Former Tigers battle in the pole vault pits at Augustana

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

Augustana College hosted the Tournament of Champions Meet last week. It could have been called the Tournament of Bureau Countians.

The home team always has a strong Bureau County flavor with Princeton’s Jeff Scoma and Adam Hartz, Mineral’s Wes Jackson, Ladd’s John Thompson and Spring Valley’s Jake Taylor.

The pole vault competition also brought two former Princeton Tigers together in the pits — University of Wisconsin-Platteville sophomore Scott Howard and Carthage senior Nate Blazier. Both competed under the watchful eye of their former mentor at PHS, Lew Flinn, the 1955 IHSA state pole vault champion.

Howard finished third overall with a height of 15-5, which was his personal best and a provisional qualifying for Nationals. He had a couple attempts at 16-1, which automatically qualifies for Nationals.

Blazer was jumping at another pit and cleared 14-6, which was his best this year, for eighth place.

Jim Howard, Scott’s dad, said Flinn had a busy day watching the event.

“Lew was busy working both areas providing coaching tips and encouragement,” Howard said. “He not only had a great time watching two of his past pole vaulters he coached, but was able to watch the meet champion vault the winning height of 17-1.”

Blazier was also 12th in the long jump (20-3), just a few spots ahead of 16th place Hartz (19-8 3/4), and 15th in the triple jump (41-10). Scoma finished eighth in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.89, Thompson 11th in the pole vault (13-11 1/4) and Taylor 17th in the 10,000 meters (37:58.52).

Augie placed third as a team.

On the women’s side of things, Princeton’s Laura Luloff  helped the Lady Vikings 4 x 8 relay place fifth in the April 20 Augustana Invitational with a time of 10:37.57.

Baseball

• Tiskilwa’s Garrett Cornman, last year’s captain at Princeton High School, has started eight games for the JV team and two for the varsity team at Greenville College. He is batting .211 with two doubles and five RBIs in 19 at-bats on the JV level and 1-6 (.167) for the varsity in four games.

Softball

• Dawn Nissen drove in the only run for the Central College Dutch in a 1-0 win Monday over Gustavus Adolphus in the first game of a doubleheader at home in (Pella, Iowa). The senior shortstop from Princeton had a 3-3 game with an RBI in a 5-3 win over Simpson on April 21 and hit her second career homer April 15 against Cornell. Nissen is batting .289.

Men’s golf

• Senior Laramie Storm of Princeton was seventh for North Central College, with an 82, in its April 17 quadrangular at Cress Creek Country Club. Storm is the highest-ranked Cardinal after the first round of the CCIW championships, tied for 31st with a two-day total of 166 (84-82).

Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.