Pullman Jumper Almost Falls Short

AA track and field

The height and the extension were good. The landing wasn’t clean, but Ricardo Colon didn’t care.

The Pullman High School junior’s year-long wait to claim the State AA boys long jump title was over.

Colon lost an estimated 8 inches on his final jump, which measured 22 feet, 11-1/2 inches, but that still would have been far enough to win the event on a sunny Saturday during Star Track XIV in Lincoln Bowl.

Colon’s winning mark, however, came on his second attempt, a 23-4-1/4 leap that gave him a margin of 1-1/2 feet over Max Hangartner of Gig Harbor.

Nonetheless, Hangartner helped the Tides roll to their first boys team championship. Gig Harbor scored 62 points. Defending champion O’Dea finished second with 45 and Lynnwood was third with 42.

Lakeside of Seattle denied Gig Harbor its third straight girls title by outscoring the Tides, 53-47. Lakeside also won state in 1991 and 1992.

Colon played a role in all 20 points scored by Pullman’s Greyhounds, who shared 10th place in the boys meet with Franklin Pierce. He anchored the sprint relay to fourth place and ran fourth in the 100 meters.

But the long jump is his favorite event.

“My last jump, I got really good height in the air,” Colon said. “It catches you, and I didn’t expect to be that high. It throws you off with your hitch kick, you’ve got to try to land it the best you can.”

was posted a year ago.

Colon, third in the 1995 Star Track meet, led a strong Eastern Washington performance in the long jump.

East Valley junior Jerry Claridge was fifth, followed by West Valley sophomore Devion Tensley (sixth) and East Valley senior Pat Ferguson, who was seventh.

West Valley throwers made an excellent showing.

Vinnie Pecht placed second to Lynnwood’s nationally-ranked Ben Lindsey in the boys discus. Lindsey’s top mark was 192-6. The Eagles got a 172-2 out of Pecht.

Senior Joe Bonner hit his best mark in the boys javelin on his opening throw, 183-5, which placed him fourth.

Senior Aimee Aldendorf was too nervous to sleep, or even eat, in her quest for a third straight girls shotput medal.

But Aldendorf ensured herself of a top-three place with a first throw of 40-6-3/4. She wound up third, as Gig Harbor senior Becky Potter successfully defended her title with a 43-2-1/2 effort.

“I was glad I got in (the finals), I was stressing it,” said Aldendorf, who placed fourth in Friday’s discus. “I’ve been here three times. This is the best I’ve done.”

She finished fifth in the shot put in 1994 and 1995.

“I was kinda tense,” she added. “That was my last (high school) throw. Yesterday, before the discus, I started crying.”

The Eagles received sixth-place points from Heather Harmon (2:18.34) in the girls 800.

Though no outstanding athlete of the meet was recognized, Ellensburg junior JaWarren Hooker stole the show. She set meet records in a spectacular sprint sweep, including 10.69 seconds in the 100, 21.77 in the 200 and 47.77 in the 400.

, DataTimes