Boise, LaTech sew up WAC

Travel distance aside, Boise State and Louisiana Tech would probably be in favor of Hawaii hosting the Western Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships again down the line.

The Broncos and Bulldogs made their trip to Honolulu a profitable one by running away with the team championships yesterday at Cooke Field, completing season sweeps of the WAC indoor and outdoor championships.

"I would support that, I have a good experience here," BSU coach Mike Maynard said. "I'm going to enjoy taking the trophy home on the plane."

Boise State maintained the lead it established on Friday to win its first WAC outdoor championship. The Broncos opened the final day of competition with a 27-point lead over Utah State and finished with 186 total points.

USU finished second at 127 points, followed by Idaho at 124.

BSU junior Ty Axtman added the 1,500-meter gold to his win in the 10,000 meters on Friday and was named the outstanding performer of the meet.

"Up until the last few events we almost had a perfect meet," Maynard said. "It's just a really solid team all around, it wasn't just the top-level guys."

Louisiana Tech's dominance in the sprints carried the Bulldogs to their second straight women's title with 174 points. LaTech swept the top four spots in both the 100 and 200 meters, and also claimed the 400 meters, and 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

LaTech senior Donesha Spivey, the outstanding women's performer, won the 100 and 200 meters, junior Nina Gilbert held on to win the 400.

Idaho made a push at the Bulldogs in the distance events late in the meet, taking three of the top five spots in the 5,000. But LaTech's 4x400 relay team erased any thoughts of an upset.

"That's our bread and butter," LaTech coach Gary Stanley said of his sprinters. "There's not a lot of distance runners in Louisiana, so we really go hard at that. ... You have confidence, but you also know that you live and die by it, you have to have it."

Hawaii's women finished with 53 points to place eighth in their first year as host of the conference championships. Although the Wahine reached the 50-point mark coach Carmyn James had set as a goal, she was a bit surprised at how they got there.

"We're still going to hit our target, but it's just that we got them in different places," she said.

UH didn't get as many points in the throws and pole vault as expected, but scored in the 400-meter hurdles, thanks to freshman Thalia Amanakis' bronze-medal performance.

Amanakis won UH's only medal of the day by setting a personal best for a second straight day. She qualified with a time of 1:03.43 on Friday, and topped that yesterday at 1:02.05.

"I wanted to make it at least in the top six," she said. "I was ranked eighth when I came in here, so I'm really happy with how I did.

"Even if I didn't get a medal and I still PB'd that would have been a big thing for me, knowing that I ran my best today. So it's a bonus."

A week after setting a school record in the pole vault at 3.69 meters, Patricia Gauthier's day ended far earlier than she'd hoped. The junior got over 3.65 yesterday, but fell short on three attempts at 3.80 and finished sixth.

On her last two attempts, Gauthier appeared to clear the bar on the way over, but brushed the bar just enough on her descent to shake it off the stand.

"I'm just thinking that I know I'll realize it doesn't even matter in a few hours, but right now I'm really sad," Gauthier said.

The good news for Gauthier is she's already qualified for the NCAA West Regionals to be held in two weeks in Provo, Utah.

"Regionals are more fun because you're not expected to get a place and if you do that's awesome," she said. "You've got nothing to lose, whereas today I felt like I did."

The four-day event ended with the women's discus just before sunset. UH sophomore Meghan Weaver bounced back from a disappointing showing in the shot put on Friday to place fourth in the discus with a top throw of 46.68 meters.

Weaver, Gauthier and WAC high jump champion Emily Sheppard have qualified for the regionals, and James expects heptathlon winner Annett Wichmann to be invited to the NCAA championships in Sacramento, Calif., based on her scores this week.

Running home: Kohala graduate Andrea Leitner set a personal best in the 5,000 meters yesterday with a time of 18 minutes, 54.43 seconds in her return to the islands. The New Mexico State sophomore also competed in the 10,000 meters on Friday.

"It worked out great traveling with the team," Leitner said. "I got to have my teammates come over and get to experience Hawaii and show them the food and the culture and the lifestyle, and they loved it."