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Cavemen hold off hard-charging Grizz By DON HUNT GRANTS PASS -- The Grants Pass High track team tossed a bucket full of ice on coach Roger Stewart moments after the Cavemen boys clinched the Southern Oregon Conference district track championship Saturday. And that was fitting, because for the previous four hours Stewart literally had been sweating it out, wondering if his team had enough oomph to hold off hard-charging Ashland. It did. By two points. "Things got a little scary today," Stewart said. "We only won two events today and those Ashland kids competed out of their minds. Everyone had us the favorite going in, but it came down to two points." With Jake Zeliff providing a late win in the triple jump, the Cavemen finished with 139 points to Ashland's 137. North Medford finished a distant third with 90 points, followed by South Medford (70), Crater (63), Roseburg (57), Klamath Union (56) and Eagle Point (51). Zeliff, competing in the triple jump for only the second time in his career, sailed to a mark of 43-10 to hold off Ashland's Nick Bakke, who finished second at 42-3. GP's only other win Saturday came in the 400-meter relay as the Cavemen had to rely on their depth to get the job done. Ashland, meanwhile, got off to a sizzling start when junior Chris Phillips charged from behind on the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay to pull the Grizzlies to a win in that event, and then came right back to upset the field in the 100. By the time he was through, Phillips added a victory in the 200 and helped his team to fourth place in the 1,600 relay. "I just seemed to find that extra gear all day long," said Phillips, who ran lifetime bests in both the 100 (11.3) and 200 (22.98). "My sprint coach (Marius Boone) was on me the whole day, telling me that I had the talent to win. And he was right." While Phillips jump-started the Grizzlies, Bakke provided some big points of his own by winning the javelin (199-8) and taking second in the shot put (48-11) prior to competing in the triple jump. All the Grizzlies needed was one more big gun, and hurdler Taylor Cropper happily obliged. Sidelined for six weeks with a hamstring pull, Cropper won both the 110 high hurdles (14.6) and the 300 intermediates (39.27). "The first time I've been over a hurdle (since the injury) was Thursday in prelims," Cropper said. "I worked out in the pool and the last couple of weeks I've been doing some running, but I didn't know what to expect coming into this meet. I'm very pleased." Cropper was especially apprehensive about the longer hurdle race, which can rake the energy out of the fittest athletes. Cropper trailed North Medford's Nick Dunn and Eagle Point's Thad Gala coming off the final turn, but passed them both on the home stretch. "Now I feel like I'm a state contender again," Cropper said. "I had such high hopes coming into this season and then I pulled my hamstring at the Roseburg Twilight meet. "I lost out on a lot of training, but today was very encouraging." Dunn might have won had he not tripped over the final hurdle and nearly fallen. He was clocked in 39.83. "I was more worried about Gala and (Roseburg's Nick) Pappas than I was about Cropper," said Dunn, who suffered his first loss in the intermediate hurdles this spring but won the 400 and anchored North Medford to a win in the 1,600 relay. "He (Cropper) was out there in lane six and I never really saw him until the end." While Grants Pass and Ashland were locked up in a duel for the team title, South Medford's Perry Custance pulled off a dandy distance double. Custance upset Klamath Union's Ian Dobson to win the 1,500 in 4:01.2, and later destroyed the field in the 800 to triumph in 1:55.94. Custance, Dobson and Eagle Point's John Lucas were packed closely together midway through the 1,500 when Custance suddenly shot ahead. His lead quickly grew to 10 meters, then 12, then 15. There was no catching Custance on this day. "I didn't think I could beat Dobson if he was with me with one lap to go," Custance said, "and so I took off with two laps to go. I just went for it." Added South Medford coach Bill Rowan: "That's one of the most inspirational doubles I've ever seen. Perry is as mentally tough as any runner I've coached. "To run the time that he did in the 800 after a rather brutal 1,500 is very impressive." Crater's Scott Toney was the only shot putter to surpass the 50-foot mark, reaching 51-5 for the victory. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.