UW Finds Inside Track To Upset Husky Men Knock Off Washington State In Pullman For The First Time Since 1967

They call them dual meets.

Maybe they should spell it “duel” - as in meeting at dawn and firing javelins at 15 paces.

Because as feverishly as Washington State has gone at it with Oregon and others on the track over the years, the Cougars have truly savored their one-on-one dominance over the cross-state rival Washington Huskies.

Saturday, though, the Huskies pulled off a feat they haven’t achieved since all the way back in 1967 - defeating the WSU men in a dual/duel in Pullman, claiming a 104-97 win.

The Huskies of coach Ken Shannon last defeated WSU’s men in 1977 in Seattle.

Afterward, WSU coach Rick Sloan, eyes reddened by a day in the sun and wind, sought out Shannon, patted him on the back and shook his hand warmly.

Shannon had coached Sloan at UCLA in the 1960s, when Sloan was among the nation’s top decathletes, and he had nothing but praise for the competitiveness of his old coach’s team.

The elapsing of the win streak against the Huskies clearly meant very little to Sloan.

“Statisticians talk about streaks,” Sloan said. “We talk about competing and trying to do our best. Streaks? Every time you go against somebody, you’re trying to do your best.”

The UW women also topped WSU, 99-80.

Idaho’s men lost to UW 111-75 and to WSU 112-81. Idaho’s women fell 117-51 to Washington and 119-49 to the WSU women.

“It was fun to win over here,” Shannon conceded. “It’s a good rivalry, an enjoyable one.”

The athletes on either side showed far less gentility than the two coaches.

“Our goal was to beat them,” said Ed Turner, UW’s junior sprint ace. “The tradition is to lose to them and we’re working on changing that.”

Turner certainly did his part, winning the 100 and 200, taking third in the long jump and running legs in both relays.

Turner’s dominance in his duel with Cougars sprinter Frank Madu may have played a role in the outcome of the meet.

It wasn’t that Madu failed to perform. Actually, he ran extremely strong in the 100, matching Turner’s 10.58, but he lost by a molecule at the tape.

Madu screamed while crossing the line, realizing that his effort came up agonizingly short.

“Frank’s a good sprinter, he pushes you and makes you go faster,” Turner said.

“I like running against Ed,” Madu said. “He gets me fired up. We’re not good friends on the track, though. There, it’s like going to war.”

Madu was a warrior in the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay as he made up 5 meters seemingly before he was out of the passing lane and wrapped up the Cougars’ best short relay of the year (40.39).

In the 200, though, Turner cruised to a win in 20.97, topping Idaho’s Tawanda Chiriwa (21.16) and Madu (21.43).

Madu talked about the WSU track loss with a distaste that reminded him of the Apple Cup defeat last fall. As a running back in that game, Madu was ejected. “I just got caught throwing the last punch,” he said of a retaliation after a Husky punch in a pileup.

Scoring punch for the Husky women came from sophomore Aretha Hill. Hill doubled in the weights with impressive marks - 49-9-3/4 in the shot and 186-1 in the discus. She also placed second in the women’s hammer.

As close as the 100 competition between Turner and Madu, was the duel in the long jump between Idaho’s Niels Kruller and WSU sophomore Leo Slack. By the time the flying sand cleared, Kruller had eked out a win by a quarter of an inch, 24-1-3/4 to 24-1-1/2.

UW’s Emily Johnson, a University High grad, won the 1,500 in 4:30.14.

“I had us down by about 11 or 12,” Sloan said of his pre-meet calculations. “We just had too many areas where we were real close but couldn’t quite get over the hump. Normally, when we’re in a close meet, we can out-compete them, but they competed very well. The credit goes to them.”

Oregon Invitational

Eastern Washington’s Nic Rogers won the 5,000 at the Oregon Invitational at Eugene, finishing in 14:57.53.

EWU’s Marc Read, Ryan McClure, Matt Nielsen and Pat Williams finished second in the 1,600 relay in 3:16.41.

EWU’s Matt Read (1:53.60) and Ryan Zackula (1:54.20) finished third and fourth in the 800.

The Eagles’ Pat Williams finished second in the 400 in 49.40, while Avery Hongel was fourth in the 100 (11.14).

In the discus, EWU’s Les Timm finished third with a throw of 163 feet.

Whitworth quad

Whitworth’s Trina Gumm and Chet Doughty won two events apiece at a home conference four-way.

Gumm won the women’s javelin at 150-8, 10 feet farther than her nearest competitor. Gumm added a win in the shot put (39-6).

Doughty won the long jump at 22-5 and the triple jump at 45-1/2.

Other Pirates women’s winners were: Amy Schkenberger, pole vault, 9-0; Libby Lowe, 3,000, 10:58; Megan Widhalm, 1,500, 4:58; Kara Kirkland, 100 hurdles, 15.71 and Miranda Burrell, 800, 2:22.98.

Whitworth’s Lance Sinema won the 400 hurdles in 56.93. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)