WSU Loses Green For Remainder Of Season

Francesca Green admits it: She thought being injured meant enduring shin splints.

Then something popped in her left foot as she was warming up for the 100-meter dash at the Stanford Invitational track meet three weeks ago.

“Not like a knuckle pop,” Green said, “but like a deep-joint pop.”

Thursday, Washington State’s sophomore All-American learned of the injury’s ramifications - she’ll have surgery later this month and will miss the remainder of the outdoor track and field season.

Green has a torn medial collateral ligament on her big toe, an injury WSU trainer Mark Smaha had never encountered during 30 years in collegiate athletics.

“It’s the ligament that keeps her toe from going inward - you need to have it and so it needs to be fixed,” Smaha said. “But it’s not a major surgical process.”

After surgery, Green will need 4-6 weeks of rehabilitation. She is expected to be at full strength for next winter’s indoor season.

Green probably will be granted a medical hardship by the Pacific-10 Conference and the NCAA, Smaha said, allowing her an extra year of eligibility.

To qualify for medical hardship, the injury must occur during the first half of the season and before the athlete has participated in more than 20 percent of a season’s schedule. Green meets both criteria.

Green, who won last season’s Pac-10 long-jump championship with a leap of 20 feet, 10-1/2 inches, remains mystified by the injury.

“The most serious injury I have ever had is shin splints, and I’ve been running track since I was 8 years old,” she said. “I thought that I had just broke my toe, and then it started to burn and then it just went away.

“It was weird. So then I thought, well, maybe I can still run, so I went to go run the 100 and it popped four more times.”

Holmes surgery successful

WSU defensive tackle Gary Holmes underwent successful surgery Thursday to remove a herniated disc from his back, Smaha said.

Defensive end Dorian Boose, another returning football starter, will have a screw inserted in his broken right wrist today.

Holmes and Boose will begin rehabilitation immediately and are expected to return in time for two-a-day practices this summer.

Eastern signs three

Three transfers are joining Eastern Washington University’s men’s basketball program, coach Steve Aggers announced.

Jason Humbert, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward/center from Chemeketa Community College at Salem, Ore., signed a letter of intent to attend Eastern next fall, as did 6-2, 180-pound guard Tony McGee. McGee played last season at the Naval Academy Prep School after graduating from Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, Calif.

Shannon Taylor from Fresno, Calif., already is enrolled at EWU. The 6-2, 200-pound guard played at Ventura (Calif.) JC in the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons and recently earned his two-year degree.

Vandals sign point guard

University of Idaho women’s basketball coach Julie Holt announced the signing of Tasha Rico of Toledo, Wash., to a national letter of intent.

Rico, a 5-7 point guard, will see playing time next season for the Vandals because Holt expects her to back up Susan Woolf. The point-guard position has been vacated by four-year starter Ari Skorpik.

Rico, two-time Southwest Washington Player of the Year for Toledo High School, averaged 13.2 points and 8.4 assists per game in 103 games. Last season, she averaged 15.3 points and 8.8 assists and shot 48 percent while leading THS to a 27-2 record and eighth place in the State Class A tournament.

WSU rowers are hosts

The Washington State women’s rowing team will be host to Washington, Stanford and Gonzaga Saturday at Wawawai Landing on the Snake River.

The Varsity Eight competition among WSU, UW and Stanford will affect the seeding for the Pac-10 Championships.

Racing begins at 8 a.m. with the varsity race going off at 11:35 a.m.

, DataTimes