tied the mark in the preliminary heat and came back with a10.35 to win the finals. He tied the mark set by Ron Mitchell of Richland in 1962. Gonclaves also swept the 220 with a 22.6 clocking.
Leonard Filaseta of The Dalles was the other double winner, taking the shot put and the discus. He uncorked a 55-6 7/8 inch heave with the shot, just four inches short of the meet record set by Fred Milton of Richland in 1965, and won the discus with a toss of 153-2 1/4.
The winning Bombers took five first places to Pasco's four, followed by Rogers with 3. Richland won the two-mile,330 intermediate hurdles, 880 relay, mile relay, and the fat man's relay. The fat man's event was a non-counting affair. Pasco showed surprising strength in the jumping events taking first in the triple jump, high jump and the pole vault as well as the medley relay.
Three records were established in new events for the meet, the triple jump, medley relay and the 330 intermediate hurdles. Ron Howard, Pasco sophomore, hopped, stepped and jumped to a 42-8 3/4 record in the triple jump. The Bulldogs raced to a 8:00.5 mark in the medley relay and Pat Maki, Richland the 300 intermediate hurdles with a 41.6 clocking.
BORAH WINS INVITATIONAL
April 20, 1969
A gale from the West and a whirlwind from the East were the dominant forces yesterday in the eighth annual Pasco Invitational High School Track Meet. Both scored easy victories. Out of the West came daylong winds that gusted to 50 miles an hour. They heckled the crowd at Pasco Stadium, bothered the competitors and held down the times. But they did not hold back the visitor from the East, Borah of Boise. The Idaho team won nine events to easily outdistance Richland, the defending meet champion, and take home the first place trophy.
Despite the winds, six records fell and two were tied. Borah had won the meet championship once before, four years ago. It is the defending Idaho state champ. Aside from the team struggle, several individual confrontations highlighted the meet.
Richland's John Blalock, after coasting to victory in the mile, suffered his first defeat of the season when Randy James of Ferris beat him in a stirring two-mile.
Pasco's Stan Lepka again defeated Hudson's Bay Larry Luehrs, the defending state champion in the high jump, but each had to settle for a best clearance of 6 feet 2 1/2 inches. Still, that bettered the meet mark.
Other meet records were broken by Pat Maki, who broke his own in the 330-yard intermediate hurdles; Ron Howard of Pasco, who broke his triple-jump mark, and by three relay teams-Borah in the 440, Hudson's Bay in the 880 and John Rogers in the mile.
Two Borah boys equaled meet marks. Bob Griffin, who won the low hurdles and placed second to Mark Wooden of Mercer Island in the highs, tied one with a long jump of 22-1 1/2, his best ever. Eric Wadsworth loped to an easy 50.0 win in the 440. Wooden equaled his fastest time ever in winning the highs in 14.9, into what then was just a slight wind. He also placed second in the lows, second in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump.
James and Blalock ran in the worst weather of the day, with dust swirling all over the track. Randy, a junior but already the state's cross country champion, set the pace with Blalock on his shoulder. John grabbed the lead at the start of the final lap. "I thought I had him at that point," Blalock said later. "But I knew he wouldn't drop back; I knew that it would be close right to the finish."
It was. James fell back by five yard, then caught up again and passed Blalock on the final turn as both tried to fight off the wind in their faces. John, on the inside, got back to even but a spurt by James in the final 20 yards gave him the win. Blalock's time of 9:19.7 was his fastest ever.
The most startling finish to a race was in the rarely-run 330 hurdles. Howard grabbed a big lead. Maki, far back early, was still five yards behind with one hurdle left. But Ron stumbled at the finala hurdle, nearly fell and Maki scooted home first, breaking hjis meet record by a second and a half. Howard jumped 43-5 to beat the field by 2 1/2 feet in the triple jump.
HOWARD TAKES 3 EVENTS WHILE WA-HI WINS MEET
April 18, 1970
Pasco's Ron Howard gave a marvelous display of power hurdling and Walla Walla won the team championship by half a point-yet the star of yesterday's Pasco Invitational track meet was Randy James, a spindle-legged distance runner from Spokane. The Ferris High School senior had been here before-he lost the two mile run two years ago, then won it by a step last year. This year, he nearly lapped the field.
Randy fought through the chilly winds and ran two miles in 9.05.5. It is the fastest time in the state so far this season(by 13.5 seconds) and unofficially the second-fastest time in the nation this year. The time, remarkably, was not a meet record. The record is 9:00.1 set by Rick Riley of Ferris in 1966.
"Randy ran pretty hard yesterday," said Herm Caviness, the Ferris Coach. "But I had given him the week off, so I felt he would be ready for a pretty good time. Still, I'm pleased by the way he ran today." On Friday, he ran the 880, the mile and two mile in a dual meet.
Yet from the very start, James appeared hungry for a good time. He ran his first half-mile in 2:14, passed the first mile in 4:32, "he had a slow sixth lap," Caviness said, "but he came back strong in the seventh. And I was amazed at his speed on the last lap-62seconds, which is great for Randy."
Randy's runaway was one of the few events of the day that was not close. The closest of all, it turned out, was the team scoring: Walla Walla grabbing places everywhere, edged Pasco 37.5-37. Howard got Pasco that close singlehandedly scoring 24 points. Howard was named the Outstanding Athlete for the meet; the first time this award was made.
He crushed a good field in the high hurdles, running 15.0 into a stiff wind; he simply powered through the tough 330 intermediate hurdles and beat the field by a second; he won the triple jump, for the third straight time in this meet, at 42-9 1/4, and he ended the long day by getting nipped in the low hurdles by Walla Walla's Dave Bateman.
Pasco had other heroes, most notably quartermiler Noble Johnson, who gutted his way to victory in the open 440 in 51.2, diving to the tape to beat Barry Sartz of Shadle Park. Noble also ran a super anchor leg in the mile relay, but it was not enough to get the Bulldogs fifth place-which would have meant one-point, and the team title. Rusty Wiseman of the Bulldogs got a surprising second in the discus behind Wenatchee's Oscar Nelson, who swept the discus and shotput.
Richland had many disappointments but still scraped up 30 points for third place. The Bombers had just one victory, by Jim Qualheim who long jumped 20-6 into the winds. Kennewick got sixth with 26 points, some of those coming from Nelse Petermann in the hurdles, Mike Thurman with a personal-best 2:01.6 for third in the 880 and Nick Piccoli with a good 187-1 javelin win.
Wenatchee and Moses Lake showed surprising strength. Moses Lake won the 440 and 880 relays with the same team of Dave Kangar, Eric Johnson, Bob Kirkwood and Keith Hinman, and placed fourthg in the scoring. Wenatchee got two places from Bob Martin in the hurdles, Nelson's two wins and scored 24 points.
Richland got just fifth-place finishes from Mike Weiggands in the 880, Jerry Rice in the mile and Qualheim in the low hurdles. But sprinter Dan Vache came through with a second and a third and Steve Curd took a second to James in a personal best of 9:45.7. Junior Greg Mitchell got a surprising fourth in the intermediates.
GONZAGA, RICHLAND 1-2 IN PASCO INVITATIONAL
April 17, 1971
About 2,000 persons saw five meet records fall in the 16-team Pasco Invitational Track Meet at Edgar Brown Stadium yesterday. A strong Gonzaga Prep team won the 10th annual running of the classic, scoring 47 points. The Richland Bombers, led by the outstanding double performance of distance ace Jerry Rice, finished second with 38 points and Pasco was third with 31.
Al Bergman of West Valley, winner of 100 (10.2) and 220(22.4) yard dashes, was named the outstanding athlete in the meet by a vote of the coaches. He also anchored the second place 880 yard relay team.
In the girls' competition Columbia River edged Walla Walla 26 1/2 to 25 for first place. Kennewick and Pasco wound up fourth and fifth with 7 1/2 and 5 points respectively. Records were established in each of the five events in this first running of the girls' meet.
Gonzaga's men's team was paced by two individual firsts and three relay wins, but several Tri-Cities also made their presence felt. Rice won the mile for Richland with a fine 4:25.8 coming back a few hours later to run a clutch second in the grueling two mile event. Richland Coach Max Jensen praised the senior strider saying, "He was really hurting after running the first half of the two mile in 4:44, but he hung on to score those second place points. Rice was beaten by Larry Thibault of Shadle Park who clocked a 9:30 flat to Rice's 9:40.7.
Pasco's super soph, Rayford Guice, broke the meet record in the high jump, recording a 6-3 3/4. He was one of the busier men at the meet, hurrying back and forth between the triple jump and high jump pits and running in two relays. He finished third in the triple jump with a 41-7 1/2.
Other records were broken by Newport with a 7:55 in the medley relay, by Gonzaga with a 1:31.8 in the 880 yard relay and a 3:29.8 in the mile relay and by Rick Lobdell of Gonzaga in the pole vault (14 feet). One of the top races of the day was the 330 yard intermediate hurdles where the first five finishes were clocked less than .7 seconds apart. John Wren of Borah won it in 41.3. The first three finishers in the 880 yard run were all under two minutes.
John Workman of Richland threw the javelin 180-7. Area entries dominated the event with Gary LeValley second for Walla Walla, Wade Robison of Pasco was third and Nelse Petermann of Kennewick was fourth.
