Wildcats dominate Lone Star Conference track meet

By BILL HART
Senior Sports Writer

COMMERCE - Abilene Christian University used quality to win the Lone Star Conference track championship Saturday.

The Wildcats won 11 of 12 running events and scored in every event except the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the high jump to score 274 points. Angelo State University, which led early, wound up a distant second with 187 points.

ACU even outscored Angelo State in the throwing events, 60-41, and in the past, that had been the Rams' strong points. And the Wildcats did it despite redshirting their two top shotputters.

"I told the team to not worry (about efforts) and put things together as a team this week, but to do well," said coach Wes Kittley. "We came to compete, to win and to qualify people for nationals (NCAA Division II meet). And we did it."

Kevin Dilworth was named the outstanding runner and Andy Kokhanovsky shared the field event award with javelin thrower Chris Weilert of University of Central Oklahoma.

Dilworth won the 200 in 20.98, which qualified him automati- cally for nationals and ran legs on both winning relay teams. Weilert threw the javelin 200-6, while Kokhanovsky won the shot put (52-0) and the discus (178-9).

ACU racked up 166 points in the running events, and went 1-2 in the 100 and 200. Ten were the fewest points the Wildcats scored in running events and nine was the fewest they got in a field event.

Besides Dilworth, ACU qualified Musa Gwanzura (3:46.47) and Thomas Korir (3:47.11) in the 1,500, Richard Young in the 400 hurdles (51.06) and Robert Guy in the 400 (46.22) for nationals. It was Gwanzura's first outdoor race of the year after being bothered with leg problems all spring.

"I'm not 100 percent, but I felt good today," Gwanzura said. "I got pushed early, and usually I start to pull away with 300 me- ters to go. Today, I wanted until the last 200. But this was only my fifth race all year and the first outdoors, so I'm pleased."

Dilworth had four long jumps over 25 feet, but Darrin Session of Angelo State leaped 25-10 on his last attempt to win. Dilworth had one last chance to catch him, but fell a half-inch short.

But Dilworth gave ACU an- chor Guy a good lead in the sprint relay and the Wildcats won in 40.48. Dilworth predicted the win as he made the baton exchange.
"If the race is close, I won't do that, but if Robert has a good lead, no one is going to catch him," Dilworth said. "Our hand- offs were good today, but we were just running to get the baton around. We just wanted to win, the time wasn't that big a deal."

ACU ran its best time in the 1,600 relay (3:08.41) as Guy led off with a 47.2, followed by Dil- worth 47.2, Richard Young 47.4 and Terrence Norris 46.7.

Trafton Rodgers matched his best time in the high hurdles, 14.09, was second in the 100 and was fourth in the javelin, but he failed to place in the high jump or long jump.

He wasn't the first out of the blocks, but he was the first over the initial hurdles and never trailed, winning by two-tenths of a second.

"I was relaxed over the first five hurdles, then I hit the eighth hurdle hard, but it didn't slow me much," he said. "I've been working on getting my right arm past my hip and I've spent a lot of time on my start. That's helped me lower my time this year."

Other ACU wins Saturday were Dontra Boykins in the 100 (10.42), Gwanzura in the 5,000 (14:26.73), Ossie Mdziniso in the 800 (1:50.71) and Stephen Moore in the triple jump (47-9). Mdziniso also was fourth in the 1,500, running a 3:51.59, breaking four minutes for the first time.

"This was the first time that I've triple jumped this year, so I was glad to win and I was pleased with my distance," he said. "Doing well in the long jump this morning helped me get ready for the triple jump."

Moore had a personal best 24- 01/2 and it gained him a point in the long jump. He was also fourth in the high hurdles.

ACU now has 19 automatic qualifiers for nationals, to be held May 23-25 in Riverside, Calif.