TN 2016 State Decathlon Recap
The skies were partly cloudy, the sun popping in and out from behind the clouds... and the heat started pouring in Tuesday to make this season's decathlon what it should be... very very difficult! There were nine scores over 6,000 points, George Patrick sitting above them all with a huge score of 7324 points for the two day event! Since George is in the D2 division, let's start with that for now.
The Division 2 Decathlon this year was certainly on the minds of any decathlon with George having the possibility of breaking the state record. And that record was just set a couple years ago by MUS standout and Stanford athlete, Harrison Williams. So you can say that TN has had their share of some of the best Decathletes in the country and competing here is pretty special... and yes, very difficult to say the least! There were four athletes behind George with scores of 6100 or more. The runner up finisher, Will Eskew of Montgomery Bell scores 6333 points. Will took advance of the last event to help propel himself over a few athletes and get that second place finish. He ran 4:32.19 in the 1500, a very warm and breezy 1500, to get 730 points and secure his second place finish.
Will's second place finish wasn't an easy one for him though, Drake Mitchell of Franklin Road Academy was only 35 points behind and he also ran a superb 1500. Drake had 6298 points and had to run a fast 1500 to get ahead of Daniel Tell of Briarcrest who ended up in fourth with 6203 points. There was a 162 point spread between the 2nd place finisher and the 5th spot, so you know it really came down to the last few events.
A lot of these guys had to PR throughout the day to keep their point total growing and try to stay as close to George as they could. With his two wins in the shot (46-8.25) and the 1500, Will Eskew was trying his best to unseat the defending champion in the event. A difficult task at best. For most of the 1st day and part of the second day, the slight Briarcrest junior, Daniel Tell, was doing his best to nip at George's heels as well. Daniel was the runner up after the first day and started out ok for the second but the long jump and shot put dropped him down and gave the rest of the guys a chance to vault up a bit. Usually you see decathletes coming in with a lot of muscle, lot of height, and a lot of experience under their belt. Well, nobody told Daniel this and so he just kept going and despite some nagging tendonitis in his knee pushed on and made it known that he'll be the senior next year to be gunning for. The top 3 finishers in this seasons D2 decathlon were seniors and other than one more athlete, the rest competing were sophomores and juniors. That means next season will be another close event and if you aren't already planning on how you'll improve for it, you might just be on the lower tiers of the podium next year.
The A-AA Decathlon was also a very closely contested event as well. The top four athletes were about 700 points apart, which seems a lot at the end, but it was again coming down to the last few events. The eventual winner, William Stout of CPA, won just a few of the events during the two grueling days of competition. William won the 110 hurdles in 15.92 (742 points), vaulted to 12-6 to gain 565 points, and threw the shot 40-3.25 to cap off his wins. So this clearly wasn't a blow out and was open to anyone pushing themselves past their limits.
And if you were wondering, no, Greenville wasn't the only team in the mix here. Although with three qualifiers from the school, you'd think they were the only team out there. They took the 2nd (Takeem Young, 5906), 3rd (Raheem Young, 5691), and fourth spots (Thomas Burkey, 5516) to complete a very strong sweep over these two days. Trevon won the 400 dash (50.41), 100 dash (11.40) and took the 1500 in 4:26.95 which was just over eleven seconds ahead of second place finisher, Thomas Burkey (4:38.27) to put his mark on the running events this season. With Will's and Trevon's wins, that really showed the diversity in this group and how it appeared that anyone had the chance to take the top spot - which changed a lot during the events and came down to the last few to be able to crown the winner. That's what this decathlon, the State championship decathlon, is all about... bringing out your best at the very end of the season! And that's just what these guys did for sure!
The AAA decathlon, and this may seem like Deja vue, was another close one. There were four scoring over 6100 points. The top two were separated by only 100 points... Chase Sholl of Rhea County at 6598 and Jacob Sobota of Bearden with 6498. Very close. Chase started out the decathlon running a 10.87 that was worth 890 points. So you'd think that was a win but it wasn't as Rashad Haynes of Memphis Central bettered that mark to get a 10.61 that was worth 949 points and very close to that coveted 1000 point mark! Chase also had a superb vault getting 11-5.75 but that also wasn't the best as Bearden's Jacob Sobota vaulted 14-0 to top that event. So it seems I'm pointing out some areas that Chase didn't win, but the point I'm trying to make is that Chase really had to battle on his way to this win. The field here was very tightly packed, very tightly matched, and even though the heat seemed to want to drain them of their energy, none of these guys gave in to the temptation. They kept the competition strong all day long!
Now, Chase did post some strong wins. One of those wins was in the 110 hurdles where he ran a swift 14.61 that gave him 894 points. He also leaped to 21-11.5 in the long jump that actually was only a half inch ahead of Nathan Johnson of Independence - but a win is a win! That half inch was worth two points. Nathan also won the high jump (6-0), discus throw (124-5), and shot put (46-03.25) to put him up on the board as well.
So the final top four points ended up with 6141 for 4th by Nathan Johnson, 3rd totaled 6192 by Rashad Haynes, 2nd by Jacob Sobota with 6468 and Chase winning with 6568. Third and fourth place were only 51 points apart. And as I mentioned, 2nd and 1st only 100 points apart.
The Decathlon is almost like a fraternity. The first day of the event they share the stage with the girls Pentathletes, very strong athletes themselves. The 2nd day though is only the guys. If you're watching as a spectator, it may look like a very informal day on the track. But that isn't so. These guys respect each other for doing the event, but they are competing against each other so it's serious business. They respect each other for grinding out the training and grinding through each and every event. They see each other succeed and they see each other miss attempts or do less than their best. But they all understand one thing - each and every one of these guys are out there to compete as best they can in each and every of the ten events of the Decathlon. When it's over, they shake hands and give each other a hug to congratulate each other on the competition. When they walk off the track, they know that for the rest of their lives, they have these two tough days of competition to share.
See you on the Track!
Coach Ted