Cougars Stay True To Word In Rout Of Huskies And Close Loss To Uo, Washington State Track Motto Pays Off

The Washington State men’s track team has a motto, coach Rick Sloan said Saturday.

“All we want is all you’ve got,” Sloan said of what he tells his squad. “And that’s what we get from them every week.”

He surely did as his Cougars earned a victory over Washington (122-66) and perhaps a bit of a moral victory against Oregon (a 106-95 loss).

“I’ve always said, in 22 years I’ve been here, sometimes we go into meets we shouldn’t be a factor in and we either win or make it close because of our guys’ ability to compete,” Sloan said. “That’s our trademark.”

In his back pocket, Sloan carried a list of the events for Saturday’s competition at Mooberry Track. As each result came in, he scratched in how the Cougars had done compared to his pre-meet expectations.

WSU finished 19 points higher against the Huskies than he had expected - running the Cougars’ winning streak against UW to 22 straight duals.

And against Oregon, the 11-point defeat was much better than the 34-point loss the Cougs absorbed earlier this season in Eugene. “I’m happy with that, they’re a dynamite powerhouse,” Sloan said.

In other men’s dual scores, it was Washington State 114, Idaho 67; Oregon 126, Idaho 55; and Washington 87, Idaho 70.

On the women’s side, the Cougars lost to Washington 101-64 and to Oregon 102-64. Oregon and UW did not score against each other in either the men’s or women’s meets.

If the meet had an individual star, it had to be Oregon freshman sprinter Pat Johnson, who won the 100 (10.46), 200 (20.76) and ran a leg in the winning 4x100 relay.

Johnson, a receiver on the Ducks’ Pac-10winning football team, leads the conference in the 100, 200 and 400, and clicked off some swift times despite cool, windy conditions Saturday.

“Technically, it wasn’t real good, due to the weather, but I’ll take it,” Johnson said.

Perhaps surprisingly, WSU’s Frank Madu, who has been off the track because of spring football, started quickly and stayed close to Johnson in the 200.

“He ran the turn really well, which isn’t my strong point,” Johnson said. “It’s something I’ve had to work on because if I can run the turn, I can really open it up down the stretch.”

Johnson said he is considering giving up football for a year to aim at the 1996 Olympics. “I ran a 44.8 split (in a relay) at Drake and I think I can improve on that and maybe make the team.”

Oregon coach Bill Dellinger said a problem with Johnson is simply deciding in which events to unleash him.

Perhaps the best event for the WSU men Saturday was the 110 high hurdles, where Dominique Arnold and Jody Page went 1-2 in 14.18 and 14.22. “That was really good for them,” Sloan said. “Jody was concerned because he hadn’t trained all week because his Achilles tendinitis had flared up so bad.”

In terms of tight competition, the men’s 1,500 proved extremely interesting. Oregon’s Greg James (a Mead High grad) and Idaho’s Frank Bruder were shoulder-to-shoulder in the lead with 200 meters to go. Bruder then surged to the lead, but Oregon’s Ben Andrews took it from him with 100 left - only to see Washington’s Neil Hanson flash from behind for the win in 3:54.67. The top five racers finished within a second and a half.

James’ teammate, Matt Davis, also of Mead, ran away with the 5,000 in 14:42.41.

Idaho freshman Felix Kamangirira looked smooth while winning the open 400 and anchoring the winning 4x100 relay.

Coach Mike Keller said Kamangirira’s 46.74 clocking was a top-10 alltime mark at Idaho. “It’s pretty rare to have a freshman come in like that, especially since he’s so young in the event,” Keller said.

The Cougar women were paced by Tamika Brown’s second in the 200 and third in the 100, while the 4x100 relay team had a season best of 46.31 in a second-place finish to Oregon.