Eagle Chaney knows it’s shot put up time
No Spokane woman has put the shot farther than Erica Chaney, and naturally on the throw in question she had no idea it had sailed so far.
“But that’s what the ‘gurus’ say – that a throw that feels easy is bound to go farther,” said the Eastern Washington senior. “It wasn’t until they started measuring it that I realized, ‘Oh, I guess that was a good throw.’ ”
This was last winter at an indoor meet in Boise, and it was better than good: It taped out at 51 feet, 7 1/4 inches. Twenty-five years earlier, East Valley graduate Cora Aguilar had blasted one 51-1 1/2 competing for Oregon, the only other Spokane thrower to reach 50. At area colleges, just two women have thrown farther – Idaho’s Mykael Bothum (56-5 1/4 in 2010) and Washington State’s Georgette Reed (54-6 in 1991).
And it only took Chaney three weeks to discover – or rediscover – just how fleeting the feeling can be, when she went into the Big Sky Conference indoor meet with the season’s best throw by 2 feet.
“My first throw was about 42 feet and I was like, ‘Oh, my,’ ” she recalled. “Then I pulled a pectoral muscle. I thought I could just suck it up, but it wasn’t going anywhere, and I finished second.
“So anything can happen. Rankings don’t really mean anything.”
This was something of a caution-to-herself about this weekend’s Big Sky outdoor meet in Sacramento, Calif., where the Gonzaga Prep alum gets one last chance at a title that’s been elusive. She’s been second three times indoors and third and fifth outdoors, and though she did win the 20-pound weight throw in March, she wants the shot.
“Maybe it’s because it’s my last (Big Sky) meet or the chance to prove the people who don’t think we’re going to do much as a team wrong,” she said, “but I think it means more to me this time.”
Chaney was a 42-foot thrower at Prep, where she also played basketball, fastpitch softball in the summers (“my first love”) and even turned out for cross country her senior year. Her breakthrough at EWU – to 48-10 1/4 – came indoors as a sophomore in 2008. She then redshirted outdoors, as the Eagles marshaled their scoring potential for a better year.
Which wasn’t 2009. During the first week of outdoor practice, Chaney broke her right leg in the hammer cage.
“It took me six months just to be able to stand on the leg for more than 10 seconds,” she said.
Her senior year has been remarkably consistent – four of her last five meets have been beyond 50, though none over 50-7 1/4.
“Knowing it and believing it are two different things,” Chaney said. “This week I feel like I trust myself a little more, and believing. I don’t know that I’ve had that feeling since I was in high school.”
And they’re off …
It’s championship week for the area’s NCAA Division I teams, and Idaho’s off to a strong start in the Western Athletic Conference meet in Honolulu. Andrew Blaser took a 256-point lead in the decathlon after Tuesday’s five events, winning long (22-10 1/2) and high jumps (6-4 3/4) to total 3,732.
Blunt objects
Once upon a time, the javelin and hammer were reliable point producers for Washington State in the Pac-10 meet, which resumes Friday in Tucson. But the Cougars men will be shut out in those events for the third year in a row: they don’t even have an entrant this week.
On a brighter note, watch out for high jump newcomer Jovan Vukicevic, who debuted at 6-11 at the Washington dual after being hampered with injuries all spring. He cleared 7-5 1/4 to win the Serbian title in 2008.
Bell lap
Brian Maldonado, a DeAnza College sophomore from Timberlake High School, set school records of 10.67 and 21.43 seconds in sweeping the 100 and 200 meters at the Coast Conference meet in California. … Jesse Jorgensen clocked 1:49.88 last week to break the 38-year-old Community Colleges of Spokane 800 record. It’s the fastest junior college time in the nation.