State High School Sports -- Track & Field Records Stand The Test Of Time

Two boys, two incredible jumps.

A pair of state records that have stood for 30 and 15 years and should keep standing into the 21st century.

Rick Noji's high jump of 7 feet, 4 1/2 inches in 1984 changed his life.

Casey Carrigan's state-record pole vault of 17 feet, 4 3/4 inches in 1969 was anticlimactic.

When the final state track championships of the century take place Friday and Saturday, Noji's mark in the high jump and Carrigan's in the pole vault seem safe despite strong performers in the events. They are among 10 state track records that tower above the rest. Years, even decades, haven't dimmed these monumental accomplishments.

Not only did Carrigan already have the state record of 17-0, the remarkable athlete from Orting High School in Pierce County had performed in the ultimate arena - the Olympic Games - as a high-school junior.

Carrigan had been the youngest member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team but failed to get past the preliminary round in Mexico City because of a soon-to-be-changed rule that nullified any jump if the pole fell into the pit. Carrigan got over the bar on his final try at the qualifying height of 16-1, but his pole betrayed him.

"It was a heartbreaker," he said. "It was the high and low for me athletically."

Noji's unforgettable leap occurred on a May afternoon in 1984 at the Metro League championships at Husky Stadium.

His world-class leap was preceded by a little low-class cuisine.

"What's funny is I remember walking down the tunnel into Husky Stadium and I was eating a Ding Dong and had a Slurpee," he said. "In high school, you don't have much of a diet."

Noji was a Franklin High School junior when he dropped jaws around the state. He had stopped growing in junior high at 5 feet 8, a fact that made both his state high-school record jump of 7-4 1/2 and his eventual personal best of 7-7 in 1991 all the more remarkable.

Today, Noji, 31, is married and lives in West Seattle. He is involved in running his family's business, Columbia Greenhouse, in Kent. He hasn't jumped since the 1996 Olympic Trials when he failed to make the team.

Carrigan, 48, has been a member of the Long Beach Fire Department in California for 18 years and has risen to the rank of captain.

"I didn't realize I still held the record until about five years ago when my parents sent me an article," he said in a telephone interview.

Noji's mark seems the safer of the two. Six pole vaulters in the state have cleared 16 feet this year, bringing the all-time total to 13.

Only Carrigan has cleared 17 feet.

"Sounds like a bumper crop up there," Carrigan said.

He chose to live in Hawaii before the 1972 Olympic Trials and didn't get good competition or coaching. He made a comeback in '74 and '75, clearing 17-10 3/4 at a meet in Germany, but was injured before the '76 Trials.

Despite the injuries and disappointments, he is happy with his life, which includes a second marriage.

"I'm glad the way things worked out overall, I really am," he said.

Carrigan's 30-year record isn't even the oldest all-time track mark (which can be set into the summer after graduation). Gerry Lindgren, a slightly built running machine nicknamed the "Spokane Sparrow," set two distance marks in 1964 that still survive, although they are conversions from the mile and two-mile to metric near-equivalents.

Lindgren, a star at Rogers High School and later at Washington State, ran a 4:01.5 mile in high school, which converts to 4:00.1 for 1,600 meters. The closest anyone has come to Lindgren's 1,600 was Woodinville's John Quade, who ran 4:02.18 in 1985.

Lindgren's two-mile indoor time of 8:40.0 converts to 8:37.0 for 3,200, according to the Washington Track and Field Annual.

The state mark that appears in the most jeopardy this spring is the boys triple jump of 50 feet, 3/4 inch set in 1977 by Aaron Williams of Tacoma's Wilson. Wes Nurse of Decatur in Federal Way this month became the second jumper in state history to pass 50 feet and is only a quarter-inch behind Williams' mark.

A handful of other remarkable records, however, have withstood all challengers.

Boys shot put

Vince Goldsmith of Tacoma's Mount Tahoma heaved the shot a remarkable 69 feet, 11 inches in 1977. The record set by the future Oregon football and track star was challenged (66-8) by Ben Lindsey of Lynnwood in 1996. Lindsey is now on the University of Washington track team.

"If Ben Lindsey couldn't beat it, you know it's going to hang out there a while longer," said Scott Spruill, who publishes "Washington Track and Field Annual" with his wife, Joan.

Boys 400 meters

Perhaps the state's most remarkable record is the one set by Darrell Robinson of Tacoma's Wilson in 1982. His 400 time of 44.69 seconds is the only national high-school record held by a Washington athlete. Robinson set it in a national summer meet after winning the 1982 state meet in 45.74.

Girls javelin

Erica Wheeler of Sequim threw 189-7 in 1985, an achievement Spruill calls "a monster record." No one has come within 17 feet of it. Wheeler went to Stanford and was on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team.

Girls 400

Erika Harris, a junior at Gig Harbor High School, was clocked in 51.45 in 1981. She later ran for Bellevue Community College. Her mark still stands by nearly 3 seconds.

Girls 3,200

Patty Matava, a Bellevue High junior who later ran for Virginia, ran a 10:08 in this nearly two-mile race in 1982. The 90-pound Matava has the top six marks in state history. The next best runner is 11.5 seconds slower.

Girls 1,600

In 1978, Issaquah sophomore Deanna Coleman was timed in 4:42.5 in her only full season of high-school track. No one has come within 2 1/2 seconds of the mark. A year later, she set the 800 mark of 2:04.7. The only two state girls records that have stood longer are the shot-put mark of 51-4 set in 1971 by Lynette Matthews and the long-jump mark of 21-3 set in 1975 by Sherron Walker of Everett.

Injuries limited Coleman, whose sister Juli scored 60 points in an Issaquah basketball game, to one cross-country season at Washington.