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Rich comes away with double gold
Vikings' senior easily wins shot put (39-7½) and discus throw (126-11)

By DEWEY FORGET
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Waiting in the bullpen for her turn in the discus ring, Corrine Rich is a model of relaxation.
The Montgomery senior discus and shot put star looks unconcerned. Her outward composure belies
the competitive spirit that drives her to excel.

On Friday night at Santa Rosa High in the All City Track and Field meet, Rich continued her
push toward another trip to the state meet with wins in her two events. She qualified for
state last year in the shot, and is hovering around the top 10 in the state this year in the
discus. She has an Empire best throw of 136-4, and has put the shot 40-0.

As expected, Rich took the All-City gold in the shot with a put of 39-7½, and the discus with
a throw of 126-11. Santa Rosa's Luz Tejeda was second (98-2).

"A big part of the discus is being relaxed. I'm a little more intense when it comes to the
shot," said Rich, who began throwing in the seventh grade when her junior high coaches told
her to try throwing.

"I wanted to do track, but I wasn't sure just what. The coaches at Slater told me to go to
the end of the field where they were throwing, and I just stayed there," Rich said.

"Before the competition, I do a few warm-ups and try to stay patient until they call my name.
Once you are in the ring, you can't think about anything, you just get in there and go with
the flow and do what you do. Really, the more I think, the worse it gets. Some people are
running around with I-Pods, listening to loud music. I try to stay laid back and quiet."

Rich has been able to successfully combine two sports that are virtually polar opposites --
discus and the shot with volleyball. She will attend the University of Pennsylvania next year
on a full ride volleyball scholarship.

"I wanted to throw there also, but the training is just too different. For throwing, I would
have to put on lots more muscle and body fat. That's not good for volleyball. They are such
different sports; I don't know how I ended up in both of them."

Cardinal Newman's Austin Davis, who is headed for Oregon, owns a Redwood Empire best discus
throw of 165-1. Davis qualified for state last year at 154. His All-City throw of 156-6 was
nearly 12 feet better than second place finisher Troy Baker (143-11) of Santa Rosa.

At 6-10, Davis is hard to miss. Lynn Meister, his throwing coach at Cardinal Newman says his
height gives him a lot of leverage. Add to that a great work ethic and year-round training
and it becomes apparent that Davis has untapped potential.

The one component Davis is lacking is weight, which usually equates to strength. It's a
problem Meister says can be overcome at Oregon.

"They will probably put 50-60 pounds on him," Meister said. "He has unlimited potential, if
he can keep the quickness he has now and increase his strength."

Santa Rosa captured the boys' team title with 200 points. Cardinal Newman finished second
and Montgomery third. Maria Carrillo finished first in the girls competition with Montgomery
second and Santa Rosa third.

Santa Rosa's Suzanne Howard, the Empire's premier hurdler, eclipsed her meet record in the
100 hurdles, running 14.90.

Howard also easily captured the 100-meter dash and the 300 hurdles. Howard set the meet
record in the 100 hurdles (15.0) last year.

"That's the first time I've run a sub-15.0 since I was a sophomore," said Howard, who is
pushing to break the Empire record of 14.57.

"I set the record here and then broke it. It was my most fluid race ever."

Junior Chris McCloskey (Santa Rosa) was a double winner, taking the boys' 110 and the 300
hurdles.

Howard was voted the meet's top girl athlete, and McCloskey the boys' top athlete.One of the
additions to the annual All-City was a school mascot 100-meter race. Maria Carrillo's Puma
won the race, but Santa Rosa coach Doug Courtemarche, who decided to run the novelty race
after seeing one at Logan High, said: "There might be an asterisk beside the official time
because the Puma ran in regular shoes and not paws."

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