10
Mondav. April 20, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
*Monday Sports Extra*
Sunny skies contribute to success of 62nd year of Relays
By DIANE FILIPOWSKI
Staff writer
About 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the 62nd annual Kansas Relays were over and a sunburst Al Fereshetan, Relays manager, was relieved to see it end.
The 1987 Kansas Relays will be remembered for its weather — mid-80s and sunny skies — and for its lack of serious problems to mar the event.
"I thought the fields fell together well," Fereshetian said. "We really ended up having some good competition."
After the final runner crossed the finish line, one U.S. record had been broken, another had been attempted, NCAA qualifying marks had been topped 21 times and 16 Relay's records had been broken.
The meet included former Jayhawks, world-record holders and KU Olympians Al Oerter and Jim Ryun, who competed in the discus throw and the Masters 800-meter run, respectively.
Oerter, with wifthrew from his event after two throws because of muscle spasms in his back, competed about noon in front of about 1,000 people at McCook-Olympic Field.
"Even though Oster pulled out of the disucc. Fereshetian said, "there was still a gaggle."
John Powell, six-time national champion and two-time Olympic bronze medalist won the event with a toss of 194 feet.
Ryun finished second in the master's 800-meter run in front of about 10,000 at Memorial Stadium. Herald Hadley won the event
The Relays, which has declined in popularity in the last decade, attracted more than 10,000 during the four days of competition, which began Wednesday and ended Saturday.
with a time of 1:58.7.
And the smooth operation won the respect of most visiting teams, coaches and athletes.
About 1,400 high school and 1,200 college athletes from 21 states competed in the
The 1987 Relays also included a U.S. record in the pole vault. Joe Dial's vault of $19-4\frac{1}{4}$ broke his own record of $19-4\frac{1}{4}$ and was reason enough to earn him the meet's outstanding male performer award.
Another U.S. record was attempted in the high jump by southwestern Louisiana's Hollis Conway. Hollis cleared the br at 7-7, a new Relays record, but missed three attempts at 7-9.
Kansas State's All-American Kenny Harrison set a meet record in the long jump and won the triple jump. Both marks put him in the top three of the collegiate rankings this season.
K-State's Pinkie Suggs also captured the spotlight. Suggs surprised the crowd and four-time national champion Regina Cavanaugh of Rice with a 55-4¼ throw, a win and a meet record in the shot put.
San Diego Track Club's Latanya Sheffield, the meet's outstanding female performer, won the 400-meter hurdles and was on the team's meet record-setting mile relay.
Sheffield said the weather was a pleasant surprise, one that she did not expect.
"We had heard that it was windy and usually cold here," Sheffied said after the meet. "We tried to train later in the evenings when the conditions in San Diego were like that."
Sheffield said she thought the weather added to the competitiveness of the meet.
"I think next year being the Olympic year will bring in a lot more higher competition and make the meet more competitive," said said, "because it is a well run meet."
Dial breaks mark after controversy
See RELAYS, p. 11, col. 4
By ROB KNAPP
Staff writei
Dial got his share of emotional highs and lows as well Saturday at the Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium. Named the Relays most valuable male athlete, he went from celebration to depression to satisfaction in the space of an hour Saturday as he broke the U.S. pole vault record and nearly set a world record.
Pole vaulter Joe Dial experiences a lot of quick ups-and-downs in his sport, most of them when he sails over the crossbar.
Dial, competing unattached,
vaulted 9 feet, $4\frac{3}{4}$ inches, and broke
the U.S. record of 19-4$\frac{1}{4}$ he set in
Norman, Okla., last year. But for
about 30 minutes, the new record was
in doubt and Dial was ready to pack
his poles and go home.
Dial cleared his first attempt at 19 4-4' and seemed to have broken the U.S. record. That was just after 4 p.m.
Then the measuring began.
Relays officials measured the height with a metal measuring bar, which had been used to measure all the previous jumps, and found the crossbar to be at the presupposed height, 19-43".
Then an official brought out a steel measuring tape, which the NCAA rulebook says must be used to verify all record jumps. The official climbed a stepladder to remeasure the height and came down, and another official made the long climb.