Petermann was another busy local entry. He won the 120 yard high hurdles with a 15.1 and was second in the 180 yard lows with a 20.8. He scored 11 of Kennewick's 19 points. The Lions also won the fatman's relay. Second places earned by local kids were in the 100 yard dash (Dan Vache of Richland), the 440 yard relay (Pasco), and the long jump (Noble Johnson of Pasco).
Denise Cromwell led the Columbia River gals winning the 100 and 220 yard dashes with times of 11.9 and 27.1. Walla Walla won the 880 and 440 yard relays. The top local finishes were by Kennewick (second in the 880 relay); Rita Beasley, Pasco (third in the 100) and Connie Anderson, Kennewick (third in the 220).
LOCALS SURPRISE INVITATIONAL FIELD; FERRIS, RICHLAND FINISH 1-2
April 15, 1972
It was the unexpected in Saturday's Pasco Invitational Track Meet which made the 11th running of the event exciting for the five local teams. To be sure, Connell's Greg Gibson was an easy winner in the 880, just eight-tenths of a second off the record pace, and Kennewick's Lynn Gibson had his way in the two-mile.
But it had hardly figured that Kennewick's hefty Bill Cheek would win the 100-yard dash with a lunge and a 10.6 clocking over Richland's Steve Ard(also 10.6). Fort Vancouver helped the local pair when it failed to enter 9.8 sprinter Mike Trimble in either the 100 or 220, but there were others in the field who had clocked better times this season than Cheek and Ard.
And how about Kamiakin sophomore Rich Stewart ending up in third in the javelin? He was beaten only by state leader Marty Petermann of Kennewick(who was second Saturday with a 193-10 1/2) and Ralph Petersen, East Valley (the winner with a record 211-8 1/2). The lanky Stewart's 173 wasn't his best of the season, but it beat the best of 14 other teams Saturday by 6 feet. Connell's Gibson even got into the act, winning the 330-yard intermediate hurdles in record time (39.9).
Teamwise it was Ferris which took home the most marbles in this one event, one-entry 16-team affair. It got but one first place effort, a pole vaulting record 14-6 by Judd Eddy, but six second-place finishes were enough for the visitors from Spokane to take the overall trophy.
The Saxons totaled 45 points to 39 1/2 for second-place Richland. Borah of Boise was third at 38. Of the other Tri-City area teams, Kennewick, with showings from Lynn Gibson and Petermann, took fifth, Connell was eighth, Pasco 12th and Kamiakin 16th. The Braves did not enter a full team.
Two second places each by Ard and hurdler Jay Pugh and thirds by pole vaulter Dennis Dudley and two-miler Mark Higginson gave the Bombers most of their points. Richland also captured second in the medley relay with Dale Lindsey, Randy Rolph, Matt Romanelli and Kurt Beckman and third in the 880 relay with Lindsey, Ard, Ron Hall and Frank Bullock.
Kennewick's strong showing was due mainly to the staying power of Petermann in the hurdles and Gibson in the longer distance runs. Gibson- after winning the mile in a respectable 4:30-stayed on Greg Gibson's heels for much of the 880, then came back to place fifth in the two-mile. Petermann had a fourth in the high hurdles and fourth in the grueling intermediates. Kennewick's only other placer was Dick Knoll, third in the high jump.
Greg Gibson, the man all came to see, disappointed no one with his decathalon performance. An 880 specialist , Gibson also ran the high hurdle preliminaries Saturday morning plus running a leg of the mile relay and winning the intermediate hurdles.
Greg laid just off the pace through the first lap of the 880, then he and Lynn made their move as the gun sounded. With Lynn shouting at him to keep up the good race, Greg took the lead into the first turn and held it the rest of the way, winning by about five yards over Scott Walters of Ferris. Ron Winn was the only other individual to place for the Eagles, fifth in the 100-yard dash.
For host Pasco, Keith Hegg slipped in a fine 20.8 in the low hurdles for third place while teammate Beggett had to settle for second place in the pole vault. Baggett figured to have a duel with Eddy of Ferris, but he instead came out a foot short. Baggett had leaped 14-6 1/2 earlier this week but he broke two poles doing it and was still trying to get used to the new one at meet time. His trouble was not getting height he had plenty. But he couldn't get far enough past the bar to land in the pit, sometimes falling into the bar after already clearing it. Mike McWhorter took fourth in the high jump and Dan Anderson fifth in the high and intermediate hurdles for the Bulldogs.
In other events, Fort Vancouver's brawny Mark Young set a meet record in shot put with 58-2 3/8 (he threw over 60 last year), and the Lewiston mile relay team set a record of 3:29.7, one-tenth better than the old mark.
TINNER LEADS OVERPOWERING LINCOLN VICTORY
April 14, 1973
Junior Keith Tinner carted off three personal trophies, set a meet record and anchored the second-place mile relay team in helping the Tacoma Linclon High School Abes win Saturday's Pasco Invitational Track and Field meet by 13 1/2 points. Lincoln scored 54 points, nine more than last year's champion, in defeating Richland (40 1/2) and the rest of the field. It was the second straight year Richland placed second.
Tinner was named the meet's outstanding athlete to win his third trophy. He had awed the Eastern Washington crowd earlier with unbelievable speed in setting a 440 yard dash record of 49.0 seconds, bettering the old mark by a full second. Two other meet records were broken. Tinner, in lane one, made up the entire stagger-start distance and led the field after the first curve. Kennewick's Cliff Burt ran the fastest time of his life, 51.6, in placing a surprise second as the winner of the first heat.
Tinner's mile relay team had the fastest time in Washington until Gonzaga beat it by .8 seconds Saturday with a meet record 3:26.1. Lincoln was second only because Tinner ran his second blazing 440 to pass Spokane's East Valley and third place Richland. Tinner embraced Richland anchorman, Matt Romanelli, after the race, then sought out and congratulated each of the four Gonzaga runners for their best-in-the-state performance.
Gonzaga won three of four relays, Richland winning the fourth-the medley(220, 440, 880 and mile) The team of Doug McArthur, Romanelli, Rory Stewart, and Ron Melton outran second-place Lake Washington by 3.1 seconds with an 8:00.7.
Richland's Mark Higginson was also a double winner, taking the mile and two-mile races as expected. The times were his best this season, 4:21.2 and 9:22.9. He placed second to Tinner in coaches' voting for outstanding athlete. Kamiakin's sophomore Tom Rogers ran his best mile ever to place fourth with a 4:36.2.
The other Tri-Citians to win individual championships were also from Richland. Hanford juniors Dale Lindsey and Dennis Dudley took firsts in the 180-yard low hurdles and the pole vault. Dudley vaulted 14-3 but missed three times in attempting to tie the meet record 14-6 set by Spokane Ferris' Judd Eddy last year. Lindsey won the lows in 20.6. The state's best time in the lows is 20.1 this year. Lindsey's victory in his third race was even more outstanding because he had pulled a hamstring muscle in the left leg early in the intermediates.
Another underclassman, Kennewick sophomore Jim Jessernig, placed second in the discus at 143-7. Tom Kurdy of Lewiston won with 150-0, a mark Jesernig had beaten last Tuesday in a dual meet with Walla Walla(152-2 1/2). Richland's Steve Ard had the other area second place when he finished one-half second behind Tinner in the 220 dash with his best time this season, 23.0.
For the victorious Abes, the state's top 100 yard dasher, Pat Clifton, won with a 10.3, they got seconds in the shot put and 880 yard relay, Jarvis Cobb set a meet record of 44-6 in the triple jump and Campbell won the long jump. Third place Ferris got wins from Bob Michaelis in the high jump(6-2), and by Kjel Killsgaard(59-1 1/4) Rich Dahl of Spokane's North Central won both the high and low hurdles.
DUDLEY OUTSTANDING IN PASCO INVITE
April 13, 1974
Hanford's Dennis Dudley set a meet and personal record in the pole vault and was named the outstanding athlete in Saturday's 13th annual Pasco Invitational track and field meet at Edgar Brown Stadium. Dudley easily cleared 15 feet-1 1/4 and then stopped jumping. Dudley said he hwas getting a little tired, his knee was hurt slightly, and he wanted to run in the 440 yard relay.
Tacoma Wilson took five first places and four seconds to win the team title by 10 points over league mate and defending champion Lincoln, 92-82 with Boise Borah third at 80. Lorenzo Bellamy won the high and low hurdles, Harold Celms set a meet record of 4:17.2 in winning the mile, and two Wilson relay teams were victorious including the record-setting medley relay squad.
Lincoln took four firsts, three involving its outstanding middle distance man Keith Tinner, who set a meet record in the 220 yard dash with 22.0 in the finals and 21.8 in the prelimanaries. The faster time will be counted as the record. Tinner also won the 440 dash in 49.4, just .4 seconds off his meet record and his best this season, and was clocked unofficially at 48.2 in the mile relay.
Eight meet records were broken, and six of the marks were state bests. Kamiakin's Rich Stewart unloaded a 213-10 javelin throw to set a meet record and the Washington 1974 standard. Stewart's best was 203-0 last season, and Saturday his throws were in the 180 and 190 foot range until he stired the crowd with the tremendous heave while Dudley was readying for his vault record. Connell's Kent Mackey threw a personal best of 204-9 for third place.
Other state bests were by Tinner(220,440), Bellamy(lows), Dudley, and Spokane West Valley high jumper Ed Mann(6-6 3/4). Meet records were also set in the intermediate hurdles(Ericson, Borah-39.5) and triple jump(McDuffle, Franklin Pierce-46-6).
Richland finished sixth, highest of any Tri-City teams with 33 points. Its best were thirds by pole vaulter Jim Jahnke, low hurdler Brad Upton, long jumper Gene Farris, and the 880 relay team. Upton ran 21.1 in the finals but had 20.9 in the preliminaries, one of the state's top 10 times. Eighth-place Hanford's top performances included Dale Dudley's 148-3 discus throw for third and Dale Lindsey's third, fourth, and fifth in the highs, lows, and intermediate hurdles.
Pasco was ninth, highlighted by Lelawyn Mitchell's second in th long jump and Rick Gray's third in the highs. Kennewick's day was made by a tremendous showing from junior Jim Jesernig. He won the discus with a throw of 159- 1/4. Late Grandview entrant Jon Harris took second with a area-best jumpof 45-5 1/2 in the triple jump.
WILSON WINS AT PASCO-2ND IN A ROW
April 12, 1975
Wilson-Tacoma won three of four relays, got a double win from Harold Cehms in the mile and two-mile and easily outdistanced the field in defending its team title in the 14th annual Pasco Invitational Track Meet Saturday at Edgar Brown Stadium. Lincoln-Tacoma, second in this meet last year, was the bridesmaid again and host Pasco turned in perhaps the most suprising team effort of the day to capture third place.
This year's meet was dedicated to Dale Gier, former coach and present administrator at CBC. He has been one of the people behind the scenes of the Pasco Invitational and was presented a memento by Pasco High track coach Steve Potter during the opening ceremonies.
Harold Celms was named the outstanding athlete for his performance. He won the mile in 4:19.5 and then came back to cap the double with a 9:30.4 two-mile. Ferris' Tim Riley, expected to challenge Celms in both races and given a fairly good chance of doubling himself, never really threatened. He was a distant, second in the mile and after leading for the first part of the two mile faded to finish third behind Celms and John Follese of Bethel.
Wilson won six events and took three seconds in ringing up 106 points to Lincoln with 47 points. The team surprise was Pasco as LeRoy Jordan, Lelawyn Mitchell and a fine supporting cast had the Bulldogs challenging for second place. Jordan was third in the 100 and won his qualifying heat for the 220 in 22.8 before pulling up lame during the 880 relay. He got a charley horse in his thigh about 100 yards from the finish and was forced to drop out. He rebounded in time to take fourth in the 220 finals with a time of 23.1. Mitchell carried home three individual trophies for Pasco, finishing third in the 330 yard intermediate hurdles, the long jump and the triple jump.
Those in the supporting roles for the Bulldogs were Sonny Goulet with his third place finish in the javelin, Jeff Wilson with his 13-9 for second in the pole vault and Tim Gosseen with his fifth in the 440.
Only one meet record was broken, Ed Mann of West Valley-Spokane going 6-6 1/2 in the high jump to eclipse his 1974 record of 6-6 1/8. He has gone 6-9 this year, but failed at his try at 6-7.
Roy Martin, a leading candidate for the outstanding athlete award, took home first place trophies for the shot put and the discus. He beat Kennewick's Jim Jesernig for the discus title, throwing 164-10 to Jesernig's 160-2. Martin, who had thrown 59-5 in the shot in the early going this year, was considered a threat to break the meet record, but his winning mark of 57-2 fell short.
Outstanding performances were also turned in by Connell's Curt Didier and Sunnysides's Rick Linehan. Bjoth came as individuals sonce a full team was not represented from those two schools, but that didn't stop them from putting on a show. Counting preliminary races, Didier ran the hurdles five times, tying with Linehan for first in the 330 intermediate hurdles with a time of 40.9. Didier was second in the 120 high hurdles, behind Lorenzo Bellamy and also finished second in the 180 low hurdles. He was another contender for outstanding athlete.
Some of the other top performances by area athletes were Duane Ostler's third in the 440 and Keith Jolley's fourth in the 880 and his third in the mile as those two ere the mainstays for Richland. Kennewick's Terry Haukeh, who had set a school record in the triple jump on Thursday, didn't jump as far Saturday but still took second.
One unfortunate incident in the meet occurred when Mike Houston of West Valley was injured in the 440 relay. He handed the baton off land then tripped over his teammate, sliding face down along the dirt track. He suffered a cut lip when he was spiked in the face, a cut over his eye, and various scrapes and scratches. He was taken to a Pasco hospital and released after having stitches in his upper lip.
THREE INVITATIONAL MARKS FALL
April 17, 1976
Three meet records, a new team champion and a pair of fine individual local efforts highlighted the 15th annual Pasco Invitational trophy Track Meet Saturday at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium.
The only thing the fans and performers could find to complain about was the weather on a windy, chilly, overcast day that was sprinkled with a few rain drops near the end. The competition from among the 536 athletes and 27 teams was superb.
Kelly Britz, a distance runner from Jesuit high in Portland, was named the outstanding athlete. He set a meet record in winning the 880 in 1:54.8, eclipsing the old mark of 1:56. He also won the mile and became the second straight distance runner to capture the award. Wilson-Tacoma's Harold Celms won last year.
Vince Goldsmith, a small shotputter by comparison and a member of Mt. Tahoma's 440 relay team, shattered the shot put record with a throw of 64-1. The old mark was 59-2 3/8. Goldsmith, second last season to Wilson-Tacoma's Mike Westlin in the State AAA meet, set his sites on a State AAA record later this spring with the toss. The existing state mark is 63-1 1/2. He stands 6-0, weighs 215. "I'm not as tall or as stocky as most shotputters," Goldsmith said. "I get across the ring quickly, though, and have the momentum when I release."
The third record went to Franklin-Pierce's Lon Moore in the high jump. He cleared 6-7 3/8 to break Ed Mann's record of 6-6 1/2 set last year. Mann competed for West Valley-Spokane.
Tacoma schools dominated the team race. Foss won the meet with 77 points, followed by last years State AA champs, Franklin-Pierce, with 56 and defending Pasco Invite winner Wilson-Tacoma with 53.
The best Tri-City performances were by Gary Little of Richland and Mark Cox of Kennewick. Little won the 330 intermediate hurdles in 41.1, edging Jesuit's Chris Bernards who finished in 41.4. Little finished second in the 120 high hurdles.
Cox set a personal best in the javelin of 202-5 in winning the event. His best effort last season was 187 feet. "This will be a good idea of what the state competition will be like, but the throws will fluctuate," Cox said. "I felt it was possible for me to win. The competition was tops for this time of year."
There were two other double winners besides Britz. Foss' Jeff Bruce captured both the 120 high hurdles and the 180 low hurdles. His time of 20.35 in the lows was exceptional considering the slowness of the track and the chilly day. Dick Michelson of Interlake sucessfully defended the titles in the 100 and 220 that he won last year. He ran the 100 in 10.3 and the 220 in 22.7.
There were three other Tri-City placers in the meet. Pasco's Dennis Sullivan took fourth in the long jump at 19-5 1/4. Kamiakin's medley relay team finished fourth and the Braves' relay team of Tom Trout, Brian Ivey, Tom Atwood and Ron Wandling took third behind Foss and Eisenhower.
WILLIAMS SETS THREE INVITE RECORDS
April 16, 1977
Aaron Williams of Wilson-Tacoma stole the show, but there were plenty of fine supporting performances in the 16th annual Pasco Invitational track meet Saturday at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium.
Williams, Named the meet's outstanding athlete, won four events and set meet records in three of them. His records came in the long jump (22-10), 110 high hurdles (14.03) and the triple jump (47-2 1/2). He won the 180 low hurdles in 20.03.
Behind Williams, Wilson won the team title with 76 points over rival Lincoln-Tacoma 66, Davis 60, and Mead 58. There were 27 teams entered.
While Williams was walking away with outstanding athlete award, there were many who could of just as easily won had Williams not been so dominating. There was Vincent Goldsmith, the shotput phenom from Mt. Tahoma, who won the shot with a meet record 68-1 and the discus with a 164-9. Goldsmith, who has thrown 69-4 1/2 this year, fell short of the coveted 70-foot barrier which he hopes to hit this season.
Howard Conley of Kamiakin got the lone Tri-City victory and did it in a "take note" fashion. He ran a 4:17.5 mile, just three-tenths of a second off the meet record, but more importantly it gives the red-haired senior the State's best time this season. He beat Dick LaLonde of Farris by nearly four seconds.
"My basic goal this year was to hit 4:17 and qualify for State," Conley said. "I felt tight at the end of the race. I was afraid somebodymight come up on me, but they never did." "I think we saw two of the best milers in the state here today," LaLonde"s coach, Herm Caviness, said. "Howard's been improving all season," Kamiakin Coach Ron Redden beamed. "He's cut his time down from 4:26 to 4:17 this year. Ithink he's got a solid shot at the State title."
The best event of the day probably had to be the high jump. University's Jeff Barrett, who Friday had just set a Greater Spokane League record of 6-10, out-jumped Wilbert Horsely of Lincoln-Tacoma and Scott Allen of Wenatchee.
Allen cleared a personal best 6-9 before bowing out at 6-10. The senior, who last year had a best of 6-4 had started jumping at 5-8, ran both the low and high hurdles and had to run a leg of the mile relay after he got through with the high jump.
