MADISON, Wis. — The ESPN Great Outdoor Games is already serving up athletes and setting others down.

After the first round of the Retriever Trials, the 2004 Great Outdoor Games kick-off event, the last two years' gold medalists have barely survived, an alternate is one of the top dogs and the favorite going into the event is driving home. And that's just in the first six hours.

You would almost have to have a script to keep up with all the storylines that have already taken place.

	That Stacey West qualified wasn't surprising. That he and Rankin blew away the field was.

Stacey West and Rankin of Louisburg, N.C., led the field after the first round of qualifying. It's a position that wasn't particularly surprising. What was, though, is the fact he basically blew away the field.

West and Rankin scored, by comparison, a paltry 38 points leading the way in a series of first-day story twists.

Next in line for this twisted event, was second-place Keith Allison and Abby. A week ago they were the alternates for the event, failing to qualify for the Great Outdoor Games as one of the top 12 handler/retriever teams. The team moved into the competition after Woody Spong's retriever, Blue, died of cancer.

"I'm in, now I've got to make the most of it," Allison said.

Chris Akin may want to take those words to heart as well. Akin and Boomer, the 2003 gold medalists, barely eased into the second round of qualifying. They finished the day in seventh, just three points away from not making the cut of eight in the semi-final round.

"I still don't understand it," Akin said.

Last year's gold medalist, Chris Akin, barely slipped through the first round.

He's got a lot to comprehend. He is the only handler to qualify two retrievers for the Great Outdoor Games. Boomer is one, Abby is another and she didn't make the cut. Added to all those storylines is Alex Washburn, who decided to run in the event just 15 minutes before it started.

Washburn's black Labrador, Ready, spent last night at a veterinary hospital being treated for an illness that threatened to keep the dog from competing. Washburn feared that the retriever may have had a serious life-threatening disease. Earlier in the year, Ready had surgery to remove a tumor on his side.

Tests revealed nothing more than Lyme disease, which Ready had been diagnosed with 10 days earlier. Despite the scare, Ready ran well enough to take the last qualifying spot, with a score of 88 points.

"By the skin of our teeth," Washburn said.

While they are in, those not making the cut included local favorite Mike Shannahan and Marley from Madison, who missed the cut by a single point, and Dave Opseth and Windy of Virginia, the handlers' dark-horse pick to win the gold medal.

Opseth finished 10th and is already driving home.

A difficult test

	Scott Greer and Liza, of Friendship, Tenn., managed a sixth-place finish Tuesday

The backdrop for all of this was a test set up on the rolling slopes of Milford Hills Hunt Club. The test included four marks and one blind, which carried the retrievers down a hill into thick grass, behind grassy knolls, over water and back again.

The four marks landed from 10 yards in front of the handler/retriever teams out to 220 yards and the test was finished up with a 280-yard blind retrieve.

While all the marks counted, the make-it-or-break-it part of the course centered on marks one and three.

The first mark was the long one at 220 yards, and included a land-water-land cast with several barriers mixed in that continually racked up points on each of the retrievers. It was so tough that Bill Autry and Cody carded a "Did Not Finish" on that mark.

"The barriers were the killer on that mark," said Dana Giovanello, judge of the event. "There's a berm at the bottom of the hill that the dogs had to drive through, then they had to carry the line through the water and, once out of the water, there was a wall of grass 10 yards on the other side. Very few dogs drove straight through it; most went right or left."

West's Rankin was one of those that didn't check up, and the result was the lowest score. But before he got to that, he had to pick up Mark Three. It was only 120 yards and landed in thick cover. But the downhill berm and the water line past the fall of the mark forced many of the dogs to push past it, resulting in whistles by the handler.

"I think they just started down that hill and got to running and it felt so good they didn't want to stop," said Justin Tackett, organizer of the Retriever Trial. "They'd just blow by it and then they were in trouble. That and I think a lot of the handlers had trouble marking that bird and remembering exactly where it was."

Opseth was one of those. He racked up the majority of his 109 points on that one retrieve.

And the capper came on the blind. For that retrieve, if the dog followed a straight line to the bird it carried them out of sight of the handler for as long as 15 seconds. If the retriever got out of line while the dog was out of sight, they would often be so far off course the handlers came close to losing their retrievers.

"That's just a horrific blind," West said. "I knew I had to gamble when Rankin went out of sight. I blew the whistle once and, without seeing her, gave a strong verbal back. When she came out she was straight on line."

With four of the handler/retriever teams out of competition, the eight teams remaining pick up the competition Wednesday morning to cut the field to four, with the medal round immediately following.

Results

Stacey West/Rankin Louisburg, N.C. 38
Keith Allison/Abby, Pea Ridge, Ark., 49
Jerry Day/Nike, College Park, Ga,. 61
J. Paul Jackson/Achilles, Dyersburg, Tenn. 71
Derek Randle/Stella, Prairie Grove, Ark., 73
Scott Greer/Liza, Friendship, Tenn., 76
Chris Akin/Boomer, Jonesboro, Ark., 86
Alex Washburn/Ready, Oxford, Miss., 88

These handler/retriever teams did not make the cut:

Mike Shannahan/Marley, Madison, Wisc., 89
Dave Opseth/Windy, Virginia, 109
Chris Akin/Abby, Jonesboro, Ark., 111
Bill Autry/Cody, Louisiana, DNF