DeMers qualifies for NCAA Regionals

SANDPOINT — Former Sandpoint track and football standout Eric DeMers has qualified for the NCAA West Regional track meet this weekend in Eugene, Oregon.

DeMers has been a decathlete at Boise State University for the last four years, having earned numerous All-WAC athletic and academic awards. His teams have won five team championships in track and field during his time there.

He failed to qualify in the decathlon last week at the Western Athletic Conference Championships in Logan, Utah when he did not clear a height in the pole vault. This dropped him out of the competition to place, but he went on and won the javelin by more than 30 feet over the next competitor.

In the following men 92s open javelin event he came in with a lifetime best of 197 feet 6 inches and was seeded No. 7. On his first throw he launched more than 205 feet and earned an automatic regional qualifying mark. He bettered this mark four more times and finished in 3rd place with a throw of 209 feet, and is currently ranked 14th regionally in the event.

DeMers is carrying on a family history of javelin throwers. His great uncle Jim DeMers was one of the greatest Javelin throwers in the world at one time, having held almost every American, world and national record, and his father, David DeMers, threw at Boise State and once held the BSU school record in the event.

DeMers, whose sister Brooke is also running track at Boise State, graduated this spring with a major in Health Sciences and hopes to attend physical therapy school in the future.