Boyd, Widman Shine In Events Despite Snow

Even inclement weather couldn’t slow Eastern Washington’s Eric Boyd and Seattle Pacific’s Laura Widman at the Eastern Washington Combined Events meet on Friday at Woodward Stadium in Cheney.

Widman, a Colfax High graduate, piled up an NCAA Division II qualifying mark of 4,961 points to easily win the women’s heptathlon, despite snow falling throughout the meet.

Widman won the long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 1-1/2 inches and took first in the javelin with a throw of 116-3. She closed out with a second-place showing in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 29.29 seconds.

Widman, who won five of seven events in the two-day competition, finished 908 points ahead of runner-up Shalene Little of Ricks College.

Boyd broke the EWU school record in winning the men’s decathlon. His 6,908 points shattered Todd Freitag’s 1988 mark of 6,599.

Chris Peterson of Highline was a distant second with 6,091 points.

Ian Waltz threw an NCAA automatic qualifying mark to win the men’s shot put, while Molly Monroe and Bryan Jones each threw provisional qualifying marks in the javelin as the Washington State University men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in their opening meet of the outdoor season at the Willie Williams Classic in Tucson, Ariz.

Waltz, a senior All-American thrower from Post Falls competing in his first outdoor meet since 1998, tossed the shot 63-9-1/4.

The Cougars women placed first through third in the javelin as Monroe threw an NCAA provisional qualifying mark and school record of 161-4 for the win. Freshman Casey Lektorich, a standout at University, was second with a freshman school record of 153-8, while Anna Church placed third at 139-10.

Bryan Jones placed second in the men’s javelin with a throw of 222-8.

Jeannette Martus cleared 12-7-1/2 for third place in the women’s pole vault, equaling her school-record indoor mark.

The second day of the meet resumes at noon today.

Swimming

Washington State’s Erin Eldridge placed eighth in the 100-meter breaststroke at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis.

Eldridge finished in a time of 1 minute, 8.25 seconds.

Georgia’s Kristy Kowal set an American record in the event with a time of 1:05.74. Arizona’s Amanda Beard held the record, set in 1999, at 1:06.67.

Defending champion Georgia has 336.5 points heading into today’s windup. Arizona was second with 299 and Stanford third with 245.

Whitworth’s Brent Rice finished fifth in the 400 individual medley and earned All-America honors with a time of 4:02.40 at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships at Emory University in Atlanta.

Teammate Ben Swinehart finished 10th in the IM with a time of 4:03.84.

After the second day, Whitworth is in 24th place with 30 points. There are 51 teams represented. Kenyon College (Ohio) is in first place with 436 pts. Denison College (Ohio) is second with 218 pts.

Women’s basketball

Fourth-seeded Lewis-Clark State College crushed No. 13 seed Georgia Southwestern College 88-45 in second-round action at the NAIA Division I women’s basketball tournament in Jackson, Tenn.

Shannon Russel of Ritzville came off the bench to score 15 points for LC State. Alyssa Erickson, a former Wilbur-Creston standout, added 12 points and eight rebounds, while exLakeside guard Lora Jolley chipped in with seven points and three assists.

LC State (28-1) will play No. 5 seed Findlay (Ohio) today at 2 p.m. in a quarterfinal matchup.

Softball

Cheryl Andrizzi tossed a complete-game four-hitter to lead the North Idaho Cardinals to a 1-0 non-conference victory over the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers in La Grande, Ore.

NIC (5-4) had just one hit in the game, a Mandy Lawson single, and scored the game’s only run in the top of the fourth inning.