Boothby Hammers Nwaacc Record; He’s Not Impressed

College track

Scott Boothby, you’ve just demolished the NWAACC hammer throw record by 18 feet with a heave of 186-1.

You must be elated, right?

Doing cartwheels, phoning home with the news, planning the trip to Disneyland?

“Actually, this is 16 feet short of my PR and I came in wanting to beat the national record of 212-1,” said Boothby, a sophomore from Clark Community College.

During one of those if-you-don’t-likethe-weather-just-wait-5-minutes days at Spokane Falls CC, Boothby’s Thursday performance clearly stood out.

Finals will continue today with field events getting under way at noon and running events at 12:30.

In a way, Boothby can be excused for his casual response to his recordbreaking effort. He has a 202-10 mark to his credit this season.

But his recent background makes his achievement all the more remarkable. Boothby has thrown the hammer for less than two years.

And he is doing so with metal rods in his back that stabilize a ruptured disc.

Coming out of high school in Vancouver, Wash., Boothby walked onto the football team at Washington State.

After his back injury - suffered while trying to kick a football - his athletic future was in grave doubt.

He could not walk for three months following surgery, and he lost 70 of his 280 pounds.

His faith, he said, helped him through the ordeal.

He admits, though, that having his eye on the national record took his focus away from his technique.

“I think I was so worried about distance that I never really got into my throwing rhythm,” Boothby said.

Boothby, the one-time walk-on, is mulling scholarship offers from fouryear schools.

He also took third in the discus, which was won by defending champ Jerome Herring with a toss of 152-3.

Two athletes - Justin Thompson of Lane and Craig Connors of Clackamas - threatened the meet record of 16-5 in the pole vault.

Both cleared 16-0 and took three whacks at 16-6, but failed. Thompson made all preceding heights on his first attempt to take the win on fewer misses.

But Thompson was rushed on his final tries. Entered in the second heat of the high hurdles, Thompson saw the first heat being run while he was making his attempts at 16-6.

“I kinda whipped through it pretty quick,” Thompson said of his haste to finish and get over to the starting line.

Clark (55.5 points) and Lane (52.5) are having a tight battle in the men’s meet, with Community Colleges of Spokane at fourth with 13 points. In the women’s meet, Mt. Hood leads with 59 points and CCS in fourth with 22.

In other developments Thursday, Clark swept the first four places in the men’s 10,000 meters, and Tom Pappas of Lane won the long jump with a 23-7 leap. He already won the conference decathlon championship and is the favorite in today’s high jump.

In a remarkably tight women’s high jump competition, the top seven women all cleared 5-0.

NAIA nationals

In Azusa, Calif., Whitworth’s Kevin Wright stands in sixth place after the first day of decathlon competition.

Wright was ranked eighth going into the meet, but is 130 points off the pace he was on to set the NCIC decathlon record.

Wright set PRs in four of the five events to total 3,560.

Perhaps surprisingly, teammate Dan Kepper, ranked 14th coming into the meet, stands in eighth place with 3,298 points.