Phil Raschker turned 60 in February, so every time she competes it’s record time. Her latest WRs came at this past weekend’s USATF National Masters Heptathlon Championships in Hoover, Alabama — her outdoor season debut. Her friend and mentor Phil Mulkey writes: “Phil bettered the former (hep) record of Marianne Maier of Austria, in temperatures that never dropped below 90 degrees during the competition. . . . (scoring) 6,865 points and exceeding the 2-year-old W60 World Record of 5876 by a virtual 1,000 points!” Phil also claimed the 80-meter hurdles WR and high jump WR.

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Results have yet to be posted, but the USATF National Masters Decathlon/Heptathlon Championships over the weekend in Alabama was the scene of some very hot action, including world age-group records, I’ve been told. Our friend Stefan Waltermann writes: “It was a pretty wild weekend, to say the least. The first day was very hot with high humidity; the second day was hot. We ran the 1500 with 99 in the shade. Well, no shade on the track. It must have been 130 out there! Still, everybody had a great time. I have never competed at any event with better officiating. I have xanax online rarely seen better facilities and certainly never better facilities at a high school.”

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Late last week, “Simpdog” became the 300th member of our masters track Forum. Since that’s a nice round milestone, it merits some self-congratulation. But that’s not my style. Instead, I’d rather focus on the members themselves. So who is Mr. 300? I wrote him to learn more. He graciously gave up his anonymity. The gent is John Simpson, a 41-year-old sprinter living in Corsicana, Texas. His best M40 marks are world-class: 10.97 for the 100, 22.55 for 200, 15.76 for 110 hurdles and 54.07 for the 400 (which he promises “will come down later on this summer.”)

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Stan Whitley, my fellow Kansas alumnus, today achieved a relatively rare feat for quarter-milers. He beat his age. At age 61, he clocked 58.91 seconds in the 400 at the Southern California Association USATF Masters Championships, according to unofficial results. The meet was at Cal State Long Beach, south of Los Angeles. The M60 American record is 55.56 by Don Neidig in 2004. Stan ran 57.27 last year at Charlotte, though — when he finished behind Roger Pierce’s 56.78.

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Mark Heckel of the USATF Three Rivers Association has taken charge of a blog meant to serve fellow track officials. Called COIN — Competition Officials Interchange Network — it’s pretty amateurish at the moment. But I suspect Mark will spiffy it up once he learns to deal with templates and such. Carroll DeWeese, a top masters official, informed folks of the new blog and added: “As you may have noticed with our other discussion forum, we had the spam problem. In this new blog, we will have a moderated forum, allowing Mark Heckel . . . to easily regulate the postings and eliminate the spam. We welcome you opinions, information and comments, please.”

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Last year, while running near-record 400s in the M50 age group, James Lofton confessed he wanted to bring down the long jump record as well. Last Saturday at Caltech in Pasadena, it was record or bust. He bust. His first attempt was a chop foul. Then he went 5.77 (18-11) on the second, had a run-through foul on the third and, on the fourth, “put it together like Bob Beamon, get that one big jump in.” He says he had a fast runway with a slight headwind and despite not jumping since 2001 went 6.13 (20-1) — with a takeoff two inches behind the board. But the effort cost him: “Did manage to pull my right hamstring (takeoff foot), tweak my left groin, and my back has tightened up on me.”

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The amazement continues. Martin Gasselsberger’s latest monumental work is a list of all-time bests in the men’s 100-meter dash up through M85. Martin’s mastersathletics.net is setting the pace for masters stats. The list isn’t perfect (it omits a recent 10.60 by M40 Aaron Thigpen and the sensational 10.16 by M35 Jeff Laynes). And he doesn’t mention M90, M95 and M95 marks at all. But he’s trying hard to get his arms around the beast of age-group bests. He also lists wind-aided marks — becuz they’re fascinating!

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The funeral was Friday for Clarence “Chaunce” Cook, the 73-year-old thrower killed by a discus at a Texas meet. Haven’t heard details of the memorial service, but an obituary by the mortuary provides more depth about the man’s life and loves. And a phenomenon of the Internet Age — an online guestbook — shares tributes to Chaunce. Said one: “What a guy! What a grin! What a competitor! What a “husker”! We had so many great memories with you both. I smile from ear to ear with every memory. The good lord took a good one from us, but he didn’t take the memories.”

Tom Jordan, meet director of the Pre Classic, told an Oakland Tribune sportswriter yesterday that he’ll consider inviting M40 recordman Jim Sorensen for his event’s featured Bowerman Mile on Sunday. In an article published today, “Asked Monday if there might be a spot in his race for a 40-year-old chasing a record, Pre meet director Tom Jordan said, ‘I’d have to think about that. I don’t know.’ ” For his part, Jim would love a chance to draft off a world-class field that includes Bernard Lagat (3:47.28 best) and Alan Webb (3:48.92 best). The field is now 12 runners — but major Euro meets have larger fields. (The women’s 1500 field at Pre lists 15 entrants.)

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Back in 1989, Oregon sportswriter Ron Bellamy wrote a column at the close of the Eugene world championships that predicted the WAVA meet was growing so big that qualifying standards would become mandatory. It hasn’t come to that, thank goodness. But the logistics of this meet, with 6,000-plus usually expected, have led to some unfortunate scheduling. Italian masters runner Rosa Marchi, writing on a national site, notes that in several events the women’s finals will be the same day as the men’s finals — but three miles apart in different stadia. Rosa is outraged.

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