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Photos by Jim Craven Scott Myers of North Medford hurls the discus during Thursday's district meet in Grants Pass. Myers won the event with a throw of 161-2. Sumrall supplies opening day surprise By DON HUNT GRANTS PASS -- Jon Micah Sumrall entered Thursday's Southern Oregon Conference long jump competition with one goal in mind: Finish first or second and earn a trip to the state meet. Sumrall reached his objective and a whole lot more. The South Medford senior, who went into the meet with only the fifth-best mark in the SOC, sailed to a lifetime best of 21-2 3/4 to win the competition at Russ Werner Field. The mark surpassed Sumrall's previous best by one foot, four inches. "I've had shin splints all season and I haven't had much spring in my legs," Sumrall said. "But I've done nothing but rest the last few days, and today is the best I've felt all year." Josh Jones fails to clear 6 feet in the high jump. Sumrall catapulted to 20-9 on his first attempt in the preliminaries, improved to 21-2 3/4 on his second attempt and was over the 20-foot mark on five of his six jumps. Sumrall also ran qualifying heats in the 100-meter dash and the 110-meter high hurdles Thursday, advancing to the finals in each. He'll add a fourth event Saturday when he competes in the 4x100 relay. Participating in four events at one meet isn't unusual for track athletes, but Sumrall takes it one step further by playing spring soccer. "There were days during hard (track) workouts when I'd ask myself why I was doing this, and there were days playing soccer when I'd get a little beat up," said Sumrall, who was a first-team SOC all-star in soccer last fall. "And it's been stressful just finishing up school and figuring out what I'm going to be doing next year. "But the bottom line is, I love to compete." Most of Sumrall's bumps and bruises come on the soccer field, but he suffered a nasty cut on his right foot Thursday when he nicked a hurdle during prelims. He also banged into Ashland's Ben Bryan going over one of the barriers. "I ran an ugly race but I won my heat and made it to the finals," Sumrall said as blood trickled from his wound. "That's the main thing." While Sumrall supplied Thursday's big surprise, North Medford sophomore Scott Myers scored a mild upset by beating a loaded discus field. Myers knocked off favorite Jake Zeliff of Grants Pass with a winning toss of 161-2 1/2. Ashland's Nick Bakke launched a lifetime best 154-5 to finish second while Zeliff, who entered the meet with a best of 166-3, could only manage 148-7. "I've been worried about this meet all week," said Myers, who transferred to North Medford from Stayton last fall. "But I've been in pressure situations before and I was ready." Tornado throwing coach Mike Schaan helped Myers get ready by simulating scenarios in practice in which Myers had to unload a big toss. "He'd say stuff like, `you're in second place and you've got one throw left,"' Myers said. "I thought it was a little silly but I think it did some good." Myers unloaded his winning throw on his final attempt of preliminaries. He didn't improve in the finals, but had two throws beyond 150 feet. "This is the best group of discus throwers I've ever been around," Myers said. "There were four guys who had thrown over 150 feet and several others were real close. "It's fun to be in a competition like this." In Thursday's other boys finals: Crater sophomore Mike Moore cleared 13-4 to win the pole vault and edge out Ashland's Scott Brown, who went 13-0. Moore then put the bar at 14-0 and just missed clearing that height. Crater's Josh Jones went 6-2 to win the high jump. South Medford's Colin Grant cleared a lifetime best of 6-1 to grab second and upset Ashland's Taylor Cropper. Jones, who went 6-5 last week, raised the bar to 6-6 but failed to conquer what would have been a personal record. Klamath Union's Ian Dobson overhauled Eagle Point's John Lucas to win a spirited 3,000-meters. Lucas led for the first five laps but Dobson was on his shoulder the whole way and then spurted past him with about 700 meters to go. Ashland took the first-day lead with 34 points, but Grants Pass scored 33 and remains the team to beat. The Cavemen lost a few points when Zeliff failed to win the discus, but he regained points by finished a surprising second in the long jump. More importantly, Grants Pass advanced its big guns into Saturday's running finals. Sophomore sprinter Parker Lane had the fastest times in both the 100 (11.23) and 200 (23.19) to lead GP's qualifiers. "We're actually a couple points ahead of where I thought we'd be," said Grants Pass coach Roger Stewart, who was particularly pleased with Jeremy McLean's fourth-place showing in the 3,000 and the 3-4 finish by pole vaulters Chris Leach and Kyle Hayes. "Our boys have been getting it done all season and today was no exception." As a team, the Cavemen got the jump on the rest of the SOC. But individually, the big jump Thursday belonged to Sumrall. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.