______ li
WedNEsdAy, M ay 10, 2000
TI h E ClAckAMAS P rìnt
Softball
squad
takes
one' ■ nil
from
LCC
Lernen: Next goal
is to qualify for
Olympic Trials
Continued from page 1
coach," noted Kegg. "I haven't
been able to find another one like
him. He's going to be a tough act
to follow."
"I didn't really put up huge
marks like a lot of the kids out of
Texas and California," said
Lemen. "So, I was kind of head
ing nowhere fast. 1 was recruited
for football and volleyball but
what colleges do is offer more
money than they actually have.
When it came time to sign, there
was no money available so there
was really nowhere to go."
That was when Jackson High
Head Coach Eric Hrushka, a
former coach and athlete at
Clackamas, introduced Lemen to
Kegg. The rest, as they say, is
history.
Months before his first season
as a Cougar in 1997, Lemen broke
a vertebrate in his back after
crashing hard to the worn pads
during an indoor pole vaulting
practice in Randall Gymnasium.
"It was kind of hectic for a
while," said Lemen. "I didn't real
ize it was as serious as-it was. I
thought it was just a minor in
jury. Then when 1 found out that
| 1 had actually broken a verte
brate, I thought I was done."
Lemen wasn't done by any
means. Later that spring, he won
the NWAACC title in the pole
vault as well as the decathlon.
In his second year at Clacka
mas, he redshirted after having
surgery done to repair scar tis
sue from the ankle he broke in
high school.
"I ended up taking last season
off because of that surgery,"
added Lemen. "ft wound up be-
. ing'a good choice for me because
it opened up a lot more opportu
nities for me to develop and get
better with another year of train
ing. ft opened up a lot of scholar
ship offers."
Coach Kegg feels that the only
thing that will stop Lemen is an
other injury.
"[If you ask me] what are his
limits?" said Kegg. "I haven't
seen any yet. I don't think that
David Lemen has any limits."
Winning his third title and sec
ond decathlon has opened count
less doors for the future.
Lemen not only toppled
Pappas' national junior college
record and O'Brien's NWAACC
Championship.
Tim Bright, a three-time Olym
pian in the 60s, was the Southern
Region record holder. Lemen now
holds that record as well.
As for scholarships, he has al
ready signed his letter-of-intent
to compete for the University of
Georgia next year.
"[Georgia] has offered me an
80% scholarship," noted Lemen.
"After they see that I've broken
those records, I'm hoping that
they'll bump that up to a full
scholarship so I don't have to
work this summer to pay for
school."
Breaking records, receiving
scholarships and national recog
nition, Lemen has not strayed
from his humble demeanor.
"If it wasn't for the other ath
letes and coaches on the team,"
said Lemen, "I wouldn't have
been able to reach these goals.
If it weren't for people around me
pushing me, doing the hard work
outs with me, making me become
that much better, I wouldn't have
had as much success. Everyone
who has been a part, ever since
high school, my parents, people
at the church, has been a big part
of what has gone on as far as my
success. Without any of them, I
don't think it would have all been
possible."
In the Olympics, the gold med
alist in the decathlon is said to
be the greatest athlete in the
world.
Keeping with that thinking,
Lemen could be considered to be
the greatest junior college ath
lete in history.
"I've heard people call me
that," said Lemen. "Forme, it's
kind of like a stepping stone.
It's one rung on the ladder. For
me, the ultimate goal since 1
started doing the decathlon
was to be the first decathlete
to score over 9000 points. The
world record is around 8900. To
be the first person to set 9000
and to do that in Athens,
Greece in four years, where the
original Olympics took place,
would be the ultimate goal and
the ultimate closure to the
greatest track career imagin
able."
Lemen doesn't have any
plans to rest in the near future.
Competing against relatively
weak competition at the
NWAACC Championships, he
plans to attend a meet in the
early summer against sopie of
the top college athletes to try
and qualify for the Olympic Tri
als. Scoring 7532 against a weak
crowd, Lemen hopes to score
7700-7800 points when pushed
by competitors.
"We're going to try and find a
meet where there's more competi
tion to where I can score 7700,
possibly 7800," added Lemen. "If
1 can do that, I'll be right up there
in the top ten to go to Trials. If 1
make the Trials, 1'11 go compete with
the mindset of watching the top
athletes in the nation compete and
see how they strategize and what
they do during the competition that
will make them peak and perform
to the best of their ability. I'd be
there right next to Pappas,
O'Brien—all those boys."
Vanessa Applegate, one
of the smallest players
on the team, is weilding a
big bat with a .362
average and .466
slugging percentage.
JOHN THORBURN / Clackamas Print
nings before faltering in the extra bat, Rowley took off for home.
