Instead of the normal congratulatory pat on the back, Dan Ames
received a bath. An ice bath, that is. After victorious
performances in the hammer throw, shot put and discus at the NCAA
West Regional Meet in Northridge, the senior thrower was all
smiles, even after being doused in celebration by his teammates.
While Ames was favored to win all three events at the meet,
long-time throws coach Art Venegas emphasized how rare it is for
one athlete to repeat the throwing equivalent of a hat trick at
both Pac-10s and regionals. “You may never see another
triple-win Pac-10 athlete repeat at regionals again,” Venegas
said. “There are too many different factors during
competition. All you need is one super athlete to win one of the
events.” Ames managed to accomplish what seemed impossible
this past weekend. “After winning all three events at
Pac-10s, I set a goal to do it at regionals,” he said. For a
time during both the shot-put and discus throw, it looked as though
Ames might not repeat his triple title. Ames did not lead the
discus until the fourth round of the finals. His stiffest
competition came from Niklas Arrhenius of Brigham Young. Ames
finally took the lead with a throw of 189 feet, 4 inches, to
automatically advance to the NCAA Championships with the rest of
the top-five competitors. Teammate Jeremy Silverman was just out of
automatic qualifying range, finishing sixth in the discus throw. In
the shot put, Silverman led the competition for four rounds until
Ames overtook him on his second-to-last throw. Silverman set a
personal record in the event, achieving a mark of 64-04.5 feet,
good enough for second place. In the middle of the competition, an
extremely long throw by Ames almost found its way into the record
books but was ruled a foul by the officials. The throw was believed
to be approximately 68 feet, which would have been a huge personal
record for Ames. It was not until the fifth round that Ames
surpassed Silverman with a throw of 64-03.25 feet. “I would
rather see (Ames) beat me than any of the other guys,”
Silverman said. With a one-two finish, both throwers advanced to
the national championship meet in the shot put. “I have my
highest hopes in the shot put,” said Ames. “I’ll
compete in all three, but everything after the shot put is
gravy.”
800M RUNNER BACK: After injuring his hamstring
three weeks ago, middle-distance runner Nick Thorton made his first
appearance this weekend in the 800m. Finishing fourth, Thorton
qualified for nationals with a time of 1:50.98. But getting into
the top five proved difficult for him. During Friday’s
preliminaries, Thorton’s healing hamstring began to hurt
again, causing him to worry. Then before the finals Saturday, panic
had set in and distance coach Eric Peterson described Thorton as
looking like a deer in the headlights. “I was a little
nervous because he had that look in his eyes, so I confronted him
about it,” Peterson said. “I think sometimes it’s
good for an athlete to let it all out.” Once in the race,
Thorton said he wasn’t feeling at his peak but after hearing
shouts from the coaching staff, he knew it wasn’t over.
“I heard Coach Veney scream, “˜Don’t punk
out!’ and I knew I had to step it up.” With that,
Thorton was motivated enough to grab fourth and now has the week
and a half before nationals to give his hamstring the needed rest.
“Against these competitors in the West region, Nick can not
be 100 percent and still be competitive,” Peterson said.
“At the national level, that may not be the case.”
With reports from Jessica Bach, Bruin sports
reporter.