Horsely, a short, springy-legged youngster, stayed with Barrett through 6-10 before missing all three tries at 6-11. Barrett had the bar raised to 7-0 (the State record is 6-11 1/2) but he missed all three tries, his third jump the closest of the three. "I don't want to win on fewer misses." said Barrett before his third try a 6-11. "I hate to lose on fewer misses and I don't want to win that way, either." Barrett, who would have won even had he missed his third jump at 6-11, promptly went out and cleared the height.
This year's meet, the first on refurbished Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium, was dedicated to former Pasco High basketball coach and athletic director Don Monson, now an assistant cage coach at Michigan State University. "This meet is dedicated to a dear personal friend and a friend to Pasco and the State," meet director John Crawford said during the dedication ceremonies. "Don Monson is one of the reasons we are proud of Pasco." Monson was unable to attend because of a job conflict.
In all, 11 records were set Saturday in what was the strongest field ever for the Invite. Many of these performers will more than likely meet head-on again at the State meet later this spring.
WILLIAMS, MOREHART STEAL THE SHOW
April 15, 1978
They call it the Pasco Invitational, but it looked more like the Aaron Williams and Susie Morehart Show. Williams and Morehart combined for six victories, six 1978 state bests, five meet records and a pair of outstanding athlete trophies Saturday afternoon to highlight the competition in the 17th annual Pasco Invitational Track Meet.
Williams exploits helped lead Wilson to its second successive team title, the Rams outscoring runnerup Mead 89-60. Morehart's Bethel squad totaled 37 points-30 by Morehart and finished third in the girls' division, trailing only Pullman (68) and Interlake (38). Pasco finished seventh in both boys' and girls' categories, while Richland, led by the only local individual event winner, 800-meter champion Eva Nicaracio, was eighth in the girls' meet.
Williams' superb performance was about as surprising as another oil price hike. Last year the versatile Ram superstar captured four events and set two meet records enroute to his outstanding athletic award. This year he set meet recordsand state bests in the high hurdles (14.1), low hurdles (19.5) and triple jump (49-4) as he became the first competitor to ever win back-to-back outstanding athlete awards.
Wiiliams probably would have won four events again, exept he opted to forego the long jump- in which he holds the state's best mark- in favor of the high jump. Williams finished fourth in the latter event, while his replacement-teammate Warren Washington- outdueled Pasco's Dennis Sullivan to win the long jump with a 22-4 1/2.
Morehart, meanwhile, came up with a couple of lifetime bests to pull off her triple win. The Bethel senior eclipsed her previous best long jump by six inches to win that event with an 18-6 effort, cut more than a second off her fastest 200-meter time, winning in 25.2, and equaled her career best in taking the 100-yard dash in 11.0.
Nicacio was an easy winner in the 800 as she put on the top performance by a local competitor. The Bomber senior shaved three seconds off her previous fastest time (clocking a 2:22.0) as she whipped Ferris' Dawn Galvin by more than four seconds. Nicacio also finished second in the mile run with a 5:19.2 effort.
Other fine performances by local girls included second-place finishes by Pasco's Quenna Beasley in the shot put and Connell's Jennifer McFall in the high jump, and third place efforts by Karen Beamer in the discus and Julie Heiden in the high jump of Pasco and Kamiakin's Donna Hettnin in the 400 meters. Greg Hall of Connell racked up two runnerup finishes in the boys' division, ending up second to University's Kevin Frandsen in the 300-meter Intermediate hurdles and to Wilson's Rob Webster in the 800 meters. Kennewick's Mark Higgins won third-place trophies in both the discus and shot put, while Richland's Darris Piggee was second in the 400 meters.
In addition to Williams, meet records were also set in the boys' division by Frandsen in the intermediate hurdles(39.2) and by Pullman's Doug Wollen with a 176-7 discus throw.
In the girls's meet, Cathy Wison of Mercer Island was a double winner, capturing both the discus and shotput, while Pullman's Brenda Allwine pulled a major upset by nipping a diving Tami Lincicum of Interlake in the 80 yd low hurdles. Allwine was timed in a state-best 10.4 as she edged Lincicum, the defending state class AAA champion who set a national record in the event with a 10.2 clocking a year ago.
"I thought we had a trememdous meet," remarked Invite Director John Crawford. "Every year we think, there's no way we can be better than last year, but I think we did it anyway."
WESTOVER STEALS INVITE SPOTLIGHT
April 14, 1979
Over 800 of the best Class AAA and AA athletes in the state couldn't take the spotlight from a high jumper from a nearby Class A school at the Pasco Invitational Track Meet Saturday. That high jumper was Kiona Benton's Carina Westover, who bettered an existing state and meet record en route to copping the outstanding female athlete trophy before an appreciative gathering at the 18th annual affair.
Competing under nearly ideal weather conditions on a warm, sunny afternoon, Westover leaped 5-10 to break the meet record by seven inches and steal the limelight away from two extremely close battles for the team championship trophies.
Hazen won the boys' title nipping Wilson in the final event of the day, the 1,600 meter relay, to knock off the defending champion Rams by a two point margin. Meanwhile, Pasco nearly pulled off a major upset, barely missing a share of the girls' team crown before settling for second place behind Mead of Spokane.
The Pasco girls, receiving outstanding efforts from Quenna Beasley and Kris Weitz, won three individual championships and totalled 44 1/2 points, only 2 1/2 points behind Mead's winning total of 47. Hazen had 68 points while Wilson finished second in the boys' race with 66 points. The nearest Big Nine Conference competitor was fourth place Walla Walla with 40 points.
The only athlete to come close to matching Westover's effort was Central Valley's Dan Vickery. The Bears' hurdler clocked in at an incredible 13.8 in the 110 high hurdles, bettering the meet record set by Wilson's Aaron Williams by nearly one-half second. Vickery, who won the outstanding male athlete trophy, also came in a tenth of a second under the existing state record of 13.9 set by Roger's Dick Olsen in 1967.
"The meet ran well," said Pasco track Coach Steve Potter, who had nothing but praise for the meet director John Crawford, who finished the meet nearly 20 minutes ahead of schedule. "The weather really cooperated. That was what had me worried more than anything before the meet."
Pasco girls' Coach Pam Bezona-Loew was ecstatic about her team's surprise performance, which was better than that of perennial state power and defending state champion Sammamish. "We exceeded my greatest expectations." said Loew. "Beasley and Weitz both did a super job."
Beasley set a meet record in the discus, producing a 128-8 1/2 effort to better the old record by two feet. Beasley accounted for 10 more of Pasco's total points by winning the shot put (42-7). Weitz set a meet record in the javelin, tying with Eisenhower's Cheryl Rhea at 145-3. She also snared a fifth place finish in the 80 yard hurdles with a 12.2 time.
A total of nine meet records fell during the day, six of them in the girls' portion of the meet. Several other Tri-City athletes had excellent performances during the day. Kamiakin's Vinnie Bessey set two school records, placing third in the 110 high hurdles in 14.8, and clocking in at 20.1 in the 180 low hurdles in a preliminary heat. Pasco's John Burrus was second in the javelin, hurling the spear 189-4 into the wind to finish behind East Valley's Mike Shill, who was a double winner, also winning the shot put.
Kamiakin's Dave Warren and Kennewick's Cal Loveall snapped school records in the long jump. Warren was second in 21-8 while Loveall was fifth in 21-4 3/4. Kennewick's George Fraga was second in the 800 with a time of 1:56.9, while Prosser's Mike Blackmore won the two mile in 9:19.8.
BEASLEY EXCELS AT PASCO
April 19, 1980
The power of Pasco's Quenna Beasley and the blazing speed of Franklin's Ron Jackson stole the show at the 19th annual Pasco Invitational Saturday. Beasley shattered her own record in the girls' discus by almost 12 feet with a throw of 140-2 3/4 and bettered the shot put mark by nearly four feet with a heave of 46-6 3/4 to earn the outstanding female athlete trophy.
Jackson equalled the boys' 200-meter dash record with a 21.72 time, but saved his best for the 100-meter event. The Seattle standout blazed to a 10.54 finish in the 100. Meet officals reported the auto-timed 10.54 equaled approximately a 10.3 hand-timed effort, which was equal to a 9.4 100-yard dash -which would have been the fastest 100-yard run in the Washington high school history. Jackson captured the outstanding male athlete trophy with his impressive performance.
The meet, held under hazy skies and warm temperatures, featured several record-breaking performances. In addition to two new girls' events and Beasley's two marks, team champion Hazen set a meet standard in the 4 x 200-meter relay. The Hazen distaff squad piled up 75 points to easily win the girls' team title. Franklin was second with 52 points, Richland took third with 39 points and Kamiakin was fourth with 36.
Wilson, which captured the boys' team crown, set a meet record in the 4 x 400-meter relay wtih a 3:21.44 clocking. The Rams' Hugh Hazelquist also set a meet mark in the mile with a 4:15 and teamate Calvin Kennon tied the 400-meter record at 48.70.
Kennedy High School's Brian Birch ran the 300 meters in 38.54 for a meet record and also captured the 110-meter high hurdles with a 14.4 effort. Bellarmine's Jeff Knowlton and the Foss 4 x 100 meter relay team set neew records in the meet with times of 1:52.99 and 42.58 respectively.
Tri-City winner's included Pasco's defending champion John Burrus, who won the boy's javelin with a throw of 203-2 1/2 and Dave Warren and Camille Harding of Kamiakin. Warren won the boy's long jump with a 22-8 3/4 leap and Harding took the girl's high jump with a 5-3 vault.
Hazen's Julie Castagna was Beasley's main competition for the meet's outstanding female athlete with three victories. Castagna claimed first in the girl's 100, 400 and 200.
