BRUCHKÖBEL, Germany — Led by versatile Jennifer Jacobs and a five-medal performance in the weight events by the husband-and-wife duo of Christopher and Jennifer Diedrich, the Grafenwöhr-Vilseck squad ran off with the team title Saturday in the 2003 U.S. Forces-Europe track and field championships.
Fresh from the Ironman Switzerland triathlon July 31 in Zurich, Jacobs, the USAREUR 10-Miler champion, tried her hand at the 400-meter hurdles to open her four-medal day with a silver. She then moved to her regular events and struck gold by impressive margins in the 800 and 1,500, and anchored Graf-Vilseck to a victory in the 4x400-meter relay in the final women’s event of the day.
“I did hurdles in high school,” said Jacobs, who ran cross-country and competed in triathlon at the University of Wisconsin. “I entered the 400 to try to get the team a few more points.”
The strategy worked. She ran second to teammate Virginia Arias for a Graf-Vilseck sweep. Arias took the gold in 1:12.81, and Jacobs followed in 1:14.29 to get the team started on its 359-point effort, far ahead of runner-up Spangdahlem’s 277.
Jacobs won her 800 and 1,500 gold medals easily, clocking 2:34.17 to beat Spangdahlem’s Juanita Thomas by 15.80 in the 800. Her time of 5:00.03 in the 1,500 was 1:19.30 faster than runner-up Emily Pereira, her teammate.
Jacobs’ decision to enter the 400 hurdles cost her a chance to run in the longest women’s race here, the 3,000. It also left the door open for Kaiserslautern’s Jacqueline Chen, runner-up to Jacobs at this year’s USAREUR 10-Miler and winner of that event in 2002.
Chen easily took the 3,000 gold, running 11:11.64 in the 95-degree heat. Teammate Wendy Cooper finished second in 11:57.62.
“I’m looking for some shade,” said Chen, who’s stationed at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
K-town’s Shannon Swords, the two-time defending men’s USAREUR 10-miler champion, won the 10,000-, 5,000- and 1,500-meter races in 35:03.37, 18:09.99 and 4:18.30, respectively.
Swords lapped the field twice in the 10,000 and won by 2:04 over runner-up Robin Zuch of Heidelberg, even though he let Zuch run shoulder-to-shoulder with him, one lap back, for five laps. Swords, who was offering advice and helping Zuch establish a pace, began pulling away with three laps to go and won by nearly two laps.
Two hours later, Swords changed clothes and took the 1,500 wire-to-wire by more than nine seconds over late-closing Phillip Livingood of Baumholder. A third uniform produced a third victory in the 5,000 as Swords beat Ryan Hort of Würzburg by more than 1:07.
Even with the remarkable performance by Swords, however, K-town finished third in the team standings with 152 points.
Jennifer Diedrich of Graf- Vilseck matched Jacobs in individual medals. She won gold in shot put and discus and silver in javelin, a discipline she is less familiar with.
Husband Christopher, recently back from a nine-month deployment, chipped in with shot put silver and discus gold, alternating those medals with Byron Grays of Spangdahlem. Grays took the shot by 11 centimeters; Diedrich was nearly eight meters farther than Grays in the discus.