Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1999)
_______ 9 U te CI ac I< amas P rint Wednesday, April 28, 1999 Photos by John Thorburn Clackamas sprinter Sarah Robertson eyes the finish line, sets herself in the starting block and explodes ahead to a victory in the 100m dash last Saturday at the annual Clackamas Open invitational meet. Cougars open floodgates, roll to records JOHNTHORBURN Sports Editor The Clackamas track and field team found out just how good it really is this past weekend. After back-to-back weeks of competition against Southern Region frontrunner Mt. Hood Community College, the Cougars got a break from the Saints to take on all comers at the annual Clackamas Open invitational meet. The result was unbelievable. Facing competitors from the University of Oregon, Clark College, Lane Community Col lege and other state schools that have elite track programs, Clackamas literally blew by ev eryone, setting nearly 20 per sonal records and entering doz ens of new qualifying marks into the Northwest Athletic As sociation of Community Col leges [NWAACC] champion ships. In women's competition, Sarah Robertson continued her assault on the Northwest in the sprint events. She improved her time in the 200m dash to 26.7 seconds to move into the #4 spot in the conference. Robertson, currently sitting at #2 in the 100m dash, won the event in 13.2 seconds. Michaela Foeller im proved her personal best time in the 200m by almost one second to 27.5. She finished fifth in the event. Foeller also improved her personal best mark in the long jump by one foot. Her leap of 15'1/ 2" was good for sixth place. Stephanie Costanza placed second [5:05.0] in the 1,500m and third [11:03.08] in the 3,000m race to lead Clackamas. "Stephanie had a great day," noted Clackamas Head Coach Jack Kegg. "Her 1,500 and her 3,000 are her fastest times she has ran this year. Both times are confer ence qualifiers so that was a re ally good double. "Lorna Defreest had a great day. Her shot put [39' 9 1/4"] put her on our Top 10 list for all-time. That's a personal record for her. She also made the Top 10 list in the hammer throw [131* 6"]. All six of her throws in that event were better than her old personal record." In the javelin, the top three competi tors from the NWAACC were on hand to try and better the other in what is turning out to be a see-saw battle for the top throw. Trina Rogers set the new standard this season in the Northwest with her per sonal best throw of 148' 10" for the event win ner. Jennifer Gardner took second at 143' 1" while Clark's Karisa Makaiwi, currently at #3 in the conference, fin ished fourth behind an unat tached competitor from the Uni versity of Oregon. In the men's competition, the 800m run highlighted the after noon as three of the five Clacka mas competitors recorded per sonal records. "We had an incredible day in the 800," noted Kegg. "That was probably our best event the en tire day." Erik Anderson [1:56.25], David Lee [1:56.98] and Ken Wood [1:58.7] each improved their per sonal bests while Jason Fryberg remained steady in the #6 spot in the NWAACC. Anderson sits as the #2 run ner in the Northwest in the 800 while Lee moved to #3. Wood qualified as the #8 spot for the NWAACC championships. Anderson also is at #2 in the 400m intermediate hurdles. He won the event in 54.36 sec onds. "Erik ran the toughest double that you can run in track and field," said Kegg. "He ran a personal best time in the 800 then the next event is the intermediate hurdles and he qualifies as the #2 competitor in each of those events. No body else does that. Those other two guys that are ahead of him ran those events fresh." In the 1,500m run, Fryberg, Paul Kezes and Ahrlin Bauman finished 1,2,3 with Fryberg and Kezes recording personal records. Bauman is #3 in the NWAACC, while Fryberg and Kezes moved into the 4, 5 spots. "Alex Mametiev recorded a personal best in the 5,000m run and with the heat the way it was on Saturday, that was very good," added Kegg. Corey Loebl qualified for the conference championships with a personal best throw of 135' 8" in the discus. Brian Rohrer, one of the college's most diverse athletes as a decathlete, recorded per sonal bests in the 110m high hurdles [16.8] and the pole vault [16' 1"]. "Brian moved up on our Top 10 list in the pole vault," noted Kegg, "and that mark and Trina's [Rogers] javelin throw are both qualifiers for the U.S. Junior Na tional Championships. That's pretty significant. "It was an awesome day for us. We entered a total of 38 new qualifying standards into the NWAACC meet. We had great competition in the meet and we had great weather. Competing at home always plays a factor in how well you do but we've shown the conference that we're a tough squad." Portland talented but lacks playoff maturity The Portland Trailblazers took a small step into a bigger pond on Monday night. By wrapping up the fourth Pa cific Division title in team history against the Denver Nug gets on Mon day, the Blaz ers secured at least the num ber two seed in the Western con ference for the playoffs Now only one goal remains to be accomplished by the Blazers in the regular season—catch the Utah Jazz. Portland is one game behind the Jazz for best record in the NBA, and must have a better record at season’s end in order to clinch home court advantage throughout the playoffs. In the big picture, this would be a bigger step towards the ultimate goal of winning the Western Con ference title than just winning the division would. Don’t get me wrong; give the Blazers their due. They have worked hard all season long and winning the division is the payoff for their work. But the Blazers put these regu lar season honors in perspective and remember that these accom plishments are just a step to wards their ultimate goal of a championship, if they are to ac complish it. Far too often in the past, the Blaz ers have been content with just making the playoffs, which has lead to a string of first round flame out’s. But this team has developed the team maturity and an understand ing of each other that the pervious Blazers squads lacked. It seems every game, a different player steps up to lead thè team. Portland’s advantage over the op position is their team depth. This is a squad that has quality players 12 men deep. They can match up with any team in the league. But there is an element of matu rity the play of the veteran cham pionship teams have that the Blaz ers lack. The veteran teams, like Utah and Houston, have constant ball move ment on the court. But Portland’s play, as of late, has been dead, full of about as much ball movement as a Douglas fur tree. Portland’s offense has relied more on one on one jumpshots and points off rebounding lately, in stead of the constant team move ment they had on offense when they beat Utah and Houston ear lier in the season. Portland seems to be playing like a team that is content with them selves lately, an attitude that won’t get them too far in the playoffs. At home, however, these prob lems seem to disappear. The Blaz ers feed off the crowd, playing with a level of intensity above what they display on the road. This point is shown in the fact that [exculding the loss to the Clip pers on April 11] Portland has only one loss at home [to Utah on March 12]. If the Blazers can draw home court advantage for the playoffs, their chances of winning the West ern conference go up by a consid erable margin. 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