Snow Sports Northwest

Gillespie running just for fun of it

On June 6, she set a personal and meet record in the 1,600 meters at the Connecticut State Open with a time of 4:49, and later in the week won the New England championship in Burlington, Vt., with a time of 4:50, almost five seconds faster than the next finisher. Her latest championship was Gillespie’s third New England title in three different events, and she received the Connecticut Coach’s Association Track Athlete of the Year award last week. Heading into her freshman year, Gillespie enjoyed running, but wasn’t elite by any means. She joined Northwest’s volleyball team her first fall rather than cross country, and only decided to do indoor track so she had something to do over the winter. But later in that season, Gillespie picked up her first-ever varsity invitational win and started gaining confidence that carried over into the outdoor track season. Last spring, Gillespie closed her freshman year with a New England championship in the 800 meters at Willow Brook Park in New Britain. The race came down to the wire, as her time of 2:16.11 was less than a half second ahead of Danbury’s Emily Campbell. The victory was especially sweet for Gillespie as it came less than a week after Campbell had out-kicked her to win the Connecticut State Open in an equally dramatic finish. Gillespie took an unusual approach last summer following the late end to her track season. Rather than undertake an off-season running agenda like most elite runners, she took the entire two months off. Part of the reason was that since she was returning to volleyball in the fall, Gillespie knew she could use that season to slowly get back in shape for indoor track. Instead of getting in distance work over the summer, she did some cross training and found other ways to stay fit, including swimming and biking. Despite the success she had already experienced, however, coming into this spring it was still uncertain whether Gillespie could work the 1,600 into her repertoire. In June, 2010, she opted to focus on the 800 and didn’t enter the 1,600 in the State Open. But over the course of this season, her improvement in the 1,600 was staggering. Gillespie dropped 26 seconds off her best time freshman year, highlighted by the resounding State and New England wins to close the season. Along the way, she got a boost from an unlikely source.

NW today: Avalanche, snow | Buy DVDs Online Blog

KALISPELL, Mont. A century-old rock chalet in Glacier National Park that was damaged by an avalanche may be open for only a few weeks this summer after crews working to ready the backcountry hotel for the season found additional damage to the two-story hotel and its kitchen building. Chalet coordinator Kevin Warrington says this winters heavy snow load damaged the roofs and rafters of both buildings. In a post on the chalets web site Thursday, Warrington said repair crews will need complete access to the chalet for much of July as well as in late August and September. Sperry Chalets season was scheduled to begin July 8, but all reservations are being cancelled through July 19. Reservations in September and some in the last week of August also are being canceled.

MOSCOW Simultaneously exhausted and energized, University of Idaho President Duane Nellis returned to Moscow Thursday after an eight-day, 1,500-mile tour of Idaho to re-engage with the state. Billed as a followup to Nellis listening tour two years ago when he was new to the job, the tour took Nellis to 14 cities, 37 events and 21 media interviews. On that first tour, Nellis said he heard from UI alumni, business leaders and others that the university needed to return to its land-grant roots and make a greater effort to serve the entire state. They felt that the University of Idaho had somehow shied away from that, Nellis said in a news conference in his office. But now the universitys various constituencies believe the school is on the right track, he said. As evidence, he pointed to partnerships with businesses like Simplot, Avista, Schweitzer Engineering, Wells Fargo Brothers Cider appoints M , Agri Beef, Micron, Coeur dAlene Mines and Potlatch that have allowed the university to leverage its shrinking state appropriations to greater effect.

HILLSBORO, Ore. The Washington County sheriffs office says DNA evidence led to the arrest of a contractor on arson charges for a fire in May 2010 at a home under construction in the community of Metzger. The sheriffs office says the homeowner claimed that work completed by contractor William Michael Bunch was not done correctly. The dispute went to arbitration. The homeowners son was sleeping at the home at the time someone attempted to burn it down. He interrupted the suspects before an accelerant was ignited. Detectives took a DNA sample from Bunch that matched DNA evidence at the scene. He was indicted June 3 on arson charges and arrested June 8.He has been released on bail.

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