WSU Sprinters Breathe New Life Into Ailing Sport

Track and field is dead. We’ve read the obits. We’ve seen the body.

On a brilliant April afternoon at Mooberry Track, we stroll to the hammer cage, where the grunts and roars of a beast named Tore Gustafsson used to animate - or was that animalate? - Washington State’s yearly dual meet with Oregon. On this very spot, a Duck thrower named Ken Flax once yanked a practice toss into the traffic on Stadium Way, the iron ball thudding off the pavement and crashing through the the grille of a Camaro.

But now? Vast, vacant silence. Powerful young men set sail their implements without a sound, their throws dying feebly 60 feet short of Tore’s ancient divots. The weightman’s yell, once obligatory punctuation, now seems presumptuous.

And yet … track and field is alive. On Saturday, we got a pulse. We heard the heartbeat.

It wasn’t so much a case of CPR as it was ASTL.

Attrina, Sharika, Tamika, LaTroya - last names Higgins, Higgins, Brown and Mucker.

Ladies so fast they can turn off the bathroom light and be in bed before it’s dark.

Aside from the esteemed Pam Reynolds a decade ago, there has never been much in the way of female sprinters at Washington State - and now the Cougars have more than even they know what to do with.

For instance, the second-fastest woman in Wazzu history - Francesca Green - worked Saturday’s meet in street clothes, measuring the long and triple jumps and contemplating foot surgery. And still the Cougars women beat the Ducks for the first time in 21 tries 73-72.

Twenty-three of those 73 points - and none of Oregon’s - came in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay, which is to say from the firm of Attrina, Sharika, Tamika and LaTroya.

“We’re the LSU of the Northwest, baby,” joked WSU coach Rick Sloan.

Before we forget, the men prevailed by a point, as well - making for one of the merriest Mooberry moments in memory. Theirs was a tale of little victories - and ties, as when EWU transfer Colan Sewell ran a dead heat down to 1/1,000th of a second to some crucial points in the 200.

“A thousandth of a second slower,” noted Sloan, “and we lose.”

Alas, it was drama for a privileged few. Track hasn’t yet figured out how to borrow basketball’s scoreboard.

Oregon and Wazzu rarely needed it a decade ago, when the men battled for dual meet, Pac-10 and national championships. But the ravages of scholarship limits, tougher academic standards and track’s own suicidal tendencies have taken a toll.

Between the two schools, only the Oregon women are ranked in the Top 25. Winning marks in 13 of the 19 men’s events and 10 of the 16 for women were worse than five years ago, some substantially so.

“It’s hard to understand,” said WSU assistant coach Mark Macdonald. “Last year, a 15-second (high) hurdler scored in the Pac-10 meet. We had guys we didn’t take figuring they couldn’t score.”

Track is hurting. We’ve seen the chart.

But the Washington State men are recovering from the sanctions of an expired probation, and the women are thriving with the likes of Attrina, Sharika, Tamika and LaTroya, etc.

The Cougars have recruited for speed like never before. Besides sophomore Green, who has run an 11.55 100 meters, and junior Tamika Brown, who has a 24.10 200, they have come up with a freshman class to match any on the coast.

“And the crazy thing is, we all lived within 10 minutes of each other in California and didn’t even know each other,” said Sharika Higgins, who won the 100 and 200 Saturday.

Sharika and Attrina are not related, but they are roommates. They took their recruiting visits on the same weekend and even had their questionnaires come across Macdonald’s desk on the same day. They’re also mutually miffed that USC and UCLA passed on them.

“After we took our visit, we kept in touch,” said Attrina. “We figured if we went to the same place with a couple of other fast girls, good things could happen - and they are happening.”

Mucker, who won the 400 in 54.96 to move to fourth on the all-time WSU list, was a surprise to even them.

“I didn’t know she was coming until I saw her the first day of school,” said Sharika.

“They work so hard in the weight room,” Macdonald said. “They’ve taken almost a body-building mentality. When they first got here, they would lift in grays and T-shirts, but now they’ve started rolling their sleeves up and showing off the guns.”

Perhaps that’s why we find them at the hammer cage at the end of the day, their shrieks egging on Kristin Ogle, who unwinds and sends the big ball out more than 155 feet, a school record.

Ding, dong, the Ducks are dead. Sloan gets an icewater bath. Nearby, throws coach Debra Lombardi looks on the verge of waterworks herself.

She was the first woman to throw the hammer at WSU as a hobby back in 1981, long before the NCAA endorsed such blasphemy. Otherwise, she threw the shot and discus “and watched us get slaughtered by Oregon, over and over.

“So many times it wasn’t close,” she said. “Now, finally, we win. Having always been on the tail end, this is pretty emotional.”

And the reports of track’s death are - perhaps just ever-so-slightly - premature.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review