In the stepladder teetered from the swirling winds blowing inside the stadium. Dial draped the measuring stick across crossbar and came down satisfied
The steel tape showed Dial's jump lower than the measuring bar had, and Dial was told he only had tied the record. With his new U.S. mark in danger, Dial volunteered to climb the ladder and check the height himself.
"They said it was a hair under, and I looked up there and it looked like mine."
While Relays officials tried to
decide just how high Dial had jumped, Dial began pulling his warm-ups on and saying he was through jumping for the day.
"I thought I'd made the American record and I got all psyched up," Dial said. "Then they try to take it away from me. Psychologically, I'm down the drain."
A track official came over and told Dial that, after another remeasurement, the new record would stand.
Dial had the bar laced at 19.9,
almost an inch higher than the world
record of 19.84; set last year by
Sergie Bubke of the Soviet Union.
The crowd focused on the vault area as Dial prepared for his three attempts. Several of the Kansas pole balls went through the runway, calling encouragement.
He was close to setting the record on his next two attempts, though, brushing the crossbar about halfway across.
At 4:45 p.m., almost 45 minutes after his last jump, Dial made his first attempt at the world record. He knocked the bar off before he could get his feet across.
On the third try the bar bounced and hesitated for a tantalizing moment before the side nearest the stands began to fall.
"It turned out OK," Dial said later. "I think all of that took a little bit off my first jump, but I got back into it on my second and third jumps."
Dial lost his competition at 18.4, which Scott Huffman of Kansas and Todd Cooper of Athletes In Action could not clear. Dial needed three tries to clear 18.8, but vaulted $19_{-3}$ on his first try with plenty of room to spare.
For Dial, Saturday's performance continued the success he has had at the Relays. He set the Relays high school pole vault record of 17-5-4 while competing for Marlow, Okla., High School in 1980.
Dial also won the invitational pole vault while competing for Oklahoma State in 1982.
Alan Hagman/KANSAN
KU's Mia Wickliffe breaks from the blocks at the start of the women's 440-yard relay finals. The Jayhawks finished fourth in the event at the Kansas Relays on Saturday.
Alan Haqman/KANSAN
Joe Dial, former All-American from Oklahoma State, clears the bar at 19 feet, $4\frac{3}{4}$ inches to set a U.S. pole vault record. Dial broke his old mark of 19-4$\frac{1}{4}$ Saturday at the 62nd running of the Kansas Relays.
Break away
Returning stars show age in KU Relays competition
Staff writer
Bv DIANE FILIPOWSKI
Oerter drops out, Ryun 2nd in 800 meters
Former Jayhawks Al Oerter and Jim Ryun, both Olympians and world-record holders at one time, returned to compete at their alma mater but showed that age had taken its toll.
Their returns attracted large crowds Saturday at the 62nd annual Kansas Relays, but neither athlete could reach back to his old talents for a first-place finish.
In fact, Oerter, 50, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and former world-record holder in the disc, withdrew from the competition after two throws.
Complaining of muscle spasms in his back, he apologized to the crowd of about 1,000 at McCook-Olympic Field before he withdrew from the event in the preliminary round. Neither throw was recorded because Oerter scratched on one and threw the other out of bounds.
Oerter said he was disappointed because he wanted to do well for the people who had come to watch him compete.
"I'm scratching." Oerter said to the crowd over a microphone. "I don't want to do something to myself that will take two months to repair."
Oerter said before the Rivals that he was training year-round to make the 1288 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He was to win a fifth Olympic gold medal.
John Powell, a six-time national champion and a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, went on to win the event with a throw of 194 feet.
"I'm still thinking of Seoul," Oerter said, "but this would take away from the effort in the long run."
"I'm unhappy about his injury," Powell said Saturday. "It's always nice to see someone 50 throw well."
You could win four gold medals, and you could only say that you tied Al.'
John Powell Olympic bronze medalist
Powell, who won a bronze medal at Los Angeles in 1844, said he also was training for the 1988 Olympics.
"Oerter has spoiled things for us discuss throwers," Powell said. "You could win four gold medals, and you could only say that you tied Al."
Ryun, 39, a former world-record holder in the 800- and 1,500-meter runs and the mile, ran in the Masters in Tokyo. He also competed in front or a crowd of about 7,000.
And the crowd cheered him to the
finish.
Hadley was a 1965 NCAA Indoor 2-mile champion for Kansas.
Ryun finished second with a time of 2.01.7, behind winner Herald Hadley, who finished at 1.58.7.
Ryun said that Hadley ran a great race and that he was pleased with his own performance because he had run to his capabilities.
"When I was running," Ryun said after his race, "I said, 'God, help me to keep my cool.' I told myself before the race that I could go out and run a respectable race, or I could give up. I don't feel like I gave up."
Ryun said he was nervous about three hours before the race and even asked himself at the starting line why he was racing again.
"It's not a big deal." Ryun said. "But when it's your first time to come back to the track, it is a big deal."
Ryun said it had been about 15 years since he had competed on a track. He said he thought that he had a good experience Saturday and might run again.
Bob Timmons, KU men's coach and Ryun's coach at KU, said that Ryun did not have a lot of speed right now but that he thought Ryun ran the best race he could.
"I am his friend, and I am interested in what he does," Timmons said after the race. "I was still right there with him the whole way."
Huffman, Bohanan vault 18 at Relays
Staff writer
Kansas All-American Scott Huffman was about to ready his piles away for good after he finished fifth in the collegiate pole vault competition Friday at the 62nd annual Kansas Relays.
Huffman, who holds the national freshman outdoor record with a vault of 18 feet, $5\frac{1}{2}$ inches, finished Friday with a vault of 16-6, well behind teammate Chris Bohan, who won the event with a vault of 18-1.
Kansas freshman Pat Manson was second with a vault of 17 feet and Cedric Fullard was fourth with a vault of 16-6, but had fewer misses than Huffman.
Huffman did manage a third-place finish at the Big Eight Indoor Championships in February, but only a 13th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
Huffman's unimpressive vault capped off what had been a disappointing year for the KU junior. His indoor season was interrupted by a right ankle injury in September that eventually was operated on in January.
Huffman summed up his performance Friday when he said, "Nobody remembers that I was good."
"Scott doesn't remember how good he is." Attig said. "Not other people."
Rick Attig, assistant men's coach,
said Friday that Huffman was lacking
confidence and only needed a good jump to change his outlook.
Huffman proved to the crowd and himself Saturday that he was the same vaulter he was his freshman year. Huffman finished second in the invitational vault Saturday with a jump of 18-4, behind Joe Dial's vault of $19-4_{3}$, which was a U.S. record.
Bohanan finished finished fourth at 18$^{\frac{1}{4}}$ and Manson was eighth at 17-6$^{\frac{1}{4}}$. All three qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships June 3-6 at Baton Rousse, La.
"I kept asking myself Friday, 'Am I all washed up?' Did that operation take that much out of me?' " Huffman said Saturday.
Huffman said Dial gave him some encouragement before he vaulted on Saturday.
"I told myself that it was ridiculous to be vaulting so low." Huffman said. "And Joe told me the same thing. It helps when a good valuer tells you that you are good."
Huffman's performance was not Kansas' breakthrough in the event.
Bohan vaulted more than 18 feet for the first time in his career on Friday, and then jumped the height again on Saturday, which he said gave him all the confidence in the world.
And Manson, who was last year's top high school pole vaulter in the nation with a jump of $18^{3/4}$, vaulted higher than 17 feet for the first time as a Jayhawk. Manson was out for most of the indoor season because of injuries.
"We decided to dedicate the indoor and the first part of the outdoor season to technique," Attig said. "At sometime in a vaulter's career, they have to do that to get ahead."
Bohanan said the sacrifice he had made, which included poor vaulting at times during the indoor season, was worth it.
"Coach Attig told us not to worry about technique," Bohanana said. "But to just go out there and jump. What's that I did today."