Beasley said the hometown crowd was a big boon to her outstanding afternoon. "Yeah, I was pretty excited about competiting here," she said after her two victories, "I was really ready, especially for the discus. I was throwing it over 140 feet during practice during the week and I wanted to set a mark nobdy will break for a while. I was really psyched. I wasn't too worried wabout the shot. I didn't think anyone was going to beat me."
"She obviously had a good day," said Pasco Coach Pam Bezona-Loew of Beasley. "If she would be more serious she would be awesome. She's a super young lady and she's been real consistent all season."
The Kennewick boys piled up 40 points for fourth place in the team standings. Pasco had 26 points, good for eighth and Kamiakin finished 10th with 22. The Pasco girls finished eighth in the team standings with 24 points while Kennewick was 13th with 15.
BOYS-WILSON FLASH SETS STATE MARK
April 18, 1981
Only half of Wilson's stradle sprint duo showed up for Saturday's 20th annual Pasco Invitational Track Meet, but the Ram's Clavin Kennon put on a stunning performance that make the crowd forget no-show Darrell Robinson.
Kennon stole the show by leading Tacoma school to the boy's team championship with two record-shattering performances and three first-place finishes. Kennon, who was named the meet's outstanding male athlete, cranked out a 46.88 400 meter dash that is the fastest time for that event in a Washington prep track meet. It clipped almost two full seconds off the meet mark, set by Lincoln great Keith Tinner in 1974.
His record-smashing dash also bettered Tinner's all-time state prep record of 46.9. a converted mark from a 47.2 440-yard dash run in 1974. Tinner later ran a 46.7 in Europe while still a high school senior. Kennon also won the 100-meter in 10.7 and anchored Wilson's record-breaking 1600-meter relay team. The Rams posted a 3:20.09 to break their year-old mark of 3:21.44.
Wilson amassed 82 points to easily out distance runner-up Lincoln, which had 66. Kennewick, led by double winner Cal Lovell, finished a surprising third with 55 1/2 points. Loveall captured the triple jump with a 45-6 3/4 effort and the long jump with a leap of 21-3. He also finished fifth in the 200 with a 22.84.
Keith Nelson of St. John, competing independently, won the unlikely double of the pole vault (14-4) and javelin (196-4 3/4)and Shadle Park's massive Neil Kneip won the discus (171-2) and shot put (55-1).
But it was Kennon who received most of the attention. The Ram senior was on center stage after teammate Robinson, the 400-meter National Junior Olympics Champ and the only runner to ever beat Kennon, missed the team bus Friday. "I didn't expect to run this well this early in the season," Kennon said after his sizzling 400. "I'm ahead of schedule for this time of the year. I didn't expect to go under 47.1 until the Shelton Invitational later this spring." "I expect to do even better when I get into national competition."
Although pleased with his first-place finishes, Loveall felt the stiff breeze blowing into the face of the athletes in the field events prevented his form doing better.
"The wind was a definite factor," he said. "I felt I could have jumped a foot, and a half farther without it." "Calvin had a real good day," enthused Kennewick Coach Dave Rockstrom, "but I'm disappointed we didn't do better in the distances." In addition to Loveall, two bright spots for the Lions were Jeff Whitmire's school record 11.24 in the 100 and Mark Hoitink's 9:41.53 two-mile run, good for third place.
Clay Poplin had two thirds for Richland-a 43 1 1/3 in the triple jump and a 6-4 in the high jump. "Some of our kids had their best times," said Kamiakin's Ron Redden, "but they still didn't place. The competition at this meet is excellent." Redden's son Rick was the Braves' top male performer. The sophomore standout finished second behind Loveall in the triple jump with a 43-4 and fourth in the 300 meter hurdles with a 40.23.
Mike Marble of Pasco finished second behind Nelson in the pole vault. "Mike has been oustanding for us all season." said Bulldog Coach Pam Bezona-Loew, "but he was disappointed he didn't do better."
Only one other boys' meet mark was broken in addition to the two by Wilson. The Lincoln 800 meter relay team broke the 1977 mark of Lake Washington with a 1:31.67. The boys' crown was the sixth for Wilson. "Next to state this is our favorite meet," said Ram Coach Jim Daulley. "First is the chance to travel, second is the level of competition and third is the weather. It's just an outstanding meet."
GIRLS-RICHLAND AND KAMIAKIN SUPRISE IN INVITE
Tacoma's Lincoln stole the spotlight, but Richland and Kamiakin girls' teams finished surprisingly high in the 20th annual Pasco Invitational track meet Saturday at Edgar Brown Stadium. Lincoln tallied 59 points outdistancing second place finishers Richland and Sammamish with 42 points. Kamiakin and Interlake tied for third with 38 points.
Elaine Martin of Richland won the 400-meter dash with a school record time of 59.55 and finished tied for second with Helen Caffee of Lincoln in the 100-meter dash in 12.39 seconds. Martin also ran a leg on the second place finishing 1600 meter relay team. Robin Jordan, Rene Hendrix and Kay King aided Martin in setting a school best with a time of 4:07.35. Lincoln won the event in 4:04.17. "I was very, very pleased with our performance," said Richland Coach Jim Qualheim.
Kamiakin's Camille Harding had two second place finishes, a third and a fourth to lead the Braves. Harding leaped 16-5 3/4 for second in the long jump, and vaulted 5-4 in the high jump for second. She had a 15.1 time in the 100 low hurdles, to finish while Kennewick's Pam Board had a time of 15.04 to take second. Marva Benjamin broke her own meet record to win with a time of 14.7.
Kamiakin Coach Sandra Morgan was extremely pleased with the Braves' finish, "Considering we only brought nine girls I thought we did quite well." Besides Harding's efforts, the Braves Robin Prince heaved the javelin 129-9 1/2 for second place behind North Central's Shaney Coe. Richland's Jordan broke her own school record with a 122-0 toss to finish third.
Kennewick, which finished sixth with 36 points, received fine efforts from Mary Foreman and Daya Banker. Foreman took second in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:23.84 behind Linda Jacobsen of Sammamish. Banker finished third in the shot put with a toss of 36- 3/4.
Kentridge broke its old 400-meter relay record with a time of 49.09, while Syndey Armstead of Cheney broke the 300-meter low hurdles record (46.18) with a time of 45.99.
Beth Willard of Richland had two fourth place finishes. She had a time of 2:24.20 in the 800 and 11:57.30 in the two mile competing in both events in a span of a half-hour. The Lions' Board finished third in the 300 low hurdles with a time of 46.5 and took fourth in the long jumpo with a leap of 15-9 1/2.
RICHLAND GIRLS CAPTURE PASCO INVITATIONAL
April 13, 1982
"Great isn't the word to describe it," said an ecstatic Richland Coach Jim Qualheim while he watched the Bomber girls put the finishing touches on the team championship by winning the 1600-meter relay at Saturday's Pasco Invitational. "If I could think of the word I'd tell you." Led by Elaine Martin's four firsts, Richland breezed past the 25 girls teams to capture the 21st annual track meet, the first title ever for a Tri-City team.
The meet, which was dedicated to director John Crawford, drew an estimated 2,500 despite strong, cool wind conditions. Meanwhile, Kennewick's Pam Board hurdled past Martin to grab the outstanding female athlete award.
Although winning the top athlete honor, Board had mixed feelings about her performance. "I had a great day, but I'm disappointed, too. I had my best long jump and our relay team (400) did real good, but I didn't push myself in the 100 hurdles."
The junior hurdler said she was concentrating on staying ahead of Kamiakin's Camille Harding and Central Valley's Annette Helling. Although comfortably in front of those two, Board let Franklin's Marva Benjamin slip by and edge her at the tape.
But Board really couldn't convince anyone that she was upset with her performance, especially after setting a meet record in the 300 low hurdles with a time of 45.5, eclipsing the previous record of 45.99 held by Cheney's Snyder Armstead. Board had her best leap in the long jump at 17-9 beating Harding for the first time.
Martin had to be quite close in the outstanding athlete balloting with a first-place time of 13.0 in the 100 while running away from the pack in the 400 with a time of 59.3.
The senior sprinter also was the first on two relays, aiding the 800 team of Janet Tintinger, Barb Dingree and Robin Jordan to a time of 1:47.0, while the same foursome took the 1600 relay in the time of 4:11.9.
"It's my last time at the Pasco Invite and I really want to do well," said Martin. "I'm pleased with the way I'm running. Our girls are really doing well."
And while Board and Martin were cleaning up on most of the firsts, Harding wasn't having a bad day, either. The junior tied Davis' Jewel Dorman at 5-7 but took second due to one extra miss. In the long jump she leaped 17-2 1/2 which looked as if it would be the winning jump before Board got her personal best on the final leap. Harding had another third in the 100 low hurdles, finishing behind Board, again.
While Richland amassed 70 first-place points, Kennewick accumulated 46 for second place and Kamiakin posted 27 for seventh.
Supporting Richland's first-place effort were Shari Biggs, Jordan and Tintinger. Biggs placed second in the discus with a toss of 118-8, a new school record, while putting the shot 40-10 3/4. Jordan broke her own school record by 10 feet in the javelin with a heave of 138-0. Tintinger ran her first 800 of the year, finishing third with a time of 2:21.5.
The Kennewick 400 relay team led by Board, Othe Armstrong, Sheila Horsley and Dawn Kwis slipped passed Cheney with a winning time of 50.9.
