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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1997)
Oregon heptathletes look for PRs, qualifying marks CHAD PATTESON/Emerald Oregon’s Jennifer Thomas will be looking to score between 5,200 and 5,300 points in the heptathlon Thursday and Friday at Hayward Field. ■ HEPTATHLON: Two Ducks go for NCAA qualifying standards at Hayward Field Thursday and Friday By Ben Kwasney Sports Reporter Oregon’s Jennifer Thomas and Tish Henes will face a competitive field in a heptathlon to be held at Hayward Field Thursday and Friday. The seven-event competition precedes Saturday’s main event, the Oregon Invitational. “There’s going to be a lot of people that are very good, so it will be nice because there will be some one in every event to lead the way and give some one to compete against,” Henes said. Henes will be looking to reset her personal record of 4,902 that she recorded in last year’s Pacific-10 Conference Championships. In Los Angeles last month, Henes put up 4,710 points on her way to a fourth-place finish. The 1996 Pac-10 runner-up, Thomas, said she could reset her personal record of 5,280, which she set at the Pac-10 Championships last year. In Los Angeles this season, Thomas scored 5,024 points to win the competition. “I think it’s realistic that I PR, as long as every thing goes well,” Thomas said. “There’s just events that I know I haven’t performed half as well as I’ve been practicing.” The NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 5,075 is something the pair will be aiming for. The NCAA automatic qualifying mark is 5,550. “The goal would be to take another step toward the national qualifying standard,” said assistant coach Mark Stream. “Certainly they are both capa ble of hitting the provisional standard.” The field will consist of No. 1 seed Camille Jam polsky, a former Duck who will be looking to push the field. Jampolsky leads the field with a personal best of 5,561. The No. 2 seed is Portland State grad uate Robin Unger, who holds a personal best of 5,356 points. FAST FACTS ■ WHAT: Heptathlon and decathlon ■ WHEN: Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to approx imately 4:45 p.m. ■ WHERE: Hayward Field ■ OREGON’S WOMEN PARTICIPANTS: Jennifer Thomas, Tish Henes ■ OREGON’S MEN PARTICIPANTS: Paul Pappas Stream said the strength of the field will help Henes and Thomas meet the qualifying standard. “It’s a nice size field and competitive field for them to do that. The other athletes are kind of com parable in ability, and so there’s going to be some 5200, 5300 people that will help them along,” Stream said. “I think they’re rested up enough that they can re ally do justice to the competition itself, so we’re ex _ pecting good things.” Thursday’s competition will fea ture the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200-meter dash. The remaining three events for Friday will be the long jump, javelin and 800-meter run. 1 m excited about the long jump, because since the last heptathlon, I’ve PR’ed by a foot,” Henes said. Thomas and Henes said it’s important to focus on one event and concentrate on three aspects of that event at a time. "I have to force myself to think about every event separately. With only a half hour between events, I really don’t get a chance to think about what I want to do,” Thomas said. If Henes doesn’t perform up to expectations in a certain event, she tries to not let that get her down. "Just try to think each event one at a time, if you did bad in one event you can’t let that ruin your whole day,” Henes said. Indians’ pitcher acquitted of all charges in rape trial ■ RELIEVER: Jose Mesa was found innocent on several counts of sexual assault The Associated Press CLEVELAND — Cleveland In dians star pitcher Jose Mesa was acquitted today of all charges in his rape trial. Mesa, one of baseball’s top re lievers, wept and dabbed his eyes as the verdicts were read in Cuya hoga County Common Pleas Court. Family members hugged each other in the courtroom. “I was nervous but I know God was with me,” Mesa said after ward. “This is why I left every thing to God, and he finally came through.” Mesa had been charged with one count of rape, two counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of theft in complaints filed by two women. A 26-year-old woman testified that Mesa raped her bv forcing his hand into her | jeans and under pants during a ’ ride to a subur ban motel early on Dec. 22. Her friend, also 26, testified that Mesa also fondled both women in a room of the motel. Mesa was charged with rape un der an Ohio law that expands the definition to include penetration other than intercourse. Judge Thomas Curran had told the jury that it could consider the lesser charge of gross sexual impo sition as an alternative to the rape count. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about nine hours today and Tuesday be fore reaching the verdicts. Mesa, 30, had faced up to 13 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all charges. A citizen of the Domini can Republic, he also could have faced deportation hearings if con victed of any of them. The judge earlier dropped a felony assault charge. Police said they found a hand gun in Mesa’s vehicle when he was arrested Dec. 27, and he has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon, punishable by up to five years in prison. Curran said today a hearing on a defense motion to rule out some evidence in that case will be held Thursday, and jury selec tion will begin Monday. Mesa has not been with the team since the trial began. The In dians did not immediately return a telephone message seeking com ment on the acquittal. Mesa’s wife, Mirla, also cried af ter the decisions were read. “It’s been difficult, I cannot lie,” she said of the trial’s effect on their marriage. “There’s a lot of people who do worse. ... People make mistakes and you have to forgive.” After the verdicts were read, “I just kissed him and that was it,” she said. Christie Alomar, wife of Indians catcher Sandy Alomar, sat in the courtroom holding hands with Mesa’s sister-in-law, Elsa Mantil la. Both clapped and yelled as the first innocent verdict was read. The judge asked both to leave the courtroom. “I hoped this would be the ver dict, but you never know in court,” Mrs. Alomar said outside the courtroom. The jurors considered testimo ny from eight prosecution wit nesses. Defense attorney Gerald Messerman rested his case Mon day without calling anyone to the stand. In closing statements, Assistant Prosecutor Mike Nolan character ized Mesa as a “depraved” man who lured the two women to a mo tel by taking a purse and forced himself on them. Messerman said the accusers’ story was not believ able and said prosecutors targeted Mesa because he is a professional athlete. Mesa pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Ori oles before joining Cleveland in 1995 and emerging as one of base ball’s best relief pitchers. He con verted a major-league-record 46 of 48 save chances while leading the Indians to their first AL pennant since 1954. wm PLUTO subminute mm COCKEYED GHOST ALL AGES u— I APR 14 WOW HALL i ITIX AT WOW HALL & ALL TICKETMASTER 1 ^^ETTj^CHARGE^jPHONE^MI^jMAOOj ode Classifieds 34 6-4343! some things you need to know before the world ends: A Final Evening with the man in and Levi Lee ^.pril 9,10,11, 12,17,18,19 8 pm Arena Theatre . Villard Hall a second season production THEATRE UT box office 346-4191 EMU tickets 346-4363 vtsurs 2222 Centennial Blvd. • Eugene • 343-4734 START YOUR WEEKEND EVERY TffCIfi^SDfiY night. i>4<L JMnSInm... Forget i Friday's* Party!* IS AT
