It's A Decathlon, Not A Nonathlon
Concordia had three athletes jump into the top 5 at the MIAC decathlon by coming up with huge performances in the final event.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. (5/01/15)—That's why they call it the MIAC decathlon. It takes all 10 events to finish the event and determine the finishing order. If it was the nonathlon Concordia wouldn't have had a top 3 finisher and just one athlete in the top 5.
Joe Hendrickson and Gabe Wright used the 10th, and final, event in the MIAC decathlon to vault into the top three in the final standings. Hendrickson ran a 4:29.98 in the 1500 meters to move from fourth place after nine events to second place in the final standings. Wright was just behind Hendrickson as he raced to a 4:36.85 and went from sixth to third.
You can add sophomore Jackson Schepp to the list of thankful decathletes as he scored 557 points in the final event and climbed into the top 5 by finishing in fifth with 5,630 points.
Hendrickson earned 745 points for the 1500-meter time and ended the two-day event with 5,881 points. His point total in the 1500 meters was his top scoring event of the 10 competitions. And his final total of 5,881 points is a career high and is the 12th highest total in school history.
Hendrickson's two other top point totals came in track events. He ran a 16.30 in the 110-meter hurdles to score 699 points and then clocked a 52.71 in the 400 meters to add 694 points to his total.
Wright's total in the 1500 meters was his second highest single-event total of the meet. He scored 700 points in the 10th event. His highest scoring event came in the 110-meter hurdles where he ran a season-best time of 15.93 and scored 741 points. His time was the fastest if any competitor in the field and is also the No.7 time in the MIAC this year.
Wright's other 650-plus point event came in the high jump where he cleared 6-01.25 and scored 679 points.
Schepp's top two events came in the high jump and 110-meter hurdles. Schepp cleared the bar at 6-03.50 in the high jump and had an event-best 731 points. Schepp and Wright were the only two athletes to clear a height above 6-feet in the event. Schepp also ran a 16.12 in the 110-meter hurdles and scored 719 points.
Concordia had three other athletes at the conference decathlon meet. Sophomore Alex Van Bemmelen finished in 12th place in his very first MIAC multi-event. He scored 4,504 points with his best event coming in the 1500 meters where he put up 642 points. Hans-Kristof Nelson was right behind Van Bemmelen in 13th place at 4,442 points and freshman Zac Freese gave CC six athletes in the top 15 as he placed 14th with a total of 4,289 points.