Clark College's Track Team made a venture down to Mt. Hood Community College, the site of the Mt. Hood/Concordia Invitational. On April 26, Clark's team performed well in some of the events, mainly the pole vault and the men's 4x100 relay. Clark freshman Janae Larson from Bethel High School in Spanaway, Wash. also took second place in the women's 1500.
 
    The men's 4x100 relay team set the pace with a blistering time of 42.21 seconds in their win. That means that each member of the team had the baton for little over 10.5 seconds. Ther weren't many hitches in the run for the men, in fact, there was only a slight hold-up on the third exchange. Other than that, their run looked very solid.
 
    "The relay team was unvelievable," Head Coach Dave Caldwell said. "When you've got two guys who've run sub-eleven (100 meters) on the longer legs (two and four), you're going to have a pretty good time - they can run much faster, it's all about baton work."
 
    Second-leg man Nate Washington set a goal for the team of 41 seconds in an earlier interview, and with a little more practice on the baton hand-offs, the team could very well meet that goal.
 
    Amazingly, all four of the sprinters on the 4x100 relay team are jhust freshman, so they will have another full season to hone their skills to the point of perfection. With almost a full season of working together already, next year could prove to be a dominant season for thie relay team.
 
    Clark's pole vaulters also performed well Saturday. Freshman Eric Webb, a graduate of Prairie High School had a good day at the pit, and freshman Daneille Kermode out of Black Hills High School in Olympia gave it her best as well.
 
    "Pole vaulters are doing good," Caldwell said. "Eric Webb just had a nice PR (personal record), Danielle Kermode matched her PR today, she went nine feet, and that's with a petty bad ankle injury right now. She's tough, she's been battling through it."
 
    Clark does not have a facility where the pole vaulters can go to acutally practive their runs, yet the team performs at t high level.
 
    Sprinter Ryan Barrett, a member of the 4x100 relay team, won his heat in the individual 100-meter dash, but pulled up near the end with a manstring problem.
 
    "Ryan ran 11.06, but he was beating a guy that 11.89," Caldwell said. Caldwell said that the manstring is not a concern at this point. However, he said it may make Barrett think about not running the 100-meter dash in the future.
 
    Having Washington and Barrett, who are respectively the two fastest men in the conference, really helps Caldwell on the recruiting trail. "Having those high'caliber guys brings more fast guys in," Caldwell said. "I konw that there's two guys who've shown interest that are in the top of the state at all levels, they're in the top 10."
 
    If the track team can reel in two top 10 guys, they team would become even more solid in the sprints, so getting those two must be high on Cladwell's list of priorities when the off-season rolls around. In addition to the two guys Caldwell is pursuing, he has already had commitments from two recruits. "There are two guys that have already verbally committed, and I think it helps having guys here," Cladwell said. "The scholarships went up...we were able to recruit a little heavier."
 
    With potentially even more top-notch recruits coming to Clark for next season, 2008-2009, could prove to be a very solid year for the track team.