For the remaining part of the season, Martin plans to concentrate her efforts on the 100, 400, 800 relay and the 1600 relay. If she continues to enjoy the success that has come her way the past two seasons, she could easily be a threat to place high, if not to win, in the four events at state. "My times and the way I'm running are ahead of pace compared to this time last year," Martin added. "My quarters (400s) have been really good."
As far as Board is concerned her marks, especially in the long jump, should continue to imnprove. "My coaches tell me that I've gone alot farther on my scratch jumps (farther in feet not inches). So I hope I can."
WIND DOESN'T SLOW MEAD BOYS
It wasn't four typical Pasco Invitational weather Saturday at wind-swept Edgar Brown Stadium and the marks posted by the male competitors reflected the less-than-ideal conditions. With gusts up to 38 mph buffeting the athletes all afternoon, all but one boys' meet record withstood the field's challenge at the 21st annual track meet. The lone meet mark was set by Shadle Park's Brian Hill who shattered the javelin record - a throw of 213-10 by Kamiakin's Rich Stewart in 1974 - by two feet with a strong throw into a stiff crosswind. Although all but one record remained intract, the meet was not without its outstanding efforts.
Led by Steve Lucas, Pat Kostecka and Wayne Anderson, Mead of Spokane captured the team championship with 62 points, shaking off a strong challenge by Steve Hickey-led Pendleton. Lucas won the triple jump (46-7 1/2) and high jump (6-7), Anderson took first in the shot put (56-11 3/4) and Kostecka claimed the discus title (161-3) to pace the Panthers.
Hickey captured the outstanding male athlete award with three first-place finishes as the Buckaroos accumulated 58 points for the runner-up position in the team standings. Hickey won the 400 and 200 meter relays with times of 48.8 and 22.6, respectively, and ran in Pendleton's winning 400 relay, which took the title with a 43.8 clocking.
Not far behind Hickey as the top male performer was Kamiakin's Garrick Redden, who had a first, second, third and fifth. The talented junior won the long jump with a leap of 22-7, claimed second in the triple jump with a 45-4 1/4 effort, took third in the 300 hurdles with a 40.6 dash and finished fifth in the javelin with a throw of 164-3. "I expected to do a little better in the hurdles," Redden said. "But I was mentally exhausted after the other events. I guess I was upset with my effort in lhe hurdles, but overall I was pleased with my performance."
The only other Tri-City winner in the boys' ranks was Kennewick's Mark Hoitink, who ran 9:22.6 in the two-mile run. As the final lap began, Pendleton's Jeff Christensen momentarily passed hoitink for the lead. But the swift senior displayed an awesome kick seconds later and left Christensen far behind, winning the race by 13 seconds. "I was really confindent I could win it," Hoitink said. "I've gotten a lot stronger lby running hills land it's really helped my kick."
"He can run with anybody in the state." said Kennewick Coach Dave Rockstrom of Hoitink. "He can be the state champ." Kennewick had third-place finishers lin Troy McCord (15.5 in the 110 high hurdles) and Dave Spiel (175-4 in the javelin).
Richland's Vernon Mickens and Bob Fasulo claimed runner-up honors to lead the Bombers to a sixth place finish. Mickens took second behind Hickey in the 400 with a time of 49.2 and Fasulo's 40.4 in the 300 hurdles was good for the second spot behind Franklin's Glen Leimnacher, who had a 39.4 for first place.
Fasulo and Mickens also combined with teammates Jerome Vines and Dewayne Welshons to take second in the 1600 relay with a time of 3:28.8 behind Franklin's winning 3:28.3 effort.
The Bombers' Tom Cushing took third in the shot with a heave of 52-5 while the Richland 800 relay team of Fasulo, Welshons, Mickens and Carl Fite was also third with a 1:33.6. Franklin also won that event with a 1:31.3 clocking. The Quakers' Bob McKinney won the 100 with a time of 11.8 in addition to participating in both winning relays.
KENNEWICK, FRANKLIN WIN DRAMATIC PASCO INVITATIONAL
RICHLAND BOY'S BID FOR TITLE FALLS SHORT
April 16, 1983
Richland's stellar performance in the boys' portion of Pasco Invitational Track Meet had the Bombers battling for the team title until the final event, but in the end Franklin had just too much talent.
The Quakers of Seattle sped away with the crown at the 22nd annual event Saturday.
Franklin on the strength of five first-place finishes and two seconds, scored 68 points to edge runner-up Mead, which had 65, and third-place finishers Richland and Shadle Park, both which had 62 points.
"It was a gallant effort by a super bunch of young kids," said Richland Coach Jim Qualheim, after his team fell short of its quest for the meet championship. "But we`ll be back next year."
The Bombers were paced by pole vaulter Whit Reed, who cleared 13-3 to win the event, and miler Ken Gibby, who took first with a time of 4:21.1. Richland's Tim Jacobson took second in the discus with a heave of 149-3 and teammate Carl Fite was second in the 100 with a 11.33 clocking. Fite was also fifth in the 200 with a time of 22.71.
The Bombers were second in the medley relay with a time of 8:18.10 and fourth in the 1600 and 400 relays with times of 3:25.78 and 43.98, respectively. Greg Turpen finished fourth in the two mile run with a time of 9:34.00 and teammate Scott Frick took fourth in the high jump with a 6-4 leap.
Kamiakan's Rick Redden won the javelin with a throw of 176-9 and took fourth in the 300 hurdles with a 39.13 clocking. The Braves' Wayne Vertz took second in the 400 with a 50.4 and teammate Doug Bromley was third in the discus with a throw of 147-1.
Pasco sophomore Tim Sullivan won the 200 with a time of 22.10 and took third in the high jump with a jump of 6-4. The Bulldogs' Ben Allen was fourth in the javelin with a 167-11.
Mead's Steve Lucas was named the meet`s outstanding male competitor. He won the high jump(6-8), the 110 hurdles(14.6) and the triple jump(48-7) and fifth in the long jump(22-0).
Franklin's Bob McKinney set a meet record in the 300 hurdles with a time of 37.94, breaking the old mark of 38.54 set by Kennedy's Brian Birch in 1980 and the Quakers' Tony Zackery smashed the meet long jump mark with a 23-11 leap, surpassing the old record of 22-10 set by Wilsons Aaron Williams in 1977.
Going into the final event, the 1600 meter relay, Richland was still in the running for first place. But Kamiakin's Vertz edged Fite by less than half a second for third place, dashing any title hopes the Bomners had.
BOARD'S RUN PACES LION GIRLS TO TITLE
With the Pasco Invitational girls' team championship on the line, Kennewick saved its best for last and came up a winner Saturday.
"We thought it might come down to the mile relay (the final girls' event of the day), so we put all of our apples into one cart," said Kennewick Coach Ted Homme. It worked.
Pam Board came up with a stirring performance in the final leg of the mile relay, technically called the 4 x 400-meter relay, to vault the Lions past Rainier Beach for first place in the team standings.
The Lions' win in the 4 x 400 gave Homme`s club 60 points while the Vikings had 54.
It took gutty performances by Board, The Lions' top performer, to pull out the win. The senior standout overcame a huge lead by Mead`s Chelly Daratha in the home stretch to win the event in a time of 4:05.33. Mead finished at 4:06.10.
"When I got the baton (from teammate Trish Bergman) I thought she (Daratha) just had a small lead over me, but when I turned around I said "Oh oh, I have alot of ground to make up,''' Board said. "I knew I could pass her, she kind of petered out around the last turn, but then she had a kick at the end and it was real close."
Board also won the 300 low hurdles with a time of 43.80, breaking her own record of 45.5 which she set last year. She also finished third in the 100 low hurdles (14.80) and fourth in the long jump (17-8 1/2). Kennewick, with the second leg run by Otha Armstrong, also captured the 4 x 200 relay with a time of 1:48.60. Armstrong also won the triple jump, a first time event in the meet, with a 34-11 effort.
Behind senior Camille Harding, Kamiakin made a strong showing with a fifth-place finish. Harding won the high jump, trying the meet record with aleap of 5-10. She was also second in the 400 (58.45), third in the long jump (18-6) and fourth in the 100 hurdles (14.81).
Harding won the high jump title three years ago as a freshman, but failed to defend her crown at the last two invites. The Braves' Kim Phillips, a sophomore, won the javelin with a heave of 129-11.
Kentwood's Janell Thorsland was named the meet's top female athlete. She won the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.05 and the long jump with a leap of 19-7, both were meet records. Leslie Ramstad of Evergreen set a record in the two mile with a time of 11:07.3.
RICHLAND BOYS WINS PASCO INVITATIONAL
DESPITE LOSING FITE
April 14, 1984
Richland's boys led the 23rd annual Pasco Invitational Track Meet from start to finish. It was the middle that made Coach Jim Qualheim nervous. "Everything went pretty much like I expected. That is, except what happened to Carl Fite. We would have done better with him in there."
As it was, the Bombers finished with 54 points and won by 11 over runners-up Shadle Park and Franklin. That despite having their best sprinter available for only one event. Pasco won the 400 relay and finished a strong fourth with 40 points. The Bulldogs also placed second in the mile relay and got third-place efforts from Nathan Hill (400) and Tim Sullivan (200).
