Ayers-Stamper, Randolph Off to Solid Starts in Foreman Meet
May 14, 2004

TACOMA, Wash. (May 14) ­ Danielle Ayers-Stamper of Seattle Pacific University made an impressive if late season debut by winning one event and taking second in two others in the first day of the Ken Foreman Invitational heptathlon Friday.

Ayers-Stamper (So. LaCrosse, Wa.), who opted to eschew her redshirt status, scored 2913 points in the first four events. Portland's Julie Elliott holds a substantial lead with 3138. In the decathlon, Chris Randolph (So., Lone Tree, Co./Denver Christian) of the Falcons is the first-day leader with 3525 points.

The final three events of the heptathlon the last five of the decathlon will begin Saturday afternoon at the Southwest Athletic Complex in West Seattle.

The NCAA Division II and U.S. junior national heptathlon runner-up as a freshman, Ayers-Stamper hopes to score more than 4800 points and assure herself an entry in the NCAA Championships later this month.

She began by running the 100-meter hurdles in 14.99 seconds. Next, she high-jumped 5 foot, 3 3/4 inches‹best among the eight competitors--and threw the shot 36-6 1/4 before finishing with a time of 27.06 in the 200 dash. Linda Blake (So., Richland, Wa.), her teammate and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion, is in fourth place with 2696. The Falcons' Kristin Janney (So., White Salmon, Wa./Columbia) is fifth with 2645.

Randolph, who is also bidding for an NCAA berth, had personal-best top marks in the long jump (21-7 1/2), shot put (38-10 1/4), high jump (6-4 1/2) and the 400 dash (50.36). His 100 time was 11.94. Cascade College's TJ Samuela was in second place with 3209.

The Foreman Invitational begins with the men's javelin at 9 a.m. Saturday. The first race is the men's and women's 10,000 at 10 a.m. Admission is free.

Heptathlon (after four events): 1, Julie Elliott, Portland, 3138; 2, Danielle Ayers-Stamper, Seattle Pacific, 2913; 3, Bridgett Johnson, Western Oregon, 2884; 4, Linda Blake, Seattle Pacific, 2696; 5, Kristin Janney, Seattle Pacific, 2645; 6, Jazminn Reece, Willamette, 2565; 7, Jackie McCall, Western Washington, 2377; 8, Kelsey Cooley, unat., 2347

Decathlon (after five events): 1, Chris Randolph, Seattle Pacific, 3525; 2, TJ Samuela, Cascade, 3209; 3, Erik Jensen, Pacific Lutheran, 3169; 4, Josh Freeman, Western Washington, 3088; 5, Michael Wauters, Pacific Lutheran, 2921