Eitel, Marakurwa win steeplechase

Jan Eitel and Letiwe Marakurwa repeated as steeplechase champions Friday to get the University of Idaho Vandals off to a hot start at the Big West Conference track and field championships in Irvine, Calif.

Eitel, a senior from Germany, won his third Big West title in the 3,000-meter event, clocking 8 minutes, 59.25 seconds to beat Luke Llamas of Cal Poly by more than six seconds, with teammate Brandon Reiff third. It was the fourth time in the last five years that Idaho has produced the conference men’s steeple champ.

Marakurwa, a senior from Zimbabwe, and teammates Tania Vander Meulen and Bevan Kennelly finished 1-2-5 in the women’s race, Marakurwa lowering her own meet record to 10:24.72. But she was upset trying to double back and win a second straight crown in the 10,000 meters, finishing three seconds behind winner Cosette Smith of UC Santa Barbara in 36:25.96.

Still, the distance races saw a 34-point pickup for the Vandal women, who are attempting to defend their 2003 team title. They hold a 59-48 lead over Cal Poly going into today’s final session.

The women also picked up big points and another champion in the discus, where newcomer Ina Reiber topped the field with a throw of 181 feet, 8 inches, while teammate Katie Tuttle was fourth.

The Vandal men got off to a good start Thursday when Jereme Richardson led a 1-3-4 Idaho finish in the decathlon. That, the steeple points and a strong runner-up performance in the discus from freshman Russ Winger (171 feet), left Idaho second to Cal State Northridge by a 55-45 count.

• Zach Guydish picked the perfect time to get off the best throw of his life.

The Eastern Washington University junior uncorked a heave of 216-11 to win the men’s javelin title at the Big Sky Conference championships in Ogden, Utah. Guydish, upping his lifetime best by more than four feet, was a seven-inch winner over Montana’s Dane Brubaker.

The Eagles, with 29.5 points, stand sixth heading into today’s final action, as Weber State holds the top spot with a 77-65 lead over Montana State. Northern Arizona tops the women’s standings with 67 points — 20 ahead of the host Wildcats — with Eastern last with just five points.

Branden Fuller came up short in his bid for a Big Sky title in the steeplechase, finishing second to Weber’s Ken Richardson in a time of 9:04.76. Justin Drake (23-71/2) and Geoff Penrod (23-1/2) got off lifetime bests in the long jump, but finished sixth and seventh in a tough competition.

In the prelims, EWU junior Alex Moon ran a lifetime-best 51.47 to lead all qualifiers in the 400 hurdles. Haley Heater advanced in both the women’s 400 and 400 hurdles with runs of 57.36 and 1:02.67. In all 13, Eagles posted career best marks.

• Just when the Washington State Cougars think they’ve seen the worst of their woes this track season, along comes another body blow.

Cougars standout Matt Mason — a threat to win the high hurdles and the long jump at the Pacific-10 Conference meet in Tucson, Ariz. — pulled up with an injury in his heat of the hurdles and wound up scratching out of the long jump, the lowlight of a mostly disappointing day. WSU’s women stood in sixth place going into today’s final action with 29.5 points, but the men had just 11 points for ninth place — and were in danger of scoring their fewest points in 32 years.

A couple of third-place finishes were the bright spots for the Cougs. Curt Borland continued his hot javelin throwing and bombed a lifetime-best 222-0 to snag third place, while Robin Mikesh led a 3-5-8 finish for the Cougar women in the high jump with a 5-8 clearance.

In the women’s javelin, Jenna Dean and Rachel Bertholf got off their best throws of the season – Dean a lifetime-best 153-6 — to finish fifth and sixth, while shot putter Tim Gehring took fifth with a 61-101/4 heave.

The results were just as mixed in the preliminaries. Anthony Buchanan led all qualifiers in the men’s 100 with a swift 10.30 clocking, but only he, James McSwain (100 and 200) and Barry Leavitt (lifetime bests of 14.52 and 51.97 in both hurdles races) survived the heats. On the women’s side, Angelita Green ran a season-best 2:09.60 in the 800, but she and intermediate hurdler Monique Jessie were the only Cougs to advance.

Arizona State holds a 56-55 lead over Stanford in the women’s competition, while Oregon tops the men’s standings.