Richland started off on the right foot, winning the medley relay by 12 seconds over Shadle. However in the next event, the Bombers lost Fite. The senior sprinter had a comfortable lead in the 100 meters when he pulled up lame near the finish. David Hunter then closed the gap and made it a photo finish at the tape. Hunter was the announced winner but after examining the picture, meet officials declared Fite the victor.
It was to be Fite's last race of the day. In the course of winning the 100, he had pulled a hamstring muscle and was unable to compete in the 400, 400 relay or mile relay. The Bombers won anyway. Richland scored points in nine events. Gutty performances by two-miler Derek Bowls and high jumper Scott Frick accounted for 16 Bomber points.
Bowls gave heavy favorite Brent Felt of Blanchet a run for his money, staying on his shoulder until the final lap. The Bomber finished a strong second. Frick's effort was just as thrilling. The 6-foot-6 Richland senior played "high jumper poker" as Qualheim called it with 5-8 Rick Noji of Franklin for the better part of an hour.
Each had passed one height by the time the bar was set at 6-7. Noji cleared this on the first time but Frick missed twice. On his third try, the Bomber was flawless. The same thing happened at 6-8. Noji cleared the bar on try No. 1 and Frick missed twice before coming through. The battle ended at 6-10. Noji was perfect on his second try and Frick failed on all three. The Franklin junior then set a meet record by leaping over the bar at 7 feet and barely missed at 7-2 1/2.
The race of the day turned out to be a dual between defending state champion Matt Donnelly of Renton and Phil Girsberger of Walla Walla in the mile. "I just wanted to stay with him as long as I could. I figured it I could stay with him for three laps. I could outkick him. He came on at the end but he didn't have anything left," said the Blue Devil runner, who was named the meet's top make athlete for his 4:15.37 victory. Donnelly ran 4:15.54 for a close second. It turned out to be the first of two wins for the Walla Walla standout. Girsberger made it 2-for-2 in the 800, coming in just over one second ahead of Dan Gamash of Blanchet.
FRESHMAN LEADS KAMIAKIN GIRLS TO 3RD
Freshman Brenda Harding got her first taste of the 23rd annual Pasco Invitational Track Meet from an enviable position--the winners circle. Harding sprinted at the finish to win the 200 meters and anchored the victorious 4x200 relay team as the Braves finished third in the girls' category.
Shorewood of Seattle won a pair of events, finished second in four others and cruised to the team title with 71 points. Lewis and Clark of Spokane was second with 60, followed by Kamiakin (52) and Kennewick (46). "We had a good day overall against some tough, tough competition," said Redden. "There were some disappointments but overall, yes, I thought things went as expected." Redden also got some pleasant surprises. Harding provided one in the 200, making up ground in the last 10 meters to nip Alicia Hodnett of Mountain View at the wire.
Defending champion Kim Phillips was supposed to win the javelin and she did. Phillips also finished a surprising fifth in the discus. Tondi Redden also came through for Kamiakin, setting a school record in the shot put with a heave of 38-11, good for second place. The Braves junior also helped the Kamiakin 4x200 relay team win.
Right on the heels of Kamiakin were the Kennewick Lions and Coach Ted Homme was nothing short of ecstatic. "I'm excited. I came in expecting to be in the top 10 and after our athletes worked very hard during spring break and last week, the results speak for themselves." Otha Armstrong helped the Lions score points in four events. The Kennewick standout placed second to Linda Lester of Lewis and Clark in the triple jump (a meet record-35-11), finished third in the long jump and helped the Lions' 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams each place second. Homme also noted the third-place effort of Sandra Dickenson in the discus and Lisa Edwards in the javelin.
Chris Slentz of Lewis & Clark was the only girl to win two individual events and was named the top female athlete. The Tiger junior set a meet record with a time of 5:04.16 in the mile and followed that with a win in the 800 ((2:19.53).
PASCO SPRINTS TO TEAM TITLE IN OWN MEET
NOJI SORS TO 7-2
April 13, 1985
When it came to oohs and aahs at the 24th annual Pasco Invitational track and field meet at Edgar Brown Stadium Saturday, Franklin high jumper/sprinter Rick Noji gave a crowd of 3,500 all it wanted.
He won the high jump with a meet-record leap of 7-2, the 200 meters in 21.66 and wa named the invite's outstanding male athlete.
But when it came to the team crown, nobody matched sprint-happy Pasco. The host Bulldogs, gathering their steam from tow relay wins and a 400 meter win from Tim Sullivan, scored 53 points to outdistance the field and win their first-ever title.
Spokane's University was second with 40, Mead was third with 39, Franklin had 34 and Richland was fifth with 31.
The fact that Pasco won its invitational was no shocker. The catch was how the Bulldogs did it. Coach Eric Kelly had expected points in the mile from Adam Leahy and a bushel of shotput and jump points from Greg Travis to go along with his sprint points.
But Leahy cramped up in the mile and didn't even make the top eight. And Travis, hobbled by an ankle injury and a sprained finger, missed the spotput and the long jump(he was third in the triple jump at 44-6).
That meant Pasco's sprint corps had to deliver. Kelly was on thin ice there, too-Sullivan's tendons were bothering him, and Nate Hill had a tight hamstring. Not to worry. Pasco started its run for the money with a meet-record 42.31 in the 400 relay. The highlight of that win was the second leg, where Hill matched Noji stride for stride.
Then Sullivan did it. First he won the 400 in 48.33, shaking off a rapid start by Shadle Park's Rob Fabien. Sullivan sprinted by Fabien with 150 meters to go, and that was that. In the 200 meters, Noji was too swift for the field. But Sullivan held off Mead's Scott Naccerato for second place to give the Bulldogs eight more points. Hill got fourth in the 100 and the 400, David Hawes snuck in with a sixth (6-2) in the high jump, and Pasco sealed it victory with a swift 3:21.61 in the 4x400 relay.
Impressive was the perfect word for Noji. In the high jump he progressed from 6-6 to 7-2 in 10 minutes. He missed three times at 7-4, and he didn't threaten his PR of 7-4 1/2 or the national record of 7-5 1/4. No matter. "He unbelievable," said Richland Coach Jim Qualheim. "He's only 5 foot 8 inches, but when he jumps it's like he has ballistic missiles in his legs."
Noji, who just signed a letter of intent with the University of Washington, also came back to win the 200 and run a 50.3 leg on Franklin's fifth-place 4x400 relay team. But he scarcely overshadowed Pullman's Timm Rosenbach and Woodinville's John Quade.
Rosenbach became the 1985 national leader in the javelin with a meet-record heave of 225-1. The toss broke his 1984 Pasco Invite record of 224-6. Quade emerged as another national leader, besting Richland's Bob Haggard to win the 800 in 1:50.83. That mark narrowly missed the state record 1:50.4 set by Connell's Greg Gibson in 1972.
Other invite highlights:
* Haggard couldn't stay with Quade in the 800, but he did win the mile in a fine 4:22.5* Kennewick's Louis Sanders won the triple jump at 46-0, nearly two feet above his previous best.
GIRLS TEAM EFFORT GIVES BRAVES TITLE
After learning his girls won the team title at the 24th annual Pasco Invitational track meet Saturday, Kamiakin Coach Ron Redden was hesitant to single out anyone as the outstanding performer.
Redden wasn't trying to dodge the issue. It's just that Kamiakin's performance was so close to flawless Saturday that the Braves' coach didn't want to talk up anyone without talking up everyone. The Braves scored 81 points to easily outdistance runner-up Rainier Beach (with 68) and third-place Mead(44 points)
"This was really a team thing," Redden said. "All these girls love to compete. To do well in a meet like this, you have to be willing to compete up to the level of the competition." Redden indicated he thought the Braves had a shot at the team title, but he didn't necessarily have a spot reserved in the Kamiakin trophy case. "Before a meet like this, you just don't know what to expect from a team like Rainier Beach'" Redden said. "Right now I'm just happy for our kids and my assistant coaches. We're very excited about what's possible the rest of the season.
The most visible Kamiakin performer was sprinter-hurdler Brenda Harding. The tenacious sophomore won the 400-meter dash easily in a state-leading 57.63 (one of four girls meet records set during the day-long event), anchored the Braves's winning (and meet and school-record setting) 4x400 meter relay team, won the 100-meter hurdles and placed second in the 200 meters. "I wanted to get under 57.0 today," Harding said after her win in the 400. "But I guess this is close enough for now. I'm running faster right now than at the same time last year, so I'm satisfied."
In the hurdles, Harding moved up from third place to first over the final two barriers "to beat Rainier Beach's highly-regarded Rosetta Jones and defending state AA champ Amy Moore from Shorewood. In the 4x400, which sealed Kamiakin's team title, Harding took the baton for the final leg from Tondi Redden (who turned in an excellent 59.7 leg to move her team into contention) about five meters down on Mountain View's Kim Gilla. Gilla heald Harding off until the Kamiakin runner gained a slight advantage with just 80 meters left in the race. Both the Braves (3:59.16) and Mountain View (3:59.38) finished under the old meet record of 4:00.6 set by Sammamish in 1979.
Harding's only defeat came at the hands of phenomenal Rainier Beach ninth grader Freda Everett. Everett took the measure of Grandview's Kathy Herold to win the 100 in 12.24 and beat Harding in the 200 with a 25.46. The two individual wins(Everett also anchored Rainier Beach's winning 4x100-meter relay) earned the precocious freshman Athlete of the Meet honors, narrowly out-polling Harding.
