WSU’s Baskett Among Survivors

Breathtaking performances under brilliant skies and amid balmy breezes; this track meet had it all.

Sorry, had to pull that April 1st thing there a little bit.

In reality, the Washington State Invitational at Mooberry Track on Saturday featured several withdrawals, the cancellation of an event and a host of understandably average performances by athletes buffeted by cold and persistent winds.

“It’s over - I guess that’s the best thing I can say about it,” said WSU men’s coach Rick Sloan.

The men’s meet, featuring the Cougars, Idaho, Eastern Washington and a handful of unattached performers that included world champion decathlete Dan O’Brien, was a nonscoring affair. In the women’s meet, WSU topped Idaho 97-46 and EWU 108-36, while Idaho edged EWU 67-55.

For the most part, though, it was a day of slightly reluctant efforts. For instance:

WSU’s ace pole vaulter Christos Pallakis, more accustomed to the Mediterranean breezes at home in Greece, decided to put his pole away and await better conditions.

“No rush,” he said. “I don’t think I could have accomplished anything with these conditions anyway. The wind was blowing at 6 meters (per second). I’ll vault next week in Seattle.”

In the absence of Pallakis, only one vaulter - freshman Leo Slack - cleared the opening height of 12 feet, 1 1/2. “It’s the first big win of Leo’s career,” Sloan observed dryly.

The steeplechase was canceled for lack of interest.

Nobody, certainly, wanted to get his feet wet.

Certain throwers, though, seemed to have overcome the elements.

Idaho’s Jill Wimer was a triple winner, capturing the javelin (147-0), shot put (44-2) and discus (142-11).

“This is probably the first meet (in which) she’s had really good performances in all three events,” Idaho women’s coach Scott Lorek said. “Having a thrower do well in all three is asking a lot.”

Lorek may have been even more stunned by the effort of Vandal Beth Hopkins in the jav. “She threw 143-6 and she came in with a PR of 125 and threw 114 in the prelims,” Lorek said. “We expected about 115 out of her.”

WSU’s versatile senior Jason Baskett, meanwhile, won the hammer (181-10) and the shot put (55-8 1/2) and took third in the discus (160-11).

“Doing all three has always been my strong point,” Baskett said. “I’m not real excellent in any of them, but above average on all three, so I’m a good point scorer. But at meet time, it can be a little trying on you.”

Actually, he was the best collegian in the discus, too, but was outdistanced by 30-year-old Kevin Carr (173-8) and O’Brien (166-11).

Carr, working toward his Ph.D in physics at Idaho, was a 200-plus thrower at Oregon in the mid-1980s and has competed in only two outdoor events the past five years.

O’Brien, meanwhile, was “about as consistent as I’ve been in a while in the disc,” he said. O’Brien also took second in the high jump (6-8 3/4) and ran the lead leg in the winning 400 relay with three others from Moscow USA track club.

Despite the conditions, several races were highly competitive. Idaho’s Paul Thompson nipped WSU’s Jim Swanson at the tape in the intermediate hurdles, and Cougar Missy Hansen surged impressively in the stretch to down Idaho’s Dawn Horvath in the women’s 1,500.

In the men’s 100, Cougar Frank Madu led four runners across the line with a disparity of only .1 between them. Because the electronic timing system was not functioning, all races were hand-timed.

Rewarding to Cougars women’s coach Rob Cassleman was the victory by the quartet of Yashiva Edwards, Tamika Brown, Chanelle Anderson and Tori Hall in the 400 relay.

Hall was able to hold off the anchor leg by Eastern’s Joyce Rainwater, who ran away with the open 100 and 200.

“We’re pleased we got it around and beat those guys, because they pummeled us a couple weeks ago in Richland,” Cassleman said.