Anderson Steps Up, Grabs 800 Win

When he needed it the most, Eric Anderson found something he described as “a whole nother gear.”

And it took him to a whole nother level, as the Washington State junior clicked off a 1:47.38 time to capture the Pacific-10 Conference title in the 800 meters.

It improved his personal best by more than a second and a half, and showed that he not only has considerable speed, but a great deal of toughness as well.

“Everything I wanted to happen in this race happened,” Anderson said. “I was hoping Vondre (Armour of Arizona State) would take it out and he did, and I just fit in right behind him.”

But Armour held a stride lead at the head of the homestretch. From that point, though, Anderson, from from Prosser, Wash., simply overpowered Armour and finished in an NCAA automatic-qualifying time - the sixth-fastest ever by a Cougar at that distance.

While Anderson’s race went as planned, other events did not for WSU during the two-day meet. The men placed fifth with 68 points, and the women ninth with 15.

UCLA won the men’s title for the fourth straight year, while the Bruin women took the title for the third consecutive time.

WSU’s men’s team saw a rash of hamstring injuries drain potential points. Friday, hurdler and relayman Dominique Arnold pulled up lame, while sprinter Frank Madu pulled up with a bad hammy in the 400 relay. Madu had been a qualifier for the 100 finals, but had to pass because of the injury.

On the upside, though, the Cougar men got 16 points in the high jump as Jed Stannard took second (7-0 1/2) and sophomores Chris Mosley and Peter Buckley took fourth and sixth.

Mosley came back for a third in the triple jump (49-2 1/2), Jody Page matched his best time for a third in the high hurdles, and senior Jim Carkner had an out-of-body experience placing sixth in the 400. The 1,600 relay, meanwhile, took fourth in a stunning field.

“Not bad,” Cougar men’s coach Rick Sloan said. “That’s where I was hoping we’d finish, so with all that happened, that was pretty good. Now we start building for next year.”

Highlighting the efforts by the Cougar women was a fifth-place finish by freshman Tamika Brown in a strong field in the 200. Brown, the only freshman in the finals, also ran a leg on the 400 relay in which the Cougar women placed sixth.

“Tamika really held her own in very good competition,” said WSU women’s coach Rob Cassleman. “That’s going to be a good spot for us in the future.”

So will the 800 for the men, as Anderson has another year remaining. The only problem is, he’ll have to set higher goals next time around.

“All season, I’ve been able to sit on whoever has the lead and maintain my form,” Anderson said. “I felt so smooth tonight, with 300 to go, (Armour) picked it up and I got relaxed and then with about 100 to go, I found a whole nother gear.”

The Pac-10 title, Anderson said, was the lone target for the year.

Stannard shared that goal, but for the second year in a row, had to settle for second place in the high jump.

“I wasn’t looking for any particular height to clear, I just wanted the Pac-10 championship,” Stannard said. “It’s been a weird season, though, I hadn’t jumped 7-0 1/2 since February and I had a month there when I was jumping just 6-9.”

Stannard, already in grad school, was taking 17 credits this semester. “That made it hard, but I pulled a 3.6, so that was good. I’m not going to go anywhere to pout, I’m happy with what I’ve done.”

The surprise winner in the high jump was UCLA freshman Rich Pitchford, who cleared 7-2 1/2.

Carkner, who came to WSU as a walk-on, improved his PR by nearly a second to take sixth in the 400 meters in 46.95.

“I came to Wazzu and walked on and just hoped to make myself useful and score a few points for the team,” the senior said. “This was the last track meet of my life, so there were no fears and no holding back.”

Other local products scored well as Matt Davis, an Oregon freshman from Mead High, took fifth in the 5,000 after placing second in the 10,000 Friday. Washington’s Emily Johnson, a University High grad, took sixth in the women’s 1,500.

UCLA’s John Godina set another Pac-10 record, winning the discus at 211-9. Godina has won both the shot put and discus the past three years - becoming the first athlete to do so in those events.