Girls’ Athlete of the Week : Oden Has Field Day With Shotput

When Irvine High School volleyball player extraordinaire Bev Oden showed up for the first day of track practice three months ago, no one was more surprised than Irvine track and field Coach Herb Stockman.

Since then, Oden has been surprising everyone--even herself--with some outstanding performances in the field events.

Oden, The Times’ athlete of the week, placed fifth in the shotput (40-feet 0 1/2-inches) at the state track and field championships at Cerritos College Saturday.

The feat is not so surprising, considering Oden’s overpowering physical prowess--she stands 6-feet-1 1/2, weighs 170 and has the quickness usually reserved for point guards. But her achievement is very surprising when one considers she did not even compete in track and field last year and discus , not shotput, was her better event this season .

Last year, she chose to concentrate on volleyball. This season she earned All-American honors and was named the most valuable player at the state tournament, where she led Irvine to the large-school title.

“I am just amazed,” Oden said. “I think at the beginning of the year, I came out just to have fun. I met a lot of people and had fun at practice. I didn’t think I would get this far, especially in the shot.”

Oden, who will attend Stanford this fall, only competed in track and field this season because her academic load was a little lighter than last year’s and club volleyball practices did not conflict with track practices. She wanted to have fun competing, but did not approach her training frivolously.

“I did not want to just go in there and put in half the time and just show up at meets because I didn’t think it was fair to everyone else who put the (practice) time in,” Oden said.

Oden, who competed in the shotput and discus her freshman and sophomore years, had done well in the discus all season and was top-seeded in the event at the Southern Section 4-A preliminaries. But she had an off-day, and her throw of 103 feet (more than 34 feet less than her personal best) was not good enough to qualify her for the finals.

“At CIF prelims, a lot of wind came up and she was in the last flight of seven flights,” Stockman said. “Maybe she was tired of waiting, but she just couldn’t get going. (The wind) affected a lot of the girls, but it affected her the most.”

That same day in the shotput, she had a personal-best toss of 40-2 3/4 to qualify for the finals.

“After CIF, when she didn’t qualify in the discus, I was able to spend a little more time (with her) on the shotput,” Stockman said. “And that is when she started throwing over 40 feet.”

After making an adjustment in her technique, Oden improved by a foot, throwing 41-3 at the Masters qualifying meet. She was seeded seventh at the state tournament.

TOP PERFORMERS

Allison Franke of Canyon placed third in the discus at the state track and field meet Saturday with a throw of 158-feet 1-inch.

Shelly Tochluk of Westminster placed fifth in the 400 meters in 55.81 seconds at the state track and field meet Saturday.

Bev Oden

Irvine High School

Position: Discus / shotput

Height, Weight, Class: 6-1 1/2, 170, Senior

Last Week: Oden placed fifth at the state track and field championships, tossing the shotput 40-feet 0 1/2-inches.

Season: Oden was undefeated in the discus and shotput in South Coast League dual meets. She had the league’s top mark in the discus (137-2 1/2).