Velke picked up the ball and fired
frame.
Editor-in-Chief
it home.
At the start of the game, Clacka
Rowley and LCC's catcher col
The Clackamas softball team has mas had a scare as a Red Devil bat
lided and the game was over.
earned itself a two-week break be ter unleashed a shot that hit
The Red Devil dropped the ball
Warthen on the inside of her left
fore traveling to Spokane to com
pete in this year’s conference cham knee. The veteran right-hander allowing Rowley to score the win
ning run.
crumpled to the dirt in pain.
pionship tournament.
"It was a huge collision," added
“As soon as we saw it happen,”
It did so winning five of six games,
Fiskum. "I'm glad that it wasn't a play
noted Fiskum, “we thought she was
including a win over top-ranked
done for the day. We started having that was left up to the umpire to call.
Lower Columbia, last week.
She dropped the ball, we won the
Last Tuesday, the Cougars swept Borde warm up but Mel walked [the
pain] off. ft was game."
Grays Harbor at
The end of the game marked the
a bad bruise but
home in 6-2 and 8-
she toughed it end of the Cougars' home schedule.
0 victories.
"It's a pretty nice way to close out
out and pitched
In the first game,
It's a pretty nice
a career playing at Clackamas,"
an incredible
Sophomore
way to close
a
noted Fiskum, refering to Rowley's
game.”
Melanie Warthen
In the second
scramble to home.
picked up her 16lh
career playing at
On Saturday, Clackamas drove
game, Borde
win of the season,
took the reins as three hours to Des Moines, Wash,
tying her for the
Paul Fiskum
the converted to take on Highline.
lead in career wins
Head Coach
The Thunderbirds, who knocked
pitcher, who was
at Clackamas with
recruited as an
Clackamas out of last year's
33.
outfielder, NWAACC tournament, were al
Sophomore Jes
pitched
her ready out of playoff contention.
sica Farnsworth,
"Any time you have to play a team
squad to a 5-4 victory.
who jumped into the team lead in
With the score tied 4-4 heading that doesn't have anything to lose,"
hitting last week, laid down two
said Fiskum, "it's always going to
into the bottom of the seventh in
bunts that led to two hits in a 2-for-
ning, Jessica Rowley stepped to the be a battle."
4 performance. She is hitting .386 on
In thefirstgame,Warthen brokethe
plate. She led off the inning with a
the season.
In the second game, Melissa shot back at Velke that the defense career win record with her 34th victory
as a Cougar and 17th this spring as
Borde pitched a three-hitter and Julia had no chance to rebound from and
she paced her squad to a 5-3 win.
Rowley was aboard with no out.
Driggers hit a bases loaded double
Driggers then sacrificed Rowley to
Farnsworth continued her hot per
off the fence to lead Clackamas.
formance at the plate as she went 3-
On Friday, Misty Velke and the second. Farnsworth then earned a walk
for-4 and scored twice with one RBI.
Red Devils traveled from Lower Co to put two on for die Cougars.
Next, Kirsten Richards hit a slow
Borde retired 21 of 27 batters as
lumbia as the #1 team in the North
Clackamas won file nightcap 8-2. Her
west and the #4 Cougars went head roller to the shortstop that then
flipped to third to try and tag out an
ERA is now at 1.94.
to head.
Sue Johnson led a balanced offen
In the first game, Velke pitched a advancing Rowley from second.
“Jessica made a really aggressive sive attack going 4-for-4 with an RBI.
no-hitter as the Devils won 5-0 in
move,” said Fiskum. “She just took
The Cougars, who captured the
eight innings.
second spot in the Southwestern
“She’s an amazing pitcher,” said off and slid under the tag.”
With runners at each comer with
Region, are guaranteed a berth into
Clackamas Head Coach Paul
Fiskum. “I didn’t realize that she had only one out, the Devils called a the May 20-21 championship tour
nament in Spokane.
thrown a no-hitter until I looked at timeout, then decided to intention
While Fiskum's squad is idle over
the scoresheets after the game, ft ally walk Jessica Farnsworth.
Melissa Cedillo then stepped to
the next week and a half, the third
didn’t feel like she dominated as
through sixth place squads will play
much as she has in the past. We were the plate.
On the firts pitch, Cedillo laid down
off for the final two berths into the
taking a lot of good cuts at the plate.”
tournament.
Velke was one walk off of a per
a bunt that rolled to the pitcher.
"Melissa did exactly what we
The last time the Cougars played
fect game.
a tournament in Spokane, they won
Warthen, on the mound for the needed her to do," said Fiskum.
When the ball went off of Cedillo's an NWAACC title.
Cougars, pitched seven shutout in
JOHN THORBURN
out
Clackamas.