Rhonemus Leads CC In Hotly-Contested MIAC Decathlon
Senior Wade Rhonemus led a trio of Cobbers at one of the most hotly contested, highest-scoring MIAC decathlons in recent history.
NORTHFIELD, Minn. (5/03/24)---Concordia senior Wade Rhonemus capped off his conference multi-event career by finishing third in one of the most hotly contested, highest-scoring MIAC decathlons in recent history.
Rhonemus finished off the 10 events with a total of 6,416 points. That score is 227 points clear of his total from 2023 when he finished in second place. Rhonemus' score would have won last year's decathlon by 101 points. His total of 6,416 is only seven points shy of his career-best score which came at last year's NCAA National Meet.
How good was this year's decathlon? The final standings saw seven athletes post scores above 6,000 points and the Top 4 are all in the Top 15 of Division III this year.
Rhonemus's total of 6,416 points puts him in solid contention to earn his second straight trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championship Meet in the event. He is currently No.11 on the national list with the Top 20 getting the call to participate at nationals.
In addition to Rhonemus' high score, the Cobbers also had two other multi-event athlete finish in the Top 10 at Carleton. Sophomore 2-sport athlete Jacob Pipho scored team points by placing eighth in his first conference multi-event competition and freshman Joey Molstre posted a 10th-place finish in his inaugural MIAC decathlon.
True to