Pallakis, Pederson Break School Records At Invites

Washington State University senior Christos Pallakis set a school record Saturday with an 18 foot, 5 inch leap in the pole vault to finish second behind Fresno State’s David Cox at the Bill Cosby Indoor Invitational in the University of Nevada Event Center, in Reno, Nev.

Cox also vaulted 18-5, but claimed first place on fewer attempts.

Pallakis broke his own pole vault record of 18-4 1/2 set in Athens, Greece, last month. That vault was also a Greece indoor record.

Teammate Eric Anderson ran an NCAA Indoor Championships provisional qualifying time of 1:50.25 to win the 800 meters race.

WSU was competing with a split team. The other half was competing at the Human Race Invitational Indoor Track and Field Meet at the Thorpe Fieldhouse in Cheney, where several Cougars posted victories, including former Mead High School standout, Jason Baskett, who won the shot put with a throw of 53-6 1/2.

Idaho recorded five individual event championships at Cheney, including a 1-2-3 sweep in the men’s 55-meter dash.

Niels Kruller ran 6.53 leading the Vandals in the 55, followed by Jason St. Hill and Felix Kamangirira.

Chris Kwaramba, a freshman in his first event, won the triple jump with a mark of 49-1 to eclipse the Big Sky qualifying mark by more than two feet.

Eastern sprinter Joyce Rainwater, a senior who has won six Big Sky Conference titles, captured the women’s 55 with a time of 7.15 seconds and took the 400 with a season-best of 58.63.

Dawn Pederson set an Eastern school record while winning the 800 with a time of 2:20.47.

Baseball

At Long Beach, Calif., Jeff Lieper drove home four runs, including three with a bases-loaded double as the Long Beach State 49ers kept visiting Washington State winless for the new season, posting a 6-4 win before 757 fans at Blair Field.

Kyle Kawabata (0-1) went the distance for WSU (0-3), giving up 10 hits while walking five and striking out two. Marcus Jones (1-0) got the win for LBSU (2-0),