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.
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