Idaho’s Winger throws automatic qualifier in men’s shot put

Russ Winger of the Idaho Vandals was an automatic qualifier for the NCAA indoor meet after tossing the shot put a meet-record 63 feet, 5 1/2 inches at the Washington State University open indoor meet Saturday in Pullman.

Two Cougars and a Vandal also notched NCAA provisional qualifying marks.

WSU’s Tyson Byers, a University High School graduate, pulled off the feat in the men’s pole vault with a meet record – clearing 17- 3/4. Byers leap shattered Brian Worden’s 29-year-old record of 16-10 3/4. Teammate Diana Pickler accomplished the task in the women’s 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.39 seconds. Idaho’s Matthew Wauters had his PQ in the weight throw with a mark of 68-0 1/4.

Setting meet records were: WSU’s Sara Trane (women’s mile, 5:04.02); Diana Pickler (women’s long jump, 19-1 1/4); McKenzie Garberg (women’s shot put, 47-9); Andrew Jones (men’s mile, 4:18.72); Idaho’s Sam Michener (men’s 200, 22.28); and Central Washington’s Katie Hummel (women’s 3,000, 10:15.95).

“Nine Eastern Washington Eagles qualified for the Big Sky Conference meet with their efforts at the Jerry Martin Invitational indoor meet in Cheney.

On the men’s side, Marcus Whitehead ran a meet-record 1:04.54 in the 500 to qualify. Also qualifying, Chad Chambers in the high jump at 6-5 1/2, Geoff Penrod in the long jump at 22-11 1/4, Jeff Kaune in the triple jump at 45-0 1/2, and David Paul (55-7) and Bob Wilske (51-1 1/2) in the shot put.

On the women’s side, Teanna Meinhold and Sarah Hegna qualified – Meinhold in the triple jump (37-7 3/4) and Hegna in the pole vault (11-11 3/4).

Wrestling

North Idaho College’s Heinrich Barnes and Kyle Sand earned first-place finishes at the Clackamas Open in Oregon City, Ore.

Barnes, wrestling in the 141-pound division, posted a 4-0 record en route to his title. Sand also won all four of his matches in the 184-pound division.

The Cardinals’ Coby Jones (149), Lucas Chesher (157) and Evan Mattingly (197) all notched second-place finishes.

Kevin Mitchell (141), Brad Rasmussen (149) and Brett Owen (174) all placed third.

Swimming

The Whitworth Pirates women did something that hadn’t been done since Jan. 15, 2001 – beat the Puget Sound Loggers in a dual meet at Tacoma.

Natalie Turner, Samantha Kephart, Brittany Gresset and Katelyn Erickson all were double winners in individual races to help the Pirates cruise to a 122-83 victory. It was the Loggers’ second loss in 11 years and marked the first time they were beaten by Whitworth. The Loggers’ only other NWC loss came when they sent the “B” team to Whitman.

The Whitworth men rolled to their 49th straight dual-meet victory, topping UPS 116-89.