The Braves' Kim Phillips led the javelin competition from the outset, but was well off even her season's best of 138-0 until her final throw, when she reached a meet and Kamiakin school record of 148-1. And the Braves's Kesha Christensen jumped a life-time best of 5-5 to grab second in the high jump.
The only other meet record set Saturday came from Lewis and Clark's Linda Lester with a 36-11 win in the triple jump(eclipsing her own record of 35-11 set last year). Grandview's Michelle denHoed finally raised her state lead in the high jump to 5-8, after jumping 5-6 in three straight meets, to win that event over Christensen.
Kennewick junior Cara Schur moved herself to the top of the 1985 state ranking with her life-time best 2:15.77 to win the 800 over Kierston Knutsen of North Central. Schur led from the starting gun, battled off one minor challenge by Knutsen with 350 meters to go, and won easily.
RAINIER BEACH BOYS SPRINT TO WIN PASCO INVITE
PASCO'S ADAM LEAHY CAPTURES TWO-MILE RUN
April 19, 1986
Two years of painful frustration came to an end for Pasco High distance runner Adam Leahy Saturday when he slipped past Gunnar Hadley's shoulder on the final turn and sprinted to an impressive victory in the boys' two mile event at the Silver Anniversary of the Pasco Invitational track meet.
Leahy, who's been bothered by a painful abdominal muscle injury for the past two years, won the event in a school-record time of 9:25.26, edging Hadley of University High by more than a second. Hadley finished several meters back in 9:26.69.
Leahy's victory accounted for the Bulldogs only points in the boys's meet. Rainier Beach, which also won the girls' team title, earned the boys championship with some overwhelming speed in the sprint event. The Class AA Vikings entered the meet with just seven competitors, but a victory by Cecil Bowie in the 110 meter high hurdles and Davelle Bridges in the 200 was enough to propel them to the team title. Rainier Beach also had a first place relay team and another that finished second.
Mead finished second followed by Lindbergh, Sammamish, John Rogers, Kamiakin and Hanford. John Rogers fifth place finish was due in a large part to the two victories earned by Robert Jefferson. A senior bound for Eastern Washington University on a football scholarship, Jefferson won the 100 meter dash in 10.68 seconds and the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 6 1/4 inches. For his efforts-he also placed second in the triple jump-Jefferson won the boys' most impressive performance trophy.
Kamiakin was led by Todd Dahlberg's 6-7 leap in the high jump, which was good enough for second place. It was the best leap of Dahlberg's career-by one inch-and matched Dave Stapleman's school record. David Pallies won the high jump at 6-10. The Braves also received a third place effort in the medley relay and a fourth place finish by Scott Bracken in the javelin(169-6).
Hanford's surprising seventh place finish in a meet dominated by Class AAA teams was accomplished with the help of Bobby Weissenfels' second place finish in the javelin(181-6), Chris Busselman's third place effort in the shot put, Tim Hancock's fourth place finish in the 300 intermediates and Jerry Bailey's fourth place time of 15.45 in the highs.
Richland was paced by pole vaulter Tom Rude, who soared 13-6 to finish fourth and high jumper Jason Walton, who was fifth at 6-5.
STERLING SIZZLES AT MEET FOR THE GIRLS
Brigid Sterling, a 5 foot 3, 94 pound wisp, shattered two meet records in winning the mile and two mile to headline an afternoon of eye-opening performances in the 25th annual Pasco Invitational track meet Saturday at Edgar Brown Stadium.
A Roosevelt High senior, Sterling captured the mile in 4:58.92 and the two mile in 10:44.16 to easily win both events and waltz away with the girls' most outstanding athlete award. Sterling's mile time broke the old meet record of 5:04.16 established by Chris Slentz of Lewis & Clark in 1984. Her two mile performance eclipsed the 3 year old standard of 11:07.3 held by Leslie Ranstad of Evergreen.
Rainier Beach, a Class AA school located in south Seattle, won the girls' team title by a convincing 17-point margin over defending champion Kamiakin. Rainier Beach scored 58 points. Kennewick, meanwhile, scored 29 points and finished third. A total of 42 teams took part in the girls' meet.
Sterling, who trains by running an average of 35 miles per week, finished her scorching two-mile race before a crowd of more than 3,000 spectators. Libby Tyson of Walla Walla, who fought gamely to stay within striking distance of Sterling, finished second in 11:02.26.
Sterling's victory in the mile was equally impressive. Sterling took an insurmountable lead at the halfway point and cruised to the finish line unchallenged. Lisa Corp of Mead placed second at 5:04.48. Sterling accounted for two of the five record-breaking performances in the girls' division. The others came in the 100-meter hurdles, in which Rosetta Jones of Rainier Beach ran a 14.76 to break the old meet record of 14.93 established by Kamiakin's Brenda Harding in 1985, the 4 x 400 relay event, in which Issaquah dashed to a winning time of 4:58.65 erasing the old standard of 3:59.16 set by Kamiakin last year and Jennifer Bannon broke Brenda Harding's record in the 400 meter dash with a time of 57.49.
Kamiakin earned its second place trophy with the help of a strong showing in the 200 meter dash. Harding, who had earlier placed a disappointing third in the 100 hurdles and who had been disqualified in the 400 because of a false start, captured the 200 in 26.15. Kamiakin also won the 4x200 relay with a time of 1:45.94.
Kennewick's top performances came from Cara Schur, who placed second in the 800 with a time of 2:17.75; Kathy Board, who finished second in the 300 low hurdles and fifth in the highs. Sandra Dickinson tossed the discus 117 feet to finish third.
Pasco received award winning efforts from Heather Trumble, who won the discus with a heave of 123-7; Roslyn Travis, who finished second in the triple jump with a leap of 33-10 and Beth Verbarg, who was fourth in the long jump at 16-11.
Richland's top performances came from Jill McCabe in the discus, where she placed second with a toss of 120-10, and in the shot put, where she finished fifth with a 36 foot effort. Millicent Shaw of Hanford placed second in the 100 highs and third in the 300 lows. Jennifer Lindquist of Sunnyside won the javelin and placed second in the shot put.
KAMIAKIN GIRLS RALLY TO WIN INVITATIONAL
DROPPED BATON, HARDING'S 4 VICTORIES GIVE BRAVES TRIUMPH
April 18, 1987
Three things-Brenda Harding's legs and a dropped baton-kept the Rainier Beach Vikings from winning their second consecutive girls team title at the Pasco Invitational Track Meet. Harding, a Kamiakin senior, set the track ablaze with four first-place finishes to grab the meet's Outstanding Female Athlete Award and lead the Braves to a first-place finish at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium.
But it wasn't until the final event of the meet-the fourth heat of the 1600 relay, with Kamiakin in lane two and Rainier Beach in lane six-that the title was decided. And that's where the baton was dropped. Rainier Beach led the Braves 42-36 before the start of the race. But on the first handoff, Rainier Beach's Tara Davis and Shawn Davis fumbled the baton, and it fell to the ground. While the Kamiakin foursome of Sherry King, Heather Mills, Jo Shafer and Harding easily outdistanced the field to score the 10 points for first place-and would have done so without the dropped baton-the miscue on the handoff prevented the Vikings from scoring any points, and the Braves won 46-42.
The team title was Kamiakin's second in the last three years, and Braves Coach Ron Redden gave Harding a lot of credit. "That was the key", said Redden. "I think she performed exceptionally well, considering her conditioning. She's not in condition yet. But I knew we'd score a few points if Brenda ran well. Harding, still not 100 percent after having off-season surgery on both legs, ran on the winning 800 and 1600 relay teams and finished first in the 100 meter high hurdles and the 300 meter low hurdles. "I felt great out there," said Harding. "I really didn't know how things would go, with the way my legs were hurting in practice last week."
Rainier Beach Coach Larry Moore said the earlier disqualification of his girls' 800 relay team, which scratched, hurt his team's title chance. "There's no doubt about it," said Moore. "Without our strongest girls in there, that hurt our chances. But this is a good time for those things to happen."
Other than the first-place finishes of Harding and the Braves' two relay teams, Kamiakin's other six points came from Kellee Magnuson's third-place finish in the javelin event. Magnuson was among five of seven Tri-City finalists in the javelin, which was won by Wenatchee's B.J. Kuntz. Kuntz, in her first year of track, threw the javelin 143-11. Kennewick's Joy Stock finished second. Stock said the gusty winds were a bit of a problem, but she still recorded a personal best of 132-2. "I think throwing behind Kuntz helped me," said Stock, who also finished fifth in the shotput for the Lions. Michelle Weissenfels of Hanford finished fourth in the javelin, Doreen Ostler of Richland finished fifth, and Hanford's Brionna Johnson placed sixth.
Rainier Beach's Freda Everett finished first in the 200 meters and ran a leg on the winning 400 relay team to cap a successful comeback. Everett was the outstanding athlete of the 1985 meet as a freshman. But a hamstring injury sidelined her for most of last season. Lewis & Clark's Dory Reeves, just a sophmore, was a double winner Saturday. Reeves won the shotput and discus events for the Tigers.
In the mile, Lindbergh sophomore Kim Alberts passed Lisa Corp of Mead on the backstretch of the third lap to win. Alberts said she tried to stay back as long as possible, but couldn't wait anymore to make her move. "I was surprised at how slow the pace was, " said Alberts. "So I said 'What the heck. I might as well try taking the lead'. " Shadle Park distance star Lisa Dressel, one of the favorites in the 800 and 1600, did not participate in the meet after Dressel left the team Friday.
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