Ayers-Stamper Earns Place on U.S. Pan Am Junior Team
June 20, 2003

Complete Results
Decathlon     Heptathlon

PALO ALTO, Calif. (June 20) - Danielle Ayers-Stamper of Seattle Pacific University earned a place on the junior national team by finishing second in the heptathlon at the USA Junior Track & Field Championships Friday at Stanford University.

Ayers-Stamper scored a career-high 5149 points, falling just five points short of the winning total of 5154 by San Diego State's Shanon Meyer. By virtue of taking the top two places, both women will represent the U.S. at the Pan Am Junior Championships July 18-20 in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Meanwhile, in the men's decathlon, the Falcons' Chris Randolph (Fr., Lone Tree, Co./Denver Christian) finished fourth with a personal-best score of 6533.

Going into the heptathlon's seventh and final event, Ayers-Stamper held a 180-point lead over Meyer, thanks to a winning javelin throw of 131 feet.

However Meyer finished 14 seconds in front in the 800 meters to take the junior national title.

"I was a little scared, but I hung on," said Ayers-Stamper, who had a comfortable 176-point cushion over the third-place finisher, Cincinnati's Ashley Wilhelm (4973).

"Barbados was just a dream for me; I honestly didn't think this would be my meet," said Ayers-Stamper, noting that a back injury had hampered her training this month. "I was cautious with the high jump and javelin, because they can torque the back, but everything worked out. This is very exciting."

Ayers-Stamper (Fr., LaCrosse, Wa.), the Great NorthwestAthlete Conference track athlete of the year who was second in the NCAA Division II Championships last month, built a solid base on the first day, achieving personal-best marks in both the high jump (5-feet-7) and shot put (41-5 1/4) and finishing second overall in the 100-meter hurdles (14.73).

Friday began with a long jump of 18-5, which tied her for first place.

Her 800 time was 2:31.60 while Meyer ran a 2:17.08. Ayers-Stamper's score was 29 points higher than at the NCAAs.

Linda Blake (Fr., Richland, Wa.) of SPU totaled 4031 points, finishing in 13th place.

Randolph, the GNAC freshman of the year, was third following the first day's five events. In all, he set six new PRs to improve his score by 245. Donovan Kilmartin of YMCA Team Idaho won with 7431, followed by Lakewood, Colorado's Chris Helwick (6967) and Arizona's Robert Arnold (6772).

Randolph's marks included a long jump of 21-7 1/4, a 400 time of 50.75 and a breakthrough javelin throw of 161-4.