Thomas’ PR puts Oregon on Pac-10 scoreboard early
■ HEPTATHLON:
Jennifer Thomas
finished second
and Tish Henes
sixth to score
early Pac-10
points for Oregon
By Ben Kwasney
Sports Reporter
The Oregon women’s track and field
team has a head start going into the Pacific
10 Conference meet next week thanks to
the heptathlon performances of Jennifer
Thomas and Tish Henes.
Thomas finished second with a new life
time best of 5,347 points, and Henes was
sixth with 4,863 at the Pac-10 heptathlon
championships Saturday and Sunday in
Seattle.
Tracye Lawyer of Stanford won the com
petition with 5,663 points.
A second-day effort of 2,279 points
moved Thomas from third place after the
first day to second after Sunday. On Sun
day, Thomas claimed wins in the long
jump and javelin before placing sixth in the
800-meter run.
“It was a really solid performance, I had
prettv good marks across the board.”
Thomas said. “There’s
still lots of room for im
provement.”
A strong headwind in
the 100-meter hurdles
hampered scoring in the
first day of the event. Ore
gon assistant coach Mark Stream said. Both
Henes and Thomas were over the 15-sec -
ond mark, which could have cost them
more than 100 points each.
Stream said he was impressed with the
way Thomas came back strong in the sec
ond day.
“I think she responded admirably and
had a really good day today,” Stream said.
The 800 has been difficult for Thomas in
past heptathlons, but she recorded a per
sonal best 2:28.31 Sunday to move closer to
where Stream would like to see her finish.
“She’s actually kind of stair-stepping her
way up to the 800,” Stream said.
Thomas’ performance ranks 12th on the
NCAA list this season and should assure
her a return trip to the NCAA meet, where
she finished 17th as a sophomore in 1996.
Thomas’ previous best came at last year’s
Pac-10 meet, where she scored 5,280.
Improvements in the Day 1 events of the
shot put, high jump and 200 will make
Thomas’ first day “more potent” Stream
Turn to HEPTATHLON, Page 16
THOMAS
UO’s Pappas
places fourth
at Pac-1 Os
■ DECATHLON: California’s Ross
Bomben took first in six events to win
the Pac-10 championship
By Alex Pond
Sports Reporter
Paul Pappas kicked off the Pacific-10
Conference Championships for the Oregon
men’s track and field team with a fourth
place finish in the decathlon over the
weekend.
Pappas finished the multi-events com
petition, held in Seattle, with 6,798 points,
while California’s Ross Bomben ran away
from the field for a first-place finish.
Bomben, the runner-up at last season’s
NCAA Championships, compiled 7,553
points while winning six of the ten events.
Going into the second day of competi
tion on Sunday, Bomben held just a 50
point lead over Arizona’s
Dominic Johnson.
But victories by
Bomben in the 110-meter
hurdles, the discus and
the javelin allowed him
to widen the lead and
eventually hold on for the victory.
Johnson placed second with 7,340
points, followed by Bomben’s teammate at
California, Bevan Hart.
Pappas was in fifth place heading into
the final day but used strong performances
in the pole vault and 110 hurdles to sur
pass California’s Cameron Cleeton and
take control of fourth place.
Pappas finished third in the hurdles
with a time of 15.29 seconds and was also
third in the pole vault by clearing 15-5.
On Day 1 of the meet, Pappas’ top show
ing was a fourth-place finish in the shot
put with a toss of 39-0 1/2.
The high jump has typically been one of
Pappas’ better events, but the senior strug
gled with the event Saturday, only able to
clear 6-0 1/2. His season best in that event
is 6-4 1/2.
Pappas’ total this weekend was well off
his personal best of 7,303 points, set in the
Western Oregon Decathlon last month.
However, that mark was good enough
for an NCAA provisional qualifying mark
and may be enough to get him into the
NCAA Championships. He was ranked
16th heading into the weekend.
MARK McTYRE/Emerald
Marie Davis and Kaarin Knudson paced their way to season best
marks in the 1,500-meter run at Saturday’s Oregon Twilight meet.
Women: Peters runs
nation’s fastest 5,000
■ Continued from Page 11
son need to be challenged.
“Now they need to have
people to race, people in
other uniforms,” Heinonen
said.
The Ducks had some sol
id performances from the
javelin duo of Katie
Pearmine and Karis Howell.
Pearmine threw over the
150-foot mark for the sec
ond consecutive week, and
Heinonen said she is re
asserting herself in the
event. Howell stayed con
sistent with a 152-8 throw.
Robyn Sutherland ran a
2:10.43 personal best in the
800-meter run, behind
teammate Vicky Fleschner
and Oregon International’s
Gina DeWitt, who finished
in 2:08.85 and 2:09.77, re
spectively.
Oregon picked up anoth
er Pac-10 qualifying mark in
the 5,000-meter run as
Heather McMahon ran a
17:19.71. Her teammate Liz
Howell, who was already
qualified in the event, ran a
personal best 17:24.65 to
finish behind McMahon in
the packed field of 28.
The Hayward Field
crowd was treated to the
fastest women’s 5,000-me
ter run in the United States
this year when Olympian
Annette Peters clocked a
15:32.04.
Peters said the race at na
tionals is what really
counts, but the race Satur
day was a confidence boost
er.
“I’ve been in that situa
tion before and it really
doesn’t mean a whole lot
because you get to nation
als, and it’s such a tactical
race,” Peters said.
“It gives me confidence
and that’s what I really need
right now, so it’s an impor
tant race for me.”
The 200-meter dash was
forecasted as an opportuni
ty for Sue Morris and Aisha
Wallace to earn Pac-10
qualifying marks, but nei
ther were under the 24.64
second qualifying standard.
Wallace finished in
25.28, while Morris was
right behind her with a
25.38.
“I was surprised the 200
didn’t go faster,” Heinonen
said. “It seemed everything
was ready for Aisha and
Sue to really run fast, but it
was maybe too early in the
meet to really get stirred
Men: Johnson earns Pac-10 qualifyinq mark in 200
■ Continued from Page 11
Bleakney’s reaction. “Track needs a little
charisma to it, and he certainly got the
crowd into it.”
While Bleakney and Buciarski high
lighted the meet, there were several other
strong performances.
Competing for Nike, former Olympian
and NCAA champion Mark Davis won
the steeplechase in a time of 8 minutes,
42.82 seconds.
The quick field helped pull Oregon’s
Micah Davis to a career best 8:48.23, good
enough for fourth place. Davis’ time will
also move him up on the NCAA provi
sional list.
“I’m happy today, as far as being com
petitive with the top runners in the na
tion,” he said.
In the 200-meter dash, Oregon’s Nat
Johnson raced to victory with a career best
21.57,aPac-10 qualifying mark.
“I was really happy with it,” Johnson
said. “I think the fact that I only had two
events today helped.
Will Driessen and Quincy Ruffin also
achieved personal bests in the 200.
It was a successful day for Ruffin who
ran a personal best of 14.54 in the 110-me
ter hurdles, which placed him second be
hind teammate Darrell Bushnell’s 14.51.
Ryan Cole continued his late-season
surge in the discus with a career best of
179 feet, just 1 1/2 feet off the NCAA pro
visional mark.
In the shot put, senior Dusty Carlson
picked up the victory with a throw of 54
11 in his final meet at Hayward Field.
Chris Nelson also concluded his Hay
ward career as an Oregon athlete with an
other of many victories in the high jump,
this time clearing 7-0 1/2.
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