Memphis University School - Owl Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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Owls Miss District Title By a Half-Point Porter and 2-Mile Relay Team Advance to the State The 1977 Varsity Track Team had one of the best seasons ever at MUS. The Owls started their year rolling with a sound victory over Briarcrest. Great individual efforts from all characterized the team ' s performance in this meet as well as for the rest of the season. Tommy Christenbury participated in seven different events, and Mark Porter won both the two- mile and mile runs. MUS ' s next contest was a dual meet with Germantown. The Owls handily defeated the Red Devils. Fine performances from Chuck Chambers in the throwing events, Christenbury, and Porter ensured the victory. The track team entered the Harding Invitational next. The Owls finished the meet in a tie for third-place with Briarcrest, scoring 54 points. CBHS won, totaling 69 points and Harding took second, tallying 66.5. Brad Adams, putting forth a great effort, set a new meet record for the discus, throwing 139 ' 4.5 . Although MUS competed admirably, the absence of ' 77 VARSITY TRACK (2-0) Briarcrest Germantown 1st East Memphis Classic 2nd District Meet 3rd Harding Invitational TRACK Top distance -runner Mark Porter, also a cross- country man. practices early in the morning for the State. Porter often rose with the sun to run. Following his winning effort of 5 1 .7 seconds in the District 440. Ronnie Banks goes to the bench to rest. Christenbury because of a leg injury affected the team ' s overall performance. Shaking off their loss in the Harding Invitational, the Varsity came back with renewed vigor to win the prestigious East Memphis Classic. With a fresh Christenbury, who took three firsts, the Owls gave their best showing of the year. Porter, having already set a school record running the two-mile in a time of 9:49.9, established the mark in the mile-run at 4:20.5. Both the two-mile relay team of Stewart, Bourgoyne, Wrenn, and Peters and the 880-yard relay team of McCrary, Bilsky, Monaghan, and Ray took firsts in their respective events. The outcome of the meet was in doubt until the last event, the mile relay. The team of Bourgoyne, Christenbury, Porter, and Banks won the race to give MUS the edge over CBHS by four points. After this great victory, the team competed in the District Meet at Memphis State ' s Kennedy Complex. Christenbury gave his best performance of the year. Excelling in all of his events, he set a new school record in the newly-established intermediate hurdles with a run of 40.0 seconds. Ronnie Banks gave his finest effort of the season to gain a surprise victory with a 5 1 .7 second 440 dash. Adams, Porter, and the two-mile relay team all won and qualified to participate in the Regional along with Banks and Christenbury. Despite this fine showing MUS finished second, a half-point behind the winner, Booker T. Washington. In the Regional Meet at the Fairgrounds, Porter placed third in the mile. Christenbury came in fourth in the high hurdles and fifth in the intermediates. The two-mile relay team that set the record at MUS took third. Because of their fine finishes in the Regional, Porter and the two-mile relay team advanced to the State Meet. Here the Owls ran well although failing to place. 14 SPORTS iff

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Knowing that they ' ve missed 10 minutes of class, students find it easier to laugh at a Furry Lewis ' joke. Sponsored by the members of the Blue and Red Conventions to provide entertainment, this appearance was Furry ' s second annual performance at MUS during the Student Council Elections. Students taking a holiday in Florida are Destin-ed to become enthralled by the glorious Florida sunrises. Destin remained a favorite mecca of fun-loving students in search of the four S ' s — sun, surf, suds, sex — despite competition by snow-skiing trips sponsored by the school and Young Life. SPRING 13

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With intense concentration. Tim Monaghan and Albert Ray exchange the baton as the 440-relay team enters the last leg of the race. Moments later Ray broke the tape for yet another first place. Christenbury Sets State Mark in Decathlon The decathlon ... a grueling two- day event. It consists of ten tests of one ' s athletic ability. The athletes compete in the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot-put, high jump, and 440- yard dash on the first day. On the next they try their skills in the high-hurdles, discus, pole vault, triple jump, and mile run. Each athlete competes against an established standard and is given a certain number of points for his performance, a thousand being the highest value given. The athlete with the highest point total in the ten events is the winner. Thus a decathlete must be extremely talented, and a winner must be the best of the best athletes. Tommy Christenbury is a winning decathlete. During the summer, he competed in the state decathlon at Henderson ville. Trailing by 197 points after the first day, Tommy came back to win, scoring 9,096 points out of 10,000. He scored 1000 in the hurdles, high jump, and shot-put. He also had personal bests in four other events. After the final event Tommy had earned the new state record, breaking the previous mark by 164 points. His effort gave MUS its third state record, the most of any school in the state. Tommy went to the southeastern AAU to defend the title that he won last year. The AAU competitions differed from the state decathlon by replacing the triple jump with the The most versatile track athlete in 1977, Tommy Christenbury, gets set to hurl the discus in preparation for his next decathlon. javelin. Tommy proceeded to win against inexperienced competition while improving his total from last year by 750 points. By winning, he qualified for the National Decathlon. The final step in Tommy ' s summer decathlon competition was the Nationals in Yakima, Washington. He got there one day late and upon his arrival had to compete in the second- day events with everyone else. After the other contestants left, Tommy did his first-day tests. By finishing late, he knocked the hometown Yakima boy out of third place. Although he came down from his previous year ' s showing of second-place, he was competing against older boys. Therefore, his performance against other competition was better. What does Tommy ' s future look like? He hopes to compete in the state and national decathlons in 1978. If he does well enough, Tommy may decide to shoot for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. No matter what, MUS has a fine athlete in Tommy Christenbury. TRACK 15