Track legend still breaking records

In

1969, Hot Springs senior Diane Page, was simply the best at what

she did. The track star traveled to the state track meet that year

and nearly set all the records for Class C throwers. She placed

first in the shot put and the javelin and came in second in the

discus.

It

was the first year Montana held a state meet for the girls after

taking several years off since the last time they let the women

compete. This made Page a rookie on the big stage. She along with

her competitors never had the chance to attend the state meet the

first three years of high school, and she has the distinction of

never losing a shot put or javelin competition at state. As a

matter of fact she never lost at the javelin at all durng her four

years of high school.

To

this day her javelin record of 149-9 stands as the oldest remaining

track record for the Class C girls. It will also never be broken,

since several years ago Montana track switched to the “new” javelin

that is a little bit heavier and has a different weight

distribution making it not fly as far.

“It’s kind of nice to have my name in the record book,” Page said.

She adds a caveat to this however. Ever since she set the record

they have mispelled her name as “Dianna” instead of Diane. She used

to routinely call them asking for the change, but to this day it

still says “Dianna.”

One year after her senior year Page then competed at Flathead

Community College in Kalispell. There were no college scholarships

back then for Page, but she says the current coach Neil Eliason was

a great coach who simply went around the state recruiting the best

athletes causing the program to shine. In the two years Page

attended the school she says the college got fifth in the nation

among all college womens track programs and first among junior

colleges. 

After her days at the junior college she competed one more year at

Montana Western in Dillon, a college that no longer has a track

program. The one year she competed there marked the end of her

track career. 

“I

kind of got married and that was the end of my track career,” Page

said.

Now 41 years later after her hayday, Page was back on the track

this summer and to say the least she still has her power throw.

With the urging of her neighbor, Gordon Hall, Page, at 59 years

young, competed in the Montana Senior Olympics and to the surprise

of noone she demolished all three of the throwing event

records.

Working in the 55-59 age bracket, Page bested the discus record of

56-2 by almost 20 feet, finishing the day with a throw of 76-1. In

the softball throw the old record was 118-4 and she topped it with

a throw of 140-4. In the javelin, her expertise, the old record was

58 feet and she demolishedit throwing 90 feet. She was hoping to

just hit 70 feet.

“I

kind of thought I would have a chance of coming close to the

records,” Page said. “And after I threw I thought ‘holy cow! that

is good for an old lady.’”

Although she has routinely helped out the Hot Springs track team

with javelin technique and thrown the spears as a demonstration a

few times in the last couple years, it has been nearly 40 years

since she last threw a javelin competitively. She practiced ten

days before the competition and, it was the Hot Springs track team

that lent her the equipment for the event.

Although you could say she was out of practice Page admits that the

competitive fire never needs to be relearned, and a close

competition with a younger 51-year-old gave her the adrenaline to

smash the records.

“That kind of got my adrenaline going and I thought I needed to

beat her because she was a young person,” Page said. Her competitor

threw the javelin a mere four feet shy of Page and threw the

softball only six feet shorter.

Now Page says she is ready to make the Senior Olympics an annual

competition for her. Although she’ll move up another age bracket

next year she plans to defend her records next year in Great Falls.

In the meantime she’ll be doing the same thing she has had for

years and what she said was possibly the reason for all of her

success, hard work on her farm.

“I

live on the farm and do farm work, and maybe it’s changing the

[irrigation] pipes. Maybe that’s what keeps me going,” Page

said.