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Idaho State Journal from Pocatello, Idaho • Page 6

Location:
Pocatello, Idaho
Issue Date:
Page:
6
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

PAGE 0-SECTION A-IDAHO STATE JOURNAL POCATELLO, IDAHO, FRIDAY, MAY 2), W6 Big Sky Meet Rated Wide Open FLAGSTAFF, Ariz, (AP)The annual Big Sky Conference track championships, which begin today, appeur to be a wide-' open affair with Idaho State, Montana, Boise State and perhaps Idaho rated as strong challengers to defending champion Northern Arizona. Idaho State is strong in the quarter mile, hurdles and mile relay; Montana and Idaho have the superiority in the weights; host NAU has the apparent ad- vantage in the distance events, and Boise State boasts good balance and could score in almost every event. Neither Weber State nor Montana State appears a threat to capture the team title. NAU, which last year nipped Montana 104'i; to 102 points for the title, has three defending champions returning this year Brad Armstrong in the pole vault. Dan McDowell in the javelin and Fred Buys in the lona iump.

Returning champions are entered in 10 of the 18 events. Montana has two of them in Dean Erhard in the steeplechase and John Roys in the 440-yard dash. Montana State's Joe Stanbury captured the triple jump while Idaho's Rick Brooks won the three-mile race last year. Championships will be decided today in the long jump, the discus and the steeplechase. The other finals will be held Saturday, beginning at 4 p.m.

Only three schools have won Big Sky track titles. Idaho State has captured nine, NAU has won twice and Montana once. Idaho State won the first seven meets from 1954 to 1970, then NAU won in 1971 to break the string and Montana claimed the title in 1972. Idaho State regained the championship in 1973 and successfully defended it in 1971 before NAU won in 1975. As i See it JOURNAL Andretti May Challenge For Indy Pole Position INDIANAPOLIS A Mario Andretti is expected to challenge Johnny Rutherford's pole position-winning speed of 188.957 miles an hour when the final weekend of qualification for the May 30 Indianapolis 500 begins Saturday morning.

Janet Guthrie, meanwhile, seemed almost in need of a miracle to get her speed up within reasonable striking dis- tance for a spot in the 33-car lineup. Andretti, with a reputation as an outstanding qualifier, has al- ready topped 188 m.p.h. in practice in his McLaren and has consistently been the fastest of the two dozen or so cars still hoping to fight their way into the lineup in trials Saturday and Sunday. "It's fun to run for the pole and have the fastest car," Andretti said after turning in the quickest practice run Thursday. "But I had a commitment to Formula I last weekend, so I'm just going to have to be satisfied with getting in the field and doing well in the race.

"If this was the first weekend of qualifying, I would really hang it out and go for the pole. But now it doesn't mean anything, except maybe to your pride. We'll just have to see what happens. I'll do what is comfortable, without taking unnecessary chances with myself or the equipment." Andretti said the extra week of practice, which he might not have gotten if he had qualified the first weekend, has resulted in some discoveries that may help build even more speed. "I feel like I'll be able to race real hard in the race itself," Andretti added.

"I'm really looking forward to it." Spouting Sports Andretti set the pace Thursday with a top speed of 185.529 m.p.h., which he said was not a "flat out" lap. Miss Guthrie managed only 168.004 m.p.h. and had various minor problems, including a tow-in once when she stopped on the course. Teammate Dick Simon hit 173.210 m.p.h. in a test of the car still well below what observers predict will be needed.

Only 10 spots remain and, so far, Miss Guthrie is not among the 10 fastest cars yet to qualify. The slowest driver already in the field is Jim McElreath at 179.122 m.p.h. Unqualified cars which have turned in speeds at better than McElreath's speed already in practice include those driven by kAndretti, Salt Walther, George Snider, Steve Krisiloff, Jerry Loquasto and David Hobbs. Danita Thomas Has No 'Playmates' By SCOTT PEYRON Journal Sports Writer Danita Thomas, in effect the Pocatello High School girls' (rack team, must have been one of those kids whom no one would play with when she was growing up. "Let's play tag!" one would beam.

"Can I play?" Danita would ask. "Sorry, Danita, but we could never catch you," would come the disappointing reply. "Well then, let's jump the creek," Danita might suggest. "Uh-uh. We'd all drown except you You're the only one who can jump it," her stick-in-the-mud companions would caution So, frustrated by her athletic prowess, Danita would sigh, turn and dash off into the sunset to chase her shadow.

The years may have changed the games, but Danita Thomas still doesn't have anybody to play with. DANITA THOMAS Terrorizes Track Marks Turning her efforts toward track, Danita has won every event in every meet she has entered this season. These events include the Gem State Invitational, in which she persevered through bone-chilling temperatures to dominate four events; the Southern Idaho Conference's Eastern Division championships, where she bet'tered the state 220 record by more than a second, tied the state 75-yard dash and 100-yard dash standards, and easily won the long jump; and the SIC Championships, in which she established four individual conference records and outran every field of opponents by a minimum of 10 yards--even in the ridiculously short 75. is the state tracs ana neiu ui uuiac, anu i n.m anyone who can't run with her there, she should start inquiring about the quality of competition in the Olympic Games in Montreal this summer. But Danita maintains that she has no problem with her "psych" prior to a race en if there are nothing but nobodys in the field.

"No, half the time I work out by myself anyway. You get used to it," notes Miss Thomas, commenting on her lack of competition. "I can drive myself as hard as I want." Even so, track performers consistently reach down mto the oeptns ot their energies for extra impetus when challenging a strong opponent. If that day ever comes officials had better pre-treat their track with fire retardant. One can discern a distinct fire in Danita Thomas' eye as she explicates her state track meet game plan.

She clearly wants to show Idaho who's boss. Danita plans to "get 11 flat or under" in the 100-yard dash. 19 feet or more in the long jump, 8.5 or less in the 75 yard dash-and, the real shocker-near 24.0 in th" 220, probably her best race. If she attains her goals, she will have shattered her state long jump record of 18-3 and improved her 1976 best by nearly two feet; cut two-tenths of a second from her century dash time, which already equals the Idaho record of 11.2; cut the Idaho record in the 75 by two-tenths of a second; and burned in effigy the 220 dash standard by more than two seconds. Indeed if Danita performs to these specifications, the Indians stand a very good chance of repeating as state track champions.

Pocatello's two-girl team- sophomore Danita Thomas and senior Ann Hilzman-tied the Twin Falls Bruins for the state title in 1975. One wonders what would be left for the ebony beauty in her senior year? "Beating the best times in the state is my main goal," Danita says, "And just to better my times'makes me feel just fine. "Next year, I hope to get my times even further down. I'll work hard all fall and come out strong in the spring." Sadly for the Idaho State University women's track program, Uamta Thomas declares that she will have had her fill of Pocatello by graduation time. The lure of the Pacific Coast greenery and (he University of Oregon track program seem to tickle her fancy.

No matter where she chooses to attend college, Danita will be able to write her own ticket. Upon entering Poky High, Danita established two personal goals- to join her steo-brother Jerry Quenton, former Indian basketball player par excellence, in the PHS Hall of Fame, and to win individual and team state track championships. Both dreams have already been realized. Whither now Danita Thomas? It seems that only miles of singed asphalt track will tell It takes incredible intestinal fortitude to improve on (hat which is already great But there is little doubt that Danita Thomas will find a way. DAVID GOLDBERG He Can Still Pitch David Fans Seven With Sewed-on Arm SAN DIEGO (AP) This week, David Goldberg pitched his first Little League game in almost a year, striking out seven batters in three innings.

Not bad for an 11-year-old kid whose arm nearly was severed in a motorcycle accident last June. "The child is unreal," said his mother, Carol, who fought off tears as she watched her son throw pitch after pitch as if nothing had ever happened to him. "I was riding on the back of my brother's motorcycle when we hit a bump and the shock absorber broke," David recalled. "We slowed down and all of a sudden, it happened." A baseball jersey he had been carrying caught in the motorcycle chain, pulling him off the bike and sending his arm through the spinning steel spokes of the rear wheel. Within seconds, the spokes had cut through hone and nerves, leaving only a small piece of skin holding his left arm to his body.

Dr. Tony Woodall, at the field for an awards ceremony that day, splinted the severed arm and wrapped it in a plastic bag the youth was rushed to Scripps Memorial Hospital. "They were going to amputate the arm," said David. "Then the doctors saw some movement in my little finger. If the finger hadn't moved, they would have taken the arm off." But the arm was reimplanted in a operation and no infection developed.

Then began David's fight for a trip to the mound again. "I had no flexation in the wrist and could only move two fingers," he said. Through February and March, he tried and failed. "Then one night, I had a dream that I could catch the ball by closing the glove with the other hand. I tried it and it worked." He signed up for a minor Little League team and kept practicing with his brother, Jeff, who had been driving the motorcycle when the accident occurred.

But when he was placed on a team, he began having second thoughts. 'He kept saying that he couldn't play," said Jeff. "But I kept bugging him to go out and play. Heck, he would have been in the majors if he had signed up earlier." David is playing again -pitching, batting and fielding. He also plays tennis and tackle football with his sewn-on arm.

His only problem, he says, is constantly having to explain to other youngsters how he got those strange-looking scars on his arm. "I tell them I got bitten by a shark," he says. Shoestring Financing Endangers Ali Fight By JOHN VINOCUR Associated Press Writer I West Germany (AP) the figures are usually millions when Muhammad Ali boxes, but the German promotional firm whose financial unsteadiness almost led to the cancellation of Ali's fight Tuesday with Richard Dunn of England was born only three months ago with a declared capital of $8,000. It took the same firm Pro- mot, GMBH only $150,000 dollars in "up front" cash a month later to convince Herbert Muhammad, Ali's manager, to go ahead with plans for the fight here, an informed source said. "The money was an unusually small amount for (his kind of thing, "the source went on, "but Herbert took it.

It. got him in with people he knew nothing about, but the feeling was that if it's German it's probably solid." On Thursday, the solidity of the deal had crumbled to the point where Robert Arum, (he American co-promoter who sold the Ali-Dunn package to the a i a Broadcasting Company, said the fight was close to collapse because the Germans had not come up with $225,000 due Ali. The sources said Ali and Herbert Muhammad had the choice of keeping the $150,000 in cash and foregoing the rest of their $1 65 million purse or waiving a part of the money owed them. Eventually, a deal was worked out in which the outstanding sum, equivalent to the amount Ali was estimated to have to pay in German taxes, was reduced to $160,000 after consultation with German tax officials. Promot signed a statement that it would pay the money and Ali was left about $65,000 short.

"It would not have hurt me none to go home," Ali said, possibly thinking that the $1.65 million seemed insignificant alongside the $6 million he stands to gain boxing against the Japanese wrestler in Tokyo next month and the $9 million he'll get for fighting Ken N'orton in Yankee Stadium in September. The important thing in Munich, Ali said, was that "I got into $20 million condition here." Ali's German bedfellows are nearly invisible. Walter Settele, a tax accountant who negotiated for Promot, has said its backers are people who prefer lo stay out of the limelight. Uli Kaiser, a German newspaperman hired to promote the fight, said he was employed by an intermediary who told him on three occasions that it could not say who the fight backers were. The intermediary, a public relations firm specializing in sports, dropped Promot on Wednesday when it said it received only half its fees.

In any case, the backers were people without money enough or sufficient experience to avoid requiring a heavy advance ticket sale to provide them with the cash they needed to continue daily operations. You Are What You Eat By GEORGE GREEK journal Sports Ea'-tor the A-i7 Bob Beeten needn't worry about i a av conference track and field cha.npionsn.ps ItarT Se and Wto miler John Johnson, who is a carbohydrate a state meet my coach said, 'I'm going to put you on "Hind 6 gh 0 0 me a lot of strength and helps me breathe a lot Tomorrow mornlS (Triday, the firs, day of the two day cha.np.ons pancakes and tomorrow night a big spaghetti dinner. Then 11 an'y'pSs fU magic formula' "Enough to nil up good sized But no milk That corns your and makes you feel weak, and that's the last thing I need kind of feel sorry for a lot of athletes because the don K.HA. (benefifsof the diet). What you eat and how you eat on day the meet is tremendously important," Johnson contends.

SPRINTER JAMES "Bird" Yizar agrees with the carbohydrate- for him it means hash browns and orange juice. Long jumser Dick i the answer is trench toast and 'coffee. But most tracksters don't worry about what they shove dcmn t.ie special," Mike Gore claims, "but 1 like pancakes and eggs a and raspberry syrup." "iTdeMnds'onThat time I run," distance runner Jeff English said. "It I'm running later in the day, then I want a big breakfast. I believe you jus: yo with what you do everyday.

Otherwise you'll start worrying about 1 uon believe in any lucky charms." But if he was munching on Orville's yogurt, maybe he would gtad- tst a good luck charm or two. For the Bengels' pole vaulting duo of Jim Talley and John (jrnma. i. i.oi what you eat but what you swallow. i "Vitamins and proteins they give us a bad time about it bu.

we uon. i Talley says. The two pop six vitamin pills and two tablespoons of powdered prole.n eac.i day In addition, Talley also gobbles four vitamin pills a day. "I don't take extra vitamin because they are already in the pills, iic niiire of a psycho," Urratia quips. As Fonz would say, "You nerd." WHEN JOHNSON ISN'T gobbling pancakes, he's formulating his philosophy for training, one which hits Beeten right between the "I'm doing basically what I did in high school, and in cross country it worked for the last meet," Johnson explained.

That may be good news for the Bengals because Johnson has had a meuiocne season thus far. "Most guys say, 'We don't count on you But this is my philosopny. don't believe in consistency. I think you should point for the big meet. "Besides proving to myself 'Yes, I can do want to prove it to Beeten and some of these other people.

I think I have an excellent chance at it," Johnson. who had the worst time among the conference entries in the mile (4 22 says in pointing toward the title Saturday. That may sound like idle thinking, but despite his haphazard training program, Johnson was the only freshman to place in the top ten in the- Hit; Sky cross country meet. NO MATTER HOW sweetly the other six Big Sky schools attempt to plan! the pre-meet kiss of death; Northern Arizona coach Leo Haberlack refuses to accept the favorite's role for his Lumberjacks. "It's always difficult to repeat.

I think the athletes get a little complacent," Haberlack explained Thursday afternoon as we strolled on the Lumberjack infield under rain-laden clouds. "I think it is going to be a good meet. It's gssing to be a four or five-team battle with Montana, Idaho, Idaho State, and we certainly have a chance, and Boise State." Personally, I think Leo is being too generous. I think it will be a two-team battle between the teams which own 11 of the 12 past meets Idaho State, which has won nine of them, and Northern Arizona, which claimed two. BOISE STATE was the earliest arrival for the Big Sky meet, having been in Flagstaff since Tuesday.

But Idaho and Montana share the honor for I ho transportation, airplanes. I bequeath what is left of my back and the pounded remains of my podvi- book support to Idaho State. Winnipeg Grabs Hockey Victory HOUSTON (AP) Winnipeg emerged from an 18-day hibernation Thursday night to beat Houston in the first game of their World Hockey Association championship series but the Jets' Anders Hedberg say the game could have gone either way. "They could have scored the winning goal just as easy as we could," said Hedberg, who scored two goals in the Jets' pulsating 4-3 victory over the defending WHA World Cup champions. Muny Softball Bannock Paving 4, Gustos 1 B-E No.

One 12, B-E No. Two 0 OUTDOOR TIPS FOR BETTER FLAVOR. FISH SHOULD BF FROZEN OUICKLy TO PREVENT LAR6E ICE CRYSTALS FROM FORMINC IN THE CELLS OF A FISH THESE CRYSTALS BCHAk DOW CELL WALLS ALLOW MOISTURE TO ESCAPE WHEN THAWED, RESULTING IN A TOUCH DRY MEAL STATEHOUSE WATER QUALITY PLANNING The Water Quality Management Planning Report is a review of the present status ot water quality management programs also contains recommendations for modifying exisiting management programs. The report is prepared as required by federal regulations issued pursuant to of the Clean Water Act. Information meetings to discuss the repori are scheduled in seven communities.

We invite you to attend. BOISE, JUNE I 7:00 P.M. Ada County Courthouse, Third Floor Court Room. LEWISTON, JUNE 2 7:00 P.M. Lewiston Community Center DOEUR D'ALENE, JUNE 3 7:00 P.M.

First Federal Savings Loan in Baseinc-iv; TWIN FALLS, JUNE 7 7:00 P.M. Shield Academic CSi Room 205 SODA SPRINGS, JUNE 8 7:30 P.M. Caribou County Courthouse, 1595, Main St. (Room 103 Basemen!) POCATELLO, JUNE9 7:30 P.M. Human Development Center, 4 2 1 Memories! Dr.

(Room 230) SALMON, JUNE 10 7:30 P.M. A copy of the full report can be reviewed at the following offices, or a brief summary will be mailed to you upon requesi. Division of Environment (DHWi P.O. Box 608 Coeurd'Alene, ID 83814 DHW Division ot' Environment 801 Rtnerve Boise, 0 8 3 7 0 2 DHW Division of Environment DHW Division of Environ 636Pershing 1028 Street Pocalello, ID 83201 lewiston, ID 03501 DHW Division of Environment 324 2nd Street East Twin Falls, ID 83301.

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About Idaho State Journal Archive

Pages Available:
177,084
Years Available:
1949-1977