2016 Decathlon Preview
Class A-AA
The Class AA Decathlon qualifiers are certainly a wide range of athletes. A lot of times, the upper classmen might dominate the event. In this case, a senior is the top qualifier but along with the seniors (a total of six of them), there are four juniors, and two sophomores putting their names on the qualifier list this year.
At the top for AA is CPA's William Stout with 6,144 points. That count is just under 500 points from the next best qualifier. In my book, that makes William the top contender for the title this year. William has also had several PR's set this season, including a 53.19 in the 400, 15.21 for the hurdles, 42-10 in the triple, and last but not least, the 13' vault that got him a runner up finish at the Doug Hall Relays this year. He does look like he is poised to take the lead right from the start and not give up much over the two days next week.
The next two best qualifiers have a lot in common. Takeem Young and Raheem Young are both from Greenville and have very close qualifying totals of 5,658 and 5,635 respectively. I do not know these two athletes, but that last name sounds familiar too! Takeem being the young and the one with the higher qualifying total might just make for an interesting dual at state! But before putting that to the test next week, let's see how close these two athletes are on the track. In their head-to-head match ups, it appears Raheem is a bit in the lead. Then looking at both PR's, Raheem looks a bit better as well. So it appears based on best performances that Raheem might have the edge when it comes to the final say at the state meet. I suppose it'll come down to who wants each of the events more! But then, that's not that unusual when it comes to the competition in track... if you want it more, sometimes you just have a way of rising to the top! This should be an interesting matchup for sure!
Class AAA
Coming in with the second highest qualifying point total across the state (for all divisions) is Rhea County senior athlete Chase Sholl with 6519 points. Chase is the returning AAA state champion, so that would definitely put him up there as the favorite in this division. This years qualifying points is his best for the decathlon to date. Chase also seems to be doing a pretty good job of improving a lot of his events this season, starting from his indoor performances and throughout this outdoor season. Maybe improvement is an understatement. Let's see, about five feet improvement in the shot. Two feet improvement in the triple and almost a foot in the pole vault just add to what Chase has been working on this season. Four hundred plus points improvement in the decathlon and getting a 3,298 total for the Pentathlon at the NB Indoors this year does make a good case that Chase is going to be the guy to catch next week!
I'm guessing that Jacob Sobota of Bearden is going to make a case for himself being a top contender as well. Coming in with a 6267 total gives him a good chance. Jacob has a set of impressive performances this season that will certainly make him worth keeping him in the picture next week. A 14-6 vault and a 21' long jump are two that stand out pretty impressively. I think if Jacob can get a little more out of his triple jump and possibly drop his 400M time down, he may just be able to give Chase a big run for his money next week. But of course, like every decathlete, they just love running the 1500 and so that race could be a big part of the outcome at this years AAA decathlon. Yea, not exactly what any decathlete likes to hear... run a fast 1500 and win!
Now, right behind these two top qualifiers are a couple of guys with marks just slightly under the 6K number. Cookeville's Logan Lamb comes in after qualifying with 5,960 points and Independence senior Nathan Johnson posts a total of 5,953. That's only 7 points difference between these two guys. Ok, no way am I going to call that one! But I do know, two guys that close usually ends up being a catalyst to really push each other. Something really exciting could happen out of that this year!
Class DII
Over the past few years, the DII class has been pretty dominating in the Decathlon. I'm pretty sure that's not going to change again this season. George Patrick, who last season finished off the year as the top Decathlete in the country. With this being his senior year, George stayed closer to home and kept his senior year a bit less hectic. He still happens to be the top Decathlete in Tennessee and the nation. He also holds the top spot for the long jump (24-0.5) and the same for the 110 Hurdles (13.98). I saw George set that long jump mark and he almost jumped out of the pit on that! And the 110's were made with a fierce head wind making him a sure bet to have a vice grip on that top spot once next week's state meet is over. In the D2 Middle Region decathlon, the weather didn't cooperate very well and so George scored fairly low at 6523, which is way off his best of 7493. I fully expect George to take the top spot next week... the question might just be... can he break the state record in the process? If you enjoy this sport, next Monday and Tuesday at MTSU track is the place to be to get a glimpse of one of the best at this event!
George certainly seems to be the favorite but the rest of the D2 group is really tightly packed. The second through fifth best qualifying totals are all within 300 points of each other. Assuming George is the favorite - not that any of these guys are assuming that - then that leaves the runner up spot wide open in my opinion. Over the course of ten events, 300 points can easily be made up and all these guys are certainly going to gun for it. Montgomery Bell's Will Eskew has the second best seed with his best score of 6106 points. That's a pretty good jump from last season's fourth place total of 5770. Not sure he has everything to take on George's clamp on the top spot, but Will certainly is the guy to beat to get into that runner up spot. Being a senior, it's probably a fair bet he'll do his best to be sure of that!
Two athletes coming in with scores only 7 points apart are Franklyn Road Academy's senor Drake Mitchell (5960) and Briarcrest junior Daniel Tell (5953). These two guys match up pretty evenly across the ten events. Both have improved from last year with Drake finishing off the state meet in 2015 with 5799 points, so he comes in this year with a 161 point improvement. Daniel's improvement from last year is a bit more impressive as he bettered his mark by 511 points. Daniel sat out a part of the season with some tendonitis in the knee so he's as excited as anyone to get back into the competition. That might just put Daniel ahead, but being a senior and the experience that Drake has, might put the nod to him. Either way, this looks to be a classic matchup of two very talented athletes. Now isn't that what you want when you are in the State track and field championships! It sure is!
Well, that was a quick and short preview of the Decathlon this season. No doubt we are in for some really good performances... heck, we could see some record breaking performances this meet and not something you want to miss! I don't plan on missing any of it!
See you on the track,
Coach Ted
#CoachTed57 #tnmilesplit