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For Myers, it's one down, one to go By DON HUNT EUGENE - As Scott Myers stepped into the discus ring at Hayward Field Saturday, he couldn't help but harken to last year's Class 4A state track and field meet. Myers launched a lifetime best of 170 feet on his final throw to take the lead, only to watch Jake Zeliff of Grants Pass steal the state championship on his final toss. Myers left nothing to chance this time around. The North Medford senior reached 171-2 on his first throw and later improved to 177-3 to win by more than eight feet over Mountain View's Marshall Hartman (168-9). Roseburg's Joe Newton was third at 168-1. "What happened last year motivated me every time I went to the track or the weight room," said Myers, who finished this season unbeaten in the discus. "I've been wanting this for the last 12 months, and today I got it. "Now it's on to the shot put." Myers failed to reach his personal record of 180-1, but had four throws over 170 in another consistent performance. "It felt good to pop one over 170 on my first throw," he said. "You never know for sure if it's going to hold up, but it puts the pressure on the other throwers." No one was happier for Myers than North Medford throwing coach Mike Schaan, who has been Myers' tutor since the youngster moved from Stayton following his freshman year. "The big thing Scott has learned how to do is compete under pressure," Schaan said. "That's when he does his best. He didn't get a PR today, but if he needed one to win, he would have gotten it." Myers will now turn his attention to today's shot put, where his best mark of 62-11 is more than seven feet farther than the next-best mark. Another win by Myers and good showings by 400-meter runner Matt Parish and North Medford's 4x400 relay team could lift the Tornado to a top-four finish and the trophy that goes with it. Parish won his 400 heat Friday in 49.25, but the Tornado relay squad barely advanced to the finals, qualifying as the eighth and final team in 3:24.85. "We got lucky in the relay," North Medford coach Mark Hodges said. "We had a couple of bad handoffs, and other than Parish, didn't run as well as we can. We're going to have to step it up (today)." South Medford's 4x100 relay squad won its heat in 42.97 to advance to today's finals. In the Class 3A boys meet, Cole Parmelee is proving to be a one-man wrecking crew for North Valley. The talented junior reached a lifetime best of 22-31/4 to win Friday's long jump competition and later edged out Yamhill-Carlton's Adam Burgh on fewer misses to take the high jump. Parmelee and Burgh both cleared 6-5, but Burgh missed twice on his way up to that height while Parmelee had no misses until the bar went to 6-6. "It feels great to win both events," said Parmelee, who was fourth in the high jump and sixth in the long jump at state last season. "I spent a lot more time working on the long jump this season - it's now my favorite event - and my technique is 100 percent better." Parmelee isn't through yet; he figures to be among the contenders in today's Class 3A triple jump. "That'll be tough for me to win," he admitted, "but I think I can get in the top three or four." Phoenix sprinter Tony Machado kept alive his hopes of an individual state championship as he won his 100 heat in a lifetime best of 10.97 and later established a personal record of 22.27 in the 200, where he finished second in his heat to Wilsonville's Brandon Roosevelt (21.99). "I've been having trouble rolling forward in my starts, but not today," said Machado, a senior who is participating in his first state meet. "The weather was perfect and I felt great. I'm looking forward to (today)." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.