Thursday, May 24, 2001

Clay training
for a more
important day

Azusa Pacific athlete to skip
the NAIA decathlon in favor
of U.S. championship

---

By Dave Reardon
Star-Bulletin

Castle High graduate Bryan Clay, a junior at Azusa Pacific, will not defend his decathlon title at the NAIA championship meet that begins today at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Instead, Clay is priming for the U.S. championships in three weeks. This week, he competes in the 110 high hurdles, long jump, pole vault, javelin and 4x100 meter relay.

"We want him to be well rested for the U.S. meet," said Kevin Reid, Clay's coach. "He's doing events that will be good for him to tune-up in."

Clay owns the best American decathlon score of the season, having amassed 7,980 points at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Calif., April 19-20. It was also the year's best mark in the world at the time but has fallen to third on the world list since.

Also, University of Hawaii junior Cheryl Smith has a "99 percent chance" of being invited to the NCAA Division I outdoor track and field championships, coach Carmyn James said yesterday.

Smith, the Western Athletic Conference champion in the 10,000 meters, has the 16th-best time in the nation this year. She finished with a winning time of 34 minutes, 25.35 seconds at the Mt. SAC meet.

The time is good enough to make Smith a provisional qualifier for the NCAA championships.

"They take 20-some-odd people, so assuming things don't change between now and tomorrow, she should make it," James said. "We get the official word (Thursday) morning."

Jodie Hughes of Colorado has the year's best time in the 10,000, having run 33:25.

The NCAA meet is May 30-June 2 at Eugene, Ore.