Nothing Like Taking A Bow Post-Win Routine The Hard Part For WSU Pole Vaulter Pallakis

Christos Pallakis woke up Friday so confident he would win the Pacific-10 Conference pole vault championship that he needed to practice only one important technique.

Bowing to the crowd.

“I visualized making at least 18-4 3/4,” the Washington State senior said. “And I thought, what if I make 18-5 or 18-9, what am I going to do? I tried the bow and thought, hey, this looks pretty good.”

It looked good, indeed, but not as graceful as the clearance itself. Actually, Pallakis visualized a little optimistically Friday morning, as he only needed to clear 18-0 1/2 to become the first Cougar to win a conference title in the pole vault since 1964.

As soon as it became clear that the cross bar was not coming down with him on his winning leap, Pallakis began his gracious dip to the fans - who constituted a nice crowd of 10,042 at the University of Arizona’s Drachman Stadium.

Pallakis had cleared 18-6 1/2 indoords, but had not come near that this spring. “This is the first meet I’ve had good weather,” he said.

At 18-4 3/4, Pallakis balked at the idea of switching to a stiffer pole, a decision he regretted after missing his three attempts at that height.

As a representative of the Greek Olympic team in 1992, and having placed ninth at the World Indoor championships, Pallakis was not overly impressed with owning a Pac10 title.

“To be honest, it’s just another competition against myself,” he said. “I’m glad I could help my team, but this was not a big goal.”

His effort was about the only real highlight for the WSU men and women, as both teams stand eighth heading into tomorrow’s finals.

Other Cougars to score Friday included George Loucaides (sixth in the steeplechase) and Leo Slack (eighth in the long jump), Ginger Tivey (seventh in women’s javelin) and Kim Hulse (44-9 in the women’s shot put).

As a blazing hot day evolved into a balmy night, the conference meet provided one stunning performance after another.

Unfortunately for Washington State followers, few of those were accomplished by Cougars. Loucaides led the steeple early, but chopped his stride over nearly every hurdle. Slack advanced to the long jump finals (23-4), but had to pass because of a tight hamstring.

Hulse’s distance, meanwhile, was a personal best by more than 8 inches.

“The only real disappointment was Dominique (Arnold) in the high hurdles - I thought he had a chance to win it,” said WSU men’s coach Rick Sloan of his junior hurdler, who pulled out halfway through with a hamstring cramp.

USC’s Balazs Kiss set an NCAA javelin record of 262-8 on his first throw, and then bettered that with a 268-10 toss in the finals, upping his own mark by 11 feet, 5 inches.

It was the best throw in the world this year.

Kiss was having trouble sleeping leading up to the meet, but Thursday night, he got a full 8 hours. “When I got up this morning, I was pumped, I yelled, ‘Yes, it’s over, that record is history,”’ Kiss said.

UCLA’s John Godina unleashed a shocking 71-4 3/4 toss in the shot, just 6 inches short of the NCAA record set by ex-Bruin John Brenner in 1984. While Godina was grunting out giant throws on one end of the field, UCLA’s graceful Amy Acuff was at the other end gliding over an NCAA record height of 6-6 in the high jump.

Acuff cleared 6-6 on her third try. The bar quivered, but stayed on and Acuff decided to call it a day.

“I want to save something for nationals,” the sophomore said.

Godina said he was not surprised by his rapid improvement. At last week’s meet in Modesto, Calif., Godina upped his PR from 67-9 to 69-2. This time, with the longest throw in the world, he improved more than two feet.

“It’s not that I’m really improving, I’m just throwing as far in meets as I have been in practice,” he said.

UCLA’s Valeyta Althouse improved her best in the shot put by nearly 2 feet to 61-10 1/4- giving her a Pac-10 record and making her just the fifth American over 60 feet.

Cougar Eric Anderson fought off a pair of runners to win his heat in the 800 to advance to the finals. “That was the toughest 1:50 I’ve ever run,” Anderson said. “I didn’t feel comfortable until 300 meters and then with 250 to go, people started making their move and I had to open up my stride.”

Jody Page took third in his heat of the high hurdles to easily advance, while Cougar Annemarie Hobbs advanced to the finals in the 1,500, despite being nibbled on by fire-ants before her race. WSU’s Tamika Brown was third in her 200 heat to advance, and Frank Madu advanced in the men’s 200.

A pair of Mead High grads had good days, Oregon freshman Matt Davis taking second in the conference in his first 10,000 meters. “I’ve never done it before and to be honest, it was pretty easy,” he said.

For Arizona State, Mead grad Charlie Cohen placed fifth in the javelin. “It was probably the best competition of the meet, really. We had six of the top 10 throwers in the NCAA,” Cohen said.