Ccs Outdoes Itself Sasquatch Snare Nwaacc Track And Field Titles

The exclamation mark on coach Larry Beatty’s long day came when his Community College of Spokane men’s team eked out sixth place in the 4x400 relay.

That wasn’t supposed to happen, admitted the second-year coach, whose grin was going on its 24th hour. Nor was the team’s comfortable margin of victory in the NWAACC track and field championships that ended Friday on the Spokane Falls Community College track.

CCS men finished the two-day, nine-school meet with 144 points. Clackamas Community College finished second with 114 and Highline followed with 98.75.

The Sasquatch, no surprise, ran away with the women’s title, beating second-place Lane Community College 215-119 to earn their first NWAACC crown since 1991. Clark College finished third with 109 points in an eight-school field.

“I told the women’s team 100 times all year they would have to self-destruct to lose,” said Beatty, who was named coach of year by his contemporaries for the second straight year. “We thought we could have maybe won with just distance runners.”

The Sasquatch not only won all three of Friday’s middle and long-distance races, but four sprints and both relays.

Erika Colin picked up her third crown in two days, winning the 5,000-meter run in 17 minutes, 48.47 seconds. Teammate Christina Werther won the 1,500 and the 800 and ran the first leg of the winning 4x100 relay.

The domination didn’t stop there.

Whitney Schmaljohn bettered her conference-record time in the 200-meter dash, winning in 24.74 seconds. She had broken the previous mark of 25.09 with a 25.02 on Thursday. The freshman from Spokane’s Central Valley High also won the 100-meter dash (12.28) and ran the second leg of the victorious 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams. Lasina Smith anchored both relays and clocked the winning time in the 400-meter dash (57.81).

“It was about time,” Schmaljohn said about her 200-meter record. “I wasn’t running very well all year. Yesterday, coming off the curve, I relaxed a little bit. But I knew when I was going against Mariah (Williams) today, I would have competition.”

Williams, from Lane CC, finished second at 25.54.

The Sasquatch men, weak in the sprints, piled up their points by placing second through sixth in several events.

As expected, Shawn Bietelspacher won the 1,500-meter run in 14:56.68, and Jarrod Leckie finished first in the high jump with a 6-foot, 9-inch jump.

“I told the team, ‘When you guys turn around, you’ll see 10 more points on the board,”’ said Leckie, a sophomore who plans to compete at Washington State University next year.

Victory in the steeplechase was well within reach of CC Spokane’s Jim Reed, but disaster struck on the final lap. The freshman from Ritzville was running wire-to-wire with Mt. Hood’s Mike Thorniley until he tripped over a hurdle 700 meters from the finish line. Thorniley won the race in 9:20.66 and Reed took second in 9:30.05. Brandon Hauver, Mike Anderson and Andy Brown of CCS finished third, fourth and sixth, respectively.

“My legs were getting tired and heavy,” explained Reed, who had run the 10,000 meters on Thursday.

Added Thorniley about the turning point: “My first reaction was ‘Thank goodness”’ When I heard him land, I knew he was dropping back. It felt really good.”

Although the Sasquatch squads stole the spotlight, the outstanding athlete awards went to Kevin Hutchinson and Brooke Wilson of Clark.

Hutchinson won the men’s 100and 200-meter races and was on the first-place 4x100 relay team and second-place 4x400 team.

Wilson, also the outstanding female athlete at last year’s meet, won the 100- and 400-meter hurdles and the hepthalon and placed in four other events. The Vancouver, Wash., athlete said she’s leaning toward continuing her career at the University of Washington.

SASQUATCH SWEEP Top men’s teams 1. Spokane 144 2. Clackamas 114 3. Highline 98.75 Top women’s teams 1. Spokane 215 2. Lane 119 3. Clark 109