Jones-Graf, Capps win titles
Nathan Capps led a 1-2-3 Idaho State finish in the decathlon and Montana State’s Erin Jones-Graf was a runaway winner in the heptathlon Thursday at the Big Sky Conference track and field championships in Cheney.
The meet moves into the bulk of its schedule today at Woodward Field, with the women’s hammer opening the field events at 1:30 p.m. and the first race on the track at 4:30.
Capps moved into the lead of the decathlon for good after the eighth event, the pole vault, and totaled 7,046 points, followed by teammates Dave Schroeder (7,016) and Levi Keller (6,731). First-day leader Dan Renich of Sacramento State tumbled to sixth. Capps made his big gains by winning the high hurdles (14.91 seconds) and javelin (185 feet, 5 inches).
Jones-Graf, buoyed by an 18-11 3/4 victory in the long jump, increased her winning score of a year ago by more than 170 points with a 5,362 total, an improvement on her earlier NCAA provisional qualifying mark. That was nearly 200 points ahead of runner-up Roshena Duree of Sacramento State.
Also placing in the heptathlon were Rathdrum’s Erin Bell of Idaho State (fifth, 4,696) and Wilbur’s Bailey Cox of Montana (sixth, 4,669).
•Ryan Lang, Marcus Luckstead and Ian Snook finished 2-3-5 in the decathlon to boost Idaho into an early lead in the men’s team race at the Western Athletic Conference championships in Honolulu. Utah State’s Logan Moore and Hawaii’s Annette Wichmann won the decathlon and heptathlon titles, while Idaho’s Megan Radel was seventh in the heptathlon.
Softball
Three unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth inning led host Redlands to a 3-1 win over Whitworth in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament at Redlands, Calif.
Whitworth pitcher Jo Sonnett (19-7) took the loss, allowing five hits and one walk. She struck out seven batters.
The Pirates (26-13) drop into the losers’ bracket and will play Chapman (Calif.) today at noon.
Women’s golf
University of Idaho sophomore Renee Skidmore is tied for 14th after the first day of the NCAA West Regional at Washington National Golf Club in Auburn, Wash.
Football
Washington State University product Adam Braidwood, a defensive end, agreed to terms with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.
Braidwood was the No. 1 overall pick in the recent CFL draft.