Butorac, Millard triumph
Eastern Washington’s Chad Butorac and Bonnie Millard scored upset victories and teammate David Paul was named men’s field athlete of the meet at the Big Sky Conference championships in Pocatello, on Saturday.
The Eagles finished sixth among men and seventh among women, as Northern Arizona and Idaho State captured team titles.
Butorac slashed a full second off his lifetime best in the 400 meters over the course of two days and moved to No. 2 on EWU’s all-time list with a 47.19-second dash in the finals. The sophomore from Northport had entered the meet sixth on the seasonal conference list.
Teammate Carolee Gutierrez had the Big Sky’s best throw in the discus coming into meet, but it was Millard on the top step of the awards stand at the end. The sophomore from Priest River added more than 5 feet to her best with a throw of 155 feet. Gutierrez, after taking second in the javelin on Friday, failed to place in either the discus or hammer.
Paul, who won the discus and hammer on Friday, came back to take third in the shot put (55-9), while Tyler Cathey was third in the javelin with a lifetime best of 210-7.
“Sophomore Sara Trane scored a minor upset in the women’s steeplechase and heptathlon champ Diana Pickler just missed another title for Washington State at the Pacific-10 Conference meet in Stanford, Calif.
The Cougars women stood second after the first day, just more than 23 points behind leader Arizona. WSU was seventh of nine teams in the men’s standings led by Oregon and Arizona.
Trane, a converted 800/400 hurdles runner, slashed her best in the 3,000 event to 10:19.89, a 14-second improvement, to beat Stanford’s Lindsay Allen by a second. Teammate Meghan Leonard had a 10-second improvement in her best to take fourth.
Pickler, who won the hepathlon last weekend, cleared 6- 1/2 in the high jump – the same as winner Rhonda Watkins of UCLA – but lost the title on more misses. Sister Julie Pickler took fifth.
On the men’s side, there was less good news – a 4-5 finish in the discus by Matt Lamb and Drew Ulrick and a fourth in the long jump by Ricky Moody. But pole vaulter Tyson Byers failed all three attempts at his opening height of 16-10 3/4 and failed to place.
The Cougars men did have some solid performances in the prelims, with Jaycee Robertson and Justin Woods both advancing in the heats of the 100 and 200. Senior John Cassleman, still on the rebound from an injury, ran the day’s fastest time in the 400 hurdles, 51.53.
Spokane’s Rebekah Noble of Oregon, the defending 800 champion, scratched out of her specialty after straining a hamstring in practice last week.
“Idaho’s Bastien Tardy won the men’s 800 and Coeur d’Alene’s Breanna Sande of Boise State took the women’s 1,500 at the Western Athletic Conference championships in Fresno, where Utah State’s men and Louisiana Tech’s women won team titles.
Idaho’s women placed third, while the men – with many of their top athletes redshirting – were fifth among five teams.
Sande, a Lake City High School graduate, clocked 4:27.16 to beat Nevada’s Kali Baker by just .10, then came back to run second in the 5,000. Bonners Ferry’s Forest Braden won his second event of the meet, the 5,000, for the Broncos and took second in the 1,500 behind teammate and former Community Colleges of Spokane runner Ty Axtman.
Tardy ran his fastest time of the outdoor season, 1:52.35, to outlast Andrew Niccoli of Utah State for the Vandals’ only individual men’s title. David Holmon triple jumped a lifetime best 50-6 3/4 for second and Mike Carpenter cleared 15-11 in the pole vault for third. Sprinter Benjamin Mimoun was third in both the 100 and 200. For the UI women, Christie Gordon and Heather Bergland finished 2-3 in the 100 hurdles.
“ CCS’ Curtis Parrish won the 400 hurdles (53.92) and high jump (6-8) at the Ken Foreman Invitational in Seattle, where the Sasquatch won five other events.
Other top efforts included a 10.66 win in the 100 by Deji Adebayo and a 37-5 3/4 triple jump by Natalie Abersfeller.