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North's Myers can't bag his second title Drew Fleming/Mail Tribune photo By DON HUNT EUGENE - Scott Myers was down to his final throw in the shot put at the Class 4A state track and field meet Saturday at Hayward Field. Myers trailed Jerry Shamoon of Reynolds by just over a foot, but anything close to his personal record of 62-11 would catapult the North Medford senior to his second state championship in as many days. The burly senior whirled around the ring, bellowed his customary grunt and watched the iron ball sail beyond the 60-foot marker. But before Myers could celebrate, he lost his balance and fell out of the ring. The ensuing foul negated the mammoth throw and the state title that would have accompanied it. "I was on my tippy toes trying to stay in the ring, but my weight was thrusting me forward and I just couldn't keep my balance," said Myers, whose best legal throw was 57-7. "It's frustrating to be that close to winning it, but I've only got myself to blame because I didn't have a good series." Saturday marked the first time all season that Myers has lost in either the shot put or the discus, but he still scored 18 of North Medford's 28 points in fueling the Tornado to a sixth-place finish in the team standings. Churchill won the 4A boys meet with 58 points as Jordan Kent, a son of University of Oregon basketball coach Ernie Kent, won the 200- and 400-meter dashes Saturday to go along with the long jump title he won Friday. Kent, a junior who plans to play basketball and run track in college, set meet records in the long jump (24-7) and 200 (21.32). Churchill edged Midwestern League rival South Eugene, which totaled 51 points, for the title. Grant and Jesuit tied for third with 33. Like Myers, North Medford sprinter Matt Parish had a frustrating day. Parish owned the second-fastest time in the 400 but got off to a sluggish start and wound up fourth in 49.25. Kent ran a lifetime best of 47.77 to win the event. "I wasn't aggressive enough at the start of the race," said Parish, who clocked 48.59 at last week's SOC district meet. "I let a bunch of guys get ahead me over the first 200 meters, and in a meet like this you're not going to reel them all in." Parish came back later in the day to anchor the Tornado's 4x400 relay to fourth place with a 48.9 split. "We had hopes of leaving here with a trophy (top four) and we came up a little short," North Medford coach Mark Hodges said, "but our boys have nothing to be ashamed of. They competed hard and they laid the foundation for the future." The only other SOC male competitors besides Myers to manage runner-up finishes Saturday were Klamath Union's Lauren Jespersen and Jacob Gomez. Jespersen was a slight favorite in the 800 and had the lead with 200 meters to go before North Eugene's Jan Olszowy, a foreign exchange student from Sweden, used his superior kick to win in 1:50.74. Olszowy's time was just 1/100th of a second off the meet record. Jespersen was clocked in 1:52.54. "My plan was to take it out hard because I knew he (Olszowy) had some speed," said Jesperson, noting that Olszowy finished fourth in Saturday's 100. "I wanted to run a high 53- or low 54-second first lap, but it ended up being a 55. I knew then I might be in trouble." Gomez also fell victim to a hard kick and lost out to Jesuit's Tom Manning, who sprinted past the Klamath Union junior with about 150 meters to go to win the 1,500 in 3:57.14. Gomez, who nosed out Manning for the 3,000 title a day earlier, finished in 3:58.29. While Myers considered his day in the shot put ring a failure, Crater's Chris Dearmon reached a lifetime best of 56-4 3/4 to finish fourth. In other events involving SOC competitors Saturday, Ashland's Cameron Voget was seventh in the javelin (195-0), Grants Pass' Parker Lane was seventh in the 100 (11.18) and South Medford's Kelly King, Andres Reed, Jonathan Klenke and Justin Baldoni finished seventh in the 4x100 relay (43.56). Klamath Union finished eighth in the team standings with 26 points. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.