Lane, Clark Match Championships

College track

Not much new at the Deja Vu Track and Field Championships at Spokane Falls CC Friday.

Call it the NWAACC conference meet if you wish, but it certainly looked familiar as the Lane women dominated again and Clark again easily won the men’s team title.

Lane’s Nicole Barrote took part in five victories last year. She matched it in stunning fashion this time around.

Clark’s distance ace Ernie Ammons won two last year. This time, well, he captured three distance titles while barely breaking a sweat.

But if there was anything this two-day meet proved, aside from the static quality of the powerhouses, was the value of versatility.

Especially considering the athletes who earned high-point honors.

On the women’s side, Mt. Hood freshman Charity Cornwell scored 45 points, winning the heptathlon contested earlier, and then adding victories Friday in the 800 and 1,500, along with participating in the second-place 1,600 relay. Thursday, she took second in the high jump and third in the long jump.

“I didn’t get the times I expected to get, but I placed really well and that’s what is important in a meet like this, competing and placing and scoring points,” Cornwell said.The high-point athlete in the

men’s meet was not Ammons, nor Lane’s Tom Pappas, who won three events, but Clark’s Sonte Wong, who took second in the triple jump, third in the long jump, third in the high hurdles, third in the 100, fifth in the 200 and ran a leg in the winning 400 relay team.

Barrote, having already accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Oregon, won both hurdles and the open 400 while running legs on both winning relays.

A pair of her Lane teammates dramatically dominated the sprints.

In the women’s 100, Jackie Hunter and Taryn Tarver almost miraculously finished in a conferencerecord-breaking dead heat, both clocking electronic 12.00s.

Tarver’s performance defied odds, considering she’s running with a broken bone in her foot that requires surgery on Tuesday.

“I haven’t practiced for six weeks,” the freshman said. But she hasn’t been inactive. She had a baby last year, got married two weeks ago, and carries a 3.6 grade-point average, she reported.

The men’s 100 was equally theatric as Randy Townsend of Community Colleges of Spokane nipped Clark’s Lamar Robinson by a hair. Both finished with 10.61 clockings, but Townsend was given the victory.

The time broke a 20-year-old record of 10.4 (hand-timed) that converted to 10.64 electronic.

“(Robinson) made it very interesting,” said Townsend, who also won the 200 and ran a leg on CCS’s winning 1,600 relay team. “I wanted some better times, but right now, I’m aiming at the national meet June 10 in Chicago.”

Ammons’ triple is toughest in distance competition - the 3,000-meter steeplechase, the 5,000 and the 10,000.

“I came in pretty much thinking of only a double in the steeple and the 10,000, so winning the 5,000 was just a bonus,” said Ammons, who seemed remarkably fresh after his third win. “Actually, it wasn’t all that taxing.”

CCS, the host school, took fourth in the men’s meet with 82 points. The women were seventh with 32.

NAIA nationals

Whitworth’s Kevin Wright finished sixth in the decathlon with 6,700 points at Azusa, Calif., 310 points better than his personal best. He set personal records in seven of the 10 events. Teammate Dan Kepper finished 11th with 6,215 points.

Trina Gumm of Colville was eighth in discus at 131-11.