Big Sky bust to boom

There are good days and bad days, and sometimes they’re the same day.

For Eastern Washington thrower David Paul, that was Saturday. Sorrier than a dog with an empty stomach and an empty dish in the morning, but better – much, much better – come day’s end. From bust to Big Sky Conference champion.

But you can find these sorts of redemptive stories at every pit, ring and finish line at a track meet, which is pretty much how it played as the Big Skys concluded their four-day run at Woodward Field – although there was a lot of same old, same old, too.

Weber State’s men rolled to their seventh title in nine years with a point total – 172 – that only the Wildcats themselves have ever exceeded. And Northern Arizona’s women completed the triple crown of cross country, indoor track and outdoor crowns for the fourth time in their history, the only school to do so.

But even the routine could reek of anxiety. Take Weber’s Wiley King, who with wins in the high hurdles and 100 meters became the Big Sky’s all-time leading point scorer with 109 1/2.

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” said King. “This whole season I’ve just felt jinxed. I came off my redshirt year and there’s a whole lot of fresh competitors and I’ve been taking my lumps. But I was hoping I could hold it together.”

As for the Eagles, it was mostly happy hosting. Third among the men and sixth among women, they matched their best team finishes in history and produced three final-day champions – but not without a little angst.

Paul fairly wallowed in it. Bringing the conference’s best throw – by 7 feet – into the day’s first event, the hammer, the senior from Yelm, Wash., fouled his first two attempts. He then tried a “safety” that traveled only 158 feet, 11 inches – nearly 45 feet short of his best – and failed to advance to the final, where Montana State throwers went 1-2-3.

“I was just so stressed,” he said of that last throw, “I couldn’t hold it together.”

Fate intervened a bit, too. Weber State’s Brock Money had trouble staying upright on any of his attempts, but managed to horse one out 14 feet beyond his previous best and knock Paul out of the finals.

“But that happens,” Paul said. “If it was me in his shoes, I’d be happy, too. And one of our guys (Adam Lovik) PRed by about 13 feet, too, so that’s great.”

For better or worse, there was more to come – and this time Paul made it better. After a run to Subway with his mother and a talk with teammate Corey Lehosky, Paul popped two long PRs in the discus – the last taping out at 179-6 – to beat Weber’s Chris Sonognini for the title.

“I was nervous – it’s hard to come back after an event you’re supposed to do well in and you do horrible,” he said.

EWU teammate Alex Moon didn’t feel horrible, just unfulfilled. The favorite in the 400-meter hurdles, the senior from Spokane got out strong and looked to be in control coming off the final curve. But Portland State’s Trevor Rollinger began to close and Moon crashed through the final hurdle and staggered to recover, finishing second in 51.93 seconds – his best time of the season, but not his best feeling.

“In two weeks, it’s going to be a different story,” he vowed, referring to the NCAA West Regional in Provo, Utah.

Actually, it was a different story about an hour later when he followed Chad Butorac, Marcus Whitehead and Phil Carr on the Eagles’ 4x400 relay, settling in “an arm’s length” behind Idaho State’s Ben Layman. This time it was Moon making the charge on the final straight, bringing the baton home in 3:12.08 – both a stadium and school record – with a split in the neighborhood of 47.1.

“It’s the exact same thing that happened (at the Big Sky indoor),” Moon said. “If you looked at the tape, you’d think it was the same race.”

Now, for the no-stress extreme, there was EWU’s other champion, Stephanie Ulmer, who uncorked a 158-8 first throw in the javelin and saw it stand up for her third title, to go with wins in 2002 and 2003 back when she was doing double duty as an Eagles basketball player.

“Five years here – I guess I can’t get enough of Eastern,” she laughed. “But it was nice this year to have a full year of just track and obviously it’s paying off. All my throws were way better than all the previous years of throwing. It’s nice not being drained all the time.”

EWU’s women got strong seconds from Sarah Hegna in the pole vault (behind MSU’s Elouise Rudy’s meet-record 13-1 1/2) and Lyndsey Johnson-Cooper in the 400 hurdles, both with regional qualifiers. But senior Haley Heater, the 400 hurdles leader coming in, re-strained a quadriceps and had to battle to finish third in that race, sixth in the 100 and third anchoring the 4x400 relay.

As for the rest of the meet, the surprises were kept to a minimum – unless you counted Montana’s Ryan Grinnell, who did it again. After upsetting teammate Jas Gill in the high jump Friday with a 3-inch PR, Grinnell added 2 1/2 feet to his best in the triple jump with a 50-foot leap to win that event.