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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us May 25, 2005 SOU men have high hopes at national track meet Johnston, Meyers enter meet with top marks By Rich Rosenthal Tidings Correspondent A school year full of track and field training culminates this week with the 54th-annual NAIA Championships at Cardinal Park in Louisville, Ky. Southern Oregon University’s sizeable delegation, which contains 11 individual qualifiers in 13 events as well as the men’s 4x800 relay team, departed for the national meet Tuesday morning. Competition begins Thursday afternoon and wraps up Saturday evening. Johnston After finishing 46th among 65 scoring teams last year, the Raider men’s squad has a chance to zoom up the team standings based on nine top-12 ranked individuals, including NAIA event leaders Robbie Johnston (pole vault), a freshman, and Scott Myers (shot put). Meanwhile, freshman Bree Cochran, an automatic qualifier in the javelin and discus, is the lone hope to snap the Raider women’s team’s two-year scoring drought. Top-eight placers earn All-American status and garner team points — a distinction achieved last year by senior Nick Hansen in the triple jump (eighth) and by the men’s 4x800 relay team (fifth). SOU head coach Mike Jones says there are always surprises at nationals, but likes the overall potential of his men’s squad. Meyers “I tend not to think that way, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking top-10,” Jones said of the SOU men. Meet results are available at www.naia.org during and after each day. Southern Oregon’s national delegation is a star-studded group of youthful rising stars mixed with some grizzled veterans. Hansen, who placed nationally last season with a 48-foot, 8-inch triple jump, and 35-year-old Scott Hartmann, who placed third in the hammer way back in 1989, are shooting for two-time NAIA All-American distinction. Hansen, a Bend High product who is a two-time Cascade Conference champion since transferring from Boise State, ranks 11th among 21 competitors based on a 47-3 mark established on April 9. Hartmann overcame early season back problems to launch a 170-foot, 10-inch hammer throw on April 2, which is the country’s 11th-best. The Salem native broke a Raider record as a junior in 1989 with a 177-7 toss, which is now No. 4 on the school’s all-time performance list. “It’s been a few years since he was an All-American, but he’s prepared,” Jones said of Hartmann. “He’s ready to come back and he’s ready to compete. All we ask is that they give it their best shot and if they give it their best shot they can’t complain.” Myers, Johnston, sophomore Trevor Palmer, freshman Jeremiah Lewman and sophomore Ryan Musselman are Rogue Valley natives with solid chances to achieve national greatness. Myers, a North Medford High graduate and a former Cal State-Northridge full-ride competitor, easily claimed a conference crown with a 53-foot shot put throw, and his 57-3 3/4 mark on March 12 is the country’s longest of the season by almost four feet. Myers is also ranked No. 4 among 20 vying for an NAIA discus crown based on a 169-5 heave. Johnston, an Eagle Point High graduate and the 2004 Class 4A state pole vault champion, has broken the school record five times since enrolling at Southern last fall and won nine of 10 outdoor meets so far this spring. Johnston has topped the NAIA leader list all season long, and his present school record of 17-4 1/2 is five inches better than the next best mark in the nation. “Robbie’s a real competitor,” Jones said. “He’s had a good season. Pole vault can be up and down, but like I said, he’s a competitor and he’ll go in there ready to give it his best shot. He’s had some great practices last week so we’re looking for great things from him.” The school’s first top-ranked thinclads since 1999, Myers and Johnston are attempting to become SOU’s first national field champions since 1998. A former Crater High star and a three-event conference champion, Palmer finished in the NAIA top-six in his 800- and 1,500-meter specialties. The ESPN Academic All-America candidate will attempt to become the school’s first 1,500 national placer on the Kentucky oval, and his Raider-record 3:50 PR is the fifth-fastest time among NAIA runners so far this year. Musselman, who prepped at Hidden Valley High in Grants Pass, is in All-American contention in the pole vault based on a season-best 16-foot effort, which ranks 10th on the national entry list. Lewman, an all-state prep at North Valley High last year, is 18th among 27 vying for intermediate hurdles gold with a season-best 54.50. His sophomore teammate, league champion Kento Kawamura, is 12th on the same list at 53.87. Freshman Jasen Hartford of Yamhill-Carlton, the conference 100- and 200-meter winner, earned a right-of-membership entry into the shorter race based on a provisional qualifying time of 10.79 — the third-fastest in SOU history. Junior 5k specialist Ryan Pfeil rounds out the individual entries. Sophomore Jeff Olsen, an Ashland High grad, is the lone returning link from last year’s All-American 4x800 relay team that broke a school record with a 7:38 clip. But the blend of Olsen and freshmen Jed Moffitt and Leland Fulton was only three ticks off the pace on March 12. Senior Travis Floeck will anchor the team instead of Palmer this week. SOU’s highest men’s team finish came in 1988 when four Raiders took sixth to earn All-American kudos. Cochran, a freshmen, hopes her late-season PR bonanza in the javelin and discus continues this week. The Woodland, Wash. product is 11th on the NAIA javelin list and 20th in the discus, and she has a chance to become only the fourth Raider true freshman ever to earn track and field All-American status. Daily Tidings Sports Editor Joe Zavala contributed to this report DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams