Green Cashes In During Debut

College track and field

Adjustments to college can be difficult for the raw freshman.

Academics are more demanding, athletic competition more fierce.

It can be tough.

But not, apparently, if you are Francesca Ebonique Green.

While some contemporaries are still figuring out where the student union is, Fran Green is about to find her way into the Washington State University track record books.

Green won three events for WSU at the Cougars’ track home opener Saturday at Mooberry Track - an event that aptly could be renamed the Frostbite Invite.

In only her third outdoor meet at WSU, and despite a 40-degree chill, Green came within 2 inches of the school long jump record, flying a wind-boosted 20 feet, 8-1/2 inches - the second-longest in school history.

She also won the high jump (5-5, with fewer misses than Eastern Washington’s Seville Broussard), and the 100 meters in 11.96 seconds (fifth fastest non-windy time by a Cougar).

And in the classroom? Well, she started off with a sparkling 3.2 GPA.

So much for freshman orientation.

“I expected to come in and be an underdog and have to work my way up the ladder,” said Green, the all-time Washington state AAA girls track meet scoring leader while at Kamiakin High. “I’m really amazed.”

What is amazing to her coaches, meanwhile, is that she can achieve these marks with techniques that are still relatively unrefined.

“I knew when we were recruiting her that she was that much of a talent,” WSU coach Lissa Olson said. “She just started long jumping last year. Before this year, she just ran and jumped.” The fact that she is gifted, however, does not imply that she does not work at her craft. “She’s got great work ethic; she’s the first one at practice and the last one to leave,” Olson said. “We need about 15 more Fran Greens.”

Green, a promising heptathlete who must improve in the 800 and javelin, was not keen on her high jump mark, which was 5 inches off her high-school best of 5-10.

“I’m learning new techniques and when you learn new techniques, your performance goes down a little,” she said.

Green’s marks highlighted the meet, during which WSU’s men and women won all dual competitions among Idaho, Eastern Washington and Gonzaga.

On the men’s side, the Cougars’ Dominique Arnold clocked a 13.80 in the high hurdles, just .06 off an automatic qualifying mark for the NCAA meet.

Idaho’s swift freshman Tawanda Chiwira needed just 46.80 to finish the 400.

“He’s starting to learn how to run the 400,” Idaho coach Mike Keller said of the 19-year-old Chiwira. “He’s been a 100 and 200 guy. I was really excited for him; he had a yeoman day for us. He’s been injured the last two weeks with a thigh contusion.”

The men’s long jump featured a pair of competitors - Idaho’s Niels Krueller and WSU’s Hilary Mawindi jumping farther than 24 feet.

For the WSU women, Missy Hansen doubled with wins in the 800 and 1,500.

“Our competitive effort was pretty good considering the circumstances,” Cougars head coach Rick Sloan said. “It was pretty hard to stay warm.”

The closest team competition was between the WSU and Idaho men, with the Cougars winning 94-69.

“This was the first competitive meet we’ve had with Wazzu in the 22 years I’ve been at Idaho,” Keller said.

Both teams operated without certain point-scorers, such as WSU’s 800 ace Eric Anderson (injured foot) and Idaho’s 7-foot high jumper Thad Hathaway (strep throat).

Trina Gumm of Whitworth won the women’s shot put and discus, and host Pacific Lutheran swept the team titles during five-way meets at Parkland, Wash.

No competitors came close to Gumm in the shot (36 feet, 7 inches) and discus (136-3). The Pirates women scored 48 points for third place.

Whitworth’s men (59 points) were also third, topped by Chet Doughty’s win in the long jump (23-5-1/2).

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