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Dan Ames pulled off a rare trifecta over the weekend, winning the shot put, hammer throw and disc

Instead of the normal congratulatory pat on the back, Dan Ames received a bath. An ice bath, that is. After victorious performances in the hammer throw, shot put and discus at the NCAA West Regional Meet in Northridge, the senior thrower was all smiles, even after being doused in celebration by his teammates. While Ames was favored to win all three events at the meet, long-time throws coach Art Venegas emphasized how rare it is for one athlete to repeat the throwing equivalent of a hat trick at both Pac-10s and regionals. “You may never see another triple-win Pac-10 athlete repeat at regionals again,” Venegas said. “There are too many different factors during competition. All you need is one super athlete to win one of the events.” Ames managed to accomplish what seemed impossible this past weekend. “After winning all three events at Pac-10s, I set a goal to do it at regionals,” he said. For a time during both the shot-put and discus throw, it looked as though Ames might not repeat his triple title. Ames did not lead the discus until the fourth round of the finals. His stiffest competition came from Niklas Arrhenius of Brigham Young. Ames finally took the lead with a throw of 189 feet, 4 inches, to automatically advance to the NCAA Championships with the rest of the top-five competitors. Teammate Jeremy Silverman was just out of automatic qualifying range, finishing sixth in the discus throw. In the shot put, Silverman led the competition for four rounds until Ames overtook him on his second-to-last throw. Silverman set a personal record in the event, achieving a mark of 64-04.5 feet, good enough for second place. In the middle of the competition, an extremely long throw by Ames almost found its way into the record books but was ruled a foul by the officials. The throw was believed to be approximately 68 feet, which would have been a huge personal record for Ames. It was not until the fifth round that Ames surpassed Silverman with a throw of 64-03.25 feet. “I would rather see (Ames) beat me than any of the other guys,” Silverman said. With a one-two finish, both throwers advanced to the national championship meet in the shot put. “I have my highest hopes in the shot put,” said Ames. “I’ll compete in all three, but everything after the shot put is gravy.”

800M RUNNER BACK: After injuring his hamstring three weeks ago, middle-distance runner Nick Thorton made his first appearance this weekend in the 800m. Finishing fourth, Thorton qualified for nationals with a time of 1:50.98. But getting into the top five proved difficult for him. During Friday’s preliminaries, Thorton’s healing hamstring began to hurt again, causing him to worry. Then before the finals Saturday, panic had set in and distance coach Eric Peterson described Thorton as looking like a deer in the headlights. “I was a little nervous because he had that look in his eyes, so I confronted him about it,” Peterson said. “I think sometimes it’s good for an athlete to let it all out.” Once in the race, Thorton said he wasn’t feeling at his peak but after hearing shouts from the coaching staff, he knew it wasn’t over. “I heard Coach Veney scream, ‘Don’t punk out!’ and I knew I had to step it up.” With that, Thorton was motivated enough to grab fourth and now has the week and a half before nationals to give his hamstring the needed rest. “Against these competitors in the West region, Nick can not be 100 percent and still be competitive,” Peterson said. “At the national level, that may not be the case.”

With reports from Jessica Bach, Bruin sports reporter.