Tuesday, April 20.1976
S
Hamilton's jump defies training
By ALLEN QUAKENBUSH
Sports Editor
Staff photo by DON PIERCE
Theo Hammart has been busy this spring. So busy, in fact, that he hasn't had as much time as he would like to train for the Olympics.
Former KU long jumper Theo Hamilton reacts after 26-1/4 leap
But you never would have known that from watching Hamilton long jump Saturday at the Kansas RELays. In his first major competition of the year, Hamilton won the men's swimming exhibition. His mark was easily better than winner Kevin Lean's leap of 24 $^3/4$.
"I felt good on my jumps," Hamilton said. "The board was very sick and I just decided to stop rather than risk injury when I was pretty happy with what I had done."
HAMILTON MIGHT HAVE done better still, but he quit jumping after two tries. On his second try, he leaped 28-4, but scratchedouse his foot was barely beyond the edge.
Hamilton just hasn't had a chance to jump much in competition this year. Many meets, including the Drake Relays next winter, have having competition in the long jump.
"I'S ATTBOUT TIME I jumped in a meet," Hamilton said after the competition.
"I've been training pretty good lately, lifting weights and running."
"I don't feel like I need too many jumps to get going. All I need right now is some MMA."
Before Saturday, Hamilton's only other competition this year was at the Emporia Relays where he jumped exhibition. He had been told that admitted he wasn't giving 100 per cent.
"I WAS MAINLY CONCERNED with my technique and approach there," he said.
But there might have been other things on Hamilton's mind as well. He is a graduate assistant coach for this year's KU track team, and he'll be tracking time coaching the women on the team.
"You have to ask them," Hamilton said with a smile when asked whether he was a good coach. "I don't want to pat myself on the back.
"It has helped me a lot, though. It's given me good experience."
"Now, since we have a new coach, I'm starting to get it back together," Hamilton said.
gold medalist Randy Williams and former teammate Danny Seay, but neither won.
HAMILTON'S BIGGEST concern right now is his condition. He just isn't where he wants to be. But he's also convinced that it's only a matter of work before he will be.
Howell doubles in his 'world championships'
By KEN STONE
Associate Sports Editor
Through the mist and the dampness of the alstirraining of the Kansas Helps, you could see.
There was Rick Wohlhuber shattering Jim Ryan's Relays record in the 1,500-meter run. There was KU's Nolan Cromwell overcoming fatigue to notch his second intermediate hurdle victory on the Midwest Relays circuit.
There was Arkansas' intense, gritty Nail O'Shaughnessy, holding off Kansas State's Jeff Schenmel in two stirring stretch runs in the four-mile and distance medley relays.
AND THEN THERE WAS a balding, 41-year-old elementary school teacher named Jan Howell, sprinting to wins in the Masters 880 and mile runs.
But those two races—the Masters 880 and mile runs—were as important to Howell as the Summer Olympics are to the Cromwells and the O'Shaughnessy.
To most of the 7,000 hardy Relays fans, the races preceding the 5,000-meter run and the open 400-meter dash on Saturday were merely filler, two chances for the officials and timers to take a break from the heady competition.
"I CLOUDF GO TO WICHITA (where a Masters meet is run annually) or the National Masters Championship, but this is the race of the year for me," Howell said after defending his 880 title of last year. "This is the World Championships."
Howell, a former Kansas miler who now teaches grade school physical education in the small town of Idaho Springs, Colo., led from the start in both his races Saturday. He won with times of 2:04 in the half mile and 4:37 on the mile.
In doing so, he defended the double he won last year.
"LAST YEAR WAS THE first time I ran the 800. That (the victory) was a fantastic thrill," he said. "I feel I've gotten more than I deserved."
Jan Jerome Howell isn't used to such glory. When he ran for the Jayhawks between 1853 and 1957, he was the perennial runner-up.
"I was always an also-ran," he recalled, "i ran 4:10 (for the mile) in the Central Waltersians in 1956. I was second to Jerome Wolters, who later made the U.S. Olympic team.
"My big claim to fame was a seventh in the NCAA cross-country meet. In 1968 I finally got my All-America certificate. When they began to give All-Americans for finishing in the top 10, they gave them out retroactively."
THESE DAYS, HOWEVER, Howell is a champion. He first ran in Masters competition in 1970, when Jim Herbstherger challenged him. She lost by himself, 35 years of age and older.
"TIVE RUN IN GRECEE, Scotland, Spain and London," he said. "When I ran with a running club in Stuttgart (Germany) they called me 'Yau Hovell.'"
"I was 35 then," Howell said. "and I've run here ever since. Last year they charged it (minimum age) to 40, so I became eligible for that group then."
Howell didt'r resume running at 35 after a break from track. He said he'd been jogging ever since leaving KU, never missing a training session. He told an overseas dependents school in Germany,
When Howell and' his wife, Susan,
returned from Germany, they took up
residence in Colorado's Loveland basin,
where he began working in the ski industry.
He but left after two years, saying, "It was worse pau than school teaching,"
NOW HOWELL TEACHES youngsters how to stay in shape. He teaches them by our teacher.
"I love to run, and I love to get good times. But I love to meet my friends, too. I can enjoy my wins, but I wouldn't mind the others winning sometimes."
"I have double feelings," said Howell,
*who competes for the Colorado Club,*
Club.
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Then the tall father of three explained,
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Leading the way were spinner Sheila Cainne and hurdler Sharl Lanter, both women.
Lee was held out because of a muscle cramp, and Russell is suffering from a mild knee injury, Pepin said. Both may return to eight championships May at Aiton. Iowa.
Pepin said, "Right now she's a better intermediate hurdler. I think she's going to be very, very good before she's done."
Calmese placed third in a tough 100-meter dash field Saturday, turning in a wind-aided 18.84. On Friday she anchored KU's run to 56.29 and set a record for a 49.81 clocking behind K-State's 47.58.
They didn't win any events, but a group of KU women track athletes, mostly freshman, turned in some impressive performances in the Kansas Relays this weekend.
Later, running hurdles for the first time, year, qualified for the AIAW national training course.
Adrian Mitchell, a basketball player just out for track, was picked fifth in the team to receive. He took 19th.
"It was a good performance for her," he said. "This is the first year she's been out for track. She's only jumped in one other meet. I think she can jump over 18 feet."
However, coach Gary Pepin noted the absence of sprinters Nannette Lee and Kirsten Larson and said that "of our fastest runners were the two." We would have won if they had run."
The next afternoon, Lanter took fifth with the time of 15.02.
KU women do well at Relays
Sputter patter Jiddle missed her best throw by a foot and a-half, but her 4-54 loss was forward for third on Saturday. Former KU splitter Mary Jacobson took with second with 49%
Connie Lane, a sophomore, set her personal record in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles Friday by running a 15.6. She was also a member of the second-place 440-yard relay team and the mule relay squad, which failed to place in the finals.
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