Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Alana Clooten is comfortable in enemy territory.

The Lathrop High School graduate competes for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets but she has made herself at home at Clemson this indoor track and field season. She’s won twice in the women’s weight throw at the home of the Atlantic Coast Conference rival.

It takes Clooten about 1 1/2 hours to drive from Georgia Tech’s campus in Atlanta to Clemson, S.C. The former Alaska high school standout is still in high gear when she enters the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Complex.

It’s where she set a personal and team indoor best of 60 feet, 9 1/2 inches in the Tiger Invitational last February.

And her success at the home of the Tigers isn’t limited to the indoor season. As a freshman, she broke Georgia Tech’s record in the women’s hammer throw with a mark of 174-2 at the Orange and Purple Classic outdoor meet. It was the third best effort nationally in 2006 by an American junior woman. It also qualified her for the USA Track and Field National Championships, where she placed fourth at 168-6.

It seems odd that when Clooten was being recruited for track and field or basketball, Clemson wasn’t one of the schools which inquired about her.

The closest she came to Clemson was when then Alaska Anchorage head coach Jody Henson wanted to recruit her for the Seawolves women’s basketball team. Henson is a former Clemson assistant coach.

It seems, too, that the Clemson track and field coaches didn’t know what they were missing because Clooten is at home there, particularly in the indoor season.

“I’ve become comfortable at that facility,” Clooten said Tuesday from Atlanta. “It’s pretty nice and the (throwing) ring is pretty fast.”

The 5-foot-10 junior started the season on Nov. 30 by winning in the Clemson Opener with a throw of 60 feet, 6 3/4 inches.

“I just had a lot of adrenaline,” Clooten said. “It was the first meet after you’ve practiced for 3 1/2 months. You want to make sure that you get out there and make all that work pay off.”

On Jan. 18, she paced the field at the Clemson Invitational, winning at 60-5 1/4. That effort had followed a third-place finish of 59-2 1/4 at the University of Kentucky Invitational.

“I got my timing down in that meet and hopefully that will help me go farther in the next meet coming up,” the 20-year-old industrial engineering major said. Georgia Tech competes Friday and Saturday in the Rod McCravey Invitational in Lexington, Ky.

Clooten has come far in college track and field, succeeding in events which she didn’t compete at the high school facilities in her home state. There’s also no indoor season for high school track and field in Alaska.

“It’s just a different feeling competing indoors,” Clooten said. “Outdoors, the throwing ring is far away from the track; indoors, you’re right there with everything and everybody else.”

Few competitors came close to Clooten in high school. The former Malemute captured four state and Region VI titles each in the girls discus and three crowns each in the shot put at the region and state meets.

In the indoor season for Georgia Tech, she competes in the weight throw, which is a 20-pound round weight enclosed in a nylon-like bag with a handle. When she competes in the outdoor season for the Yellow Jackets, she throws the hammer, a weight attached to a cable with handles.

The events are different from high school, but her mental approach hasn’t changed.

“I had a mentality in high school that I wanted to win those meets,” said Clooten, “and that mentality has helped me out a lot here.”

She’s using the same mentality to strive for her first qualification for the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, taking place this year on March 14-15 in Fayetteville, Ark.

She has come close this season to the NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 18.75 meters or 61 feet, 8 inches, and she needs to reach 21 meters (69-3) for an automatic qualification.

“Every meet I go into, I want to hit that provisional mark. That’s a huge goal for me,” Clooten said. “It will all come down to the timing on one throw and hitting everything right.”

CAMPUS TRAILS: Freshman defenseman Teal Bishop of Fairbanks scored her first two career goals for the Ohio State women’s hockey team in a sweep at Niagara in New York. She had one goal each in Friday’s 4-0 win and Saturday’s 4-3 victory … Buffalo State (N.Y.) senior right wing Samantha Simpson of Fairbanks contributed a goal and two assists Saturday in a 4-2 win over Chatham in an ECAC Division III West women’s game in Pittsburgh, Pa. … Senior center Mike Marquette of Fairbanks scored his first goal of the season and provided an assist Friday for the Milwaukee School of Engineering in a 6-3 win over Finlandia (Mich.) in a Midwestern Collegiate Hockey Association game in Milwaukee, Wis. … Providence junior center Nick Mazzolini of Anchorage scored short-handed for his fifth goal of the season in Friday’s 5-1 win over Northeastern in a Hockey East men’s game in Boston. He had an assist in Saturday’s 5-2 loss in Providence, R.I.

• Santa Clara senior guard and Wasilla graduate Chandice Cronk was named Monday as the West Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week. Cronk was recognized for scoring 26 points last Thursday in a 66-64 victory over San Diego in Boise. She sank two free throws with one second left for the game-winning points. She contributed 15 points, three rebounds and two steals to last Saturday’s 57-50 home win over San Francisco. Cronk ranks second in the conference for 3-point field goals (53) and fourth in scoring (17.2 points per game) … Merrimack junior guard and West Valley alumnae Casey Miller chipped in eight points, five assists and four rebounds Tuesday in a 63-59 victory over Bentley (Mass.) in a Northeast-10 Conference women’s game in North Andover, Mass. … Sophomore guard and Barrow alumnus Dominick Lozano scored a game-high 22 points and had five assists for Peninsula College in an 84-75 win over Edmonds (Wash.) Community College in last Saturday’s Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges men’s game in Port Angeles, Wash. Wasilla grad and freshman guard Jesse Bean contributed seven points and seven assists for the winners … Chugiak grad and junior forward Chris Devine contributed 12 points to host California Irvine’s 60-54 win over California Davis last Saturday in a Big West Conference men’s game … Freshman guard Talisa Rhea from Juneau-Douglas scored 17 points for Oregon State in a 74-70 loss to UCLA in a Pacific-10 women’s game last Saturday in Los Angeles.

• Sophomore and North Pole grad Scott Woster posted a pair of top-three finishes for the University of Buffalo men’s swim team in Saturday’s 138-105 loss to Miami (Ohio) in Buffalo, N.Y. He swam the third leg of the winning 400-yard medley relay (3 minutes, 31.56 seconds) and placed third in the 200 freestyle (1:45.95). It was the last home meet for Buffalo senior and Cordova grad Sean Beecher, who swam the anchor leg of the fourth-place 400 medley relay (3:46.94) and placed seventh in the 50 freestyle (24.04) and eighth in the 200 breaststroke (2:18.94).

Contact staff writer Danny Martin at 459-7586 or dmartin@newsminer.com.