Marks Makes Her Mark Ricks Ace Wins Five Events At Region 18 Meet, Leading The Way To Njcaa Nationals May 18-20

Marsha Mark doesn’t drive the Ricks College team bus, but the 21-year-old does everything else for the Vikings track team.

The Trinidad native won five events - javelin, long jump, 100-meter hurdles, 1,600 relay and heptathlon - en route to being named the outstanding female athlete at the NJCAA Region 18 championships that concluded Friday at Spokane Falls Community College.

On the men’s side, College of Southern Idaho freshman Kris Watson was almost as busy dominating the throwing events.

The 21-year-old Canadian grabbed the outstanding male athlete honors behind first-place finishes in the hammer throw and shot put, along with seconds in the discus and javelin.

Ricks continued its team mastery as the Vikings won their eighth consecutive women’s championship and seventh men’s title dating back to 1987.

The Ricks women scored 145 points in the two-day meet. North Idaho College edged CSI 37-35 for second place.

The Ricks men tallied 111, followed by CSI with 75 and NIC with 45.

Individual event winners advance to the NJCAA national finals May 18-20 in Odessa, Texas.

“Overall, I’m probably about 90 percent happy,” Ricks coach Ferron Sonderegger said. “There’s always that 10 percent who didn’t have the performances you wanted. Our men’s 400 relay dropped the baton.”

Mark will continue her athletic career at Brigham Young University.

A year ago, she won the NJCAA javelin with a throw of 153 feet. But Friday was the first time she competed in her specialty after a five-week layoff due to a rotator cuff injury.

“Today has been a really good day for me in the javelin,” Mark said. “It was the first time I was able to cross 140. I know I’m capable of throwing a 165. I have some old habits I need to break out of. I’m going to nationals to win the javelin.”

Watson, a former Canadian national junior track team and bobsled team member, wasn’t pleased with a 152-7 throw in the discus on Thursday.

“I did really terrible; I had tremendous warmups in the 170s,” Watson said. “The javelin (186-7) was a PR (personal record) by 12 feet. I haven’t done that all year and wasn’t expecting it.

“Today, I wanted to make a comeback,” Watson added. “The hammer was a runaway. The shot was real good for me.”

Watson won the hammer throw by more than 28 feet. His winning shot put mark of 50-8 came on his fifth throw.

Last winter, Watson ranked third nationally in the shot put with a 52-8 best.

The Ricks women were also boosted by doublewinners Kristin McQuade (high jump, 200) and Grettel Miller (discus and hammer throw).

Ricks’ Chris James was a double-victor among the men, taking the 200 and 400.

“I think the women are probably one of my strongest teams,” said Sonderegger, the Vikings eighth-year coach, who swept coach of the year honors. “The men are not as strong of a regional team, but may be a better national team.”

NIC brought its total of national qualifiers to six as sophomore Reggie Charlton held off Micah Nielsen of Ricks at the finish line of the 400 hurdles.

The Cardinals fared especially well in the triple jump. Jeffrey Simms topped the men’s event by less than an inch. NIC’s Dusty Mavity and Cinda Neider went 1-2 in the women’s triple jump.

Several Cardinals return to the Bigfoot Invitational at SFCC today for another chance to qualify for nationals, this time by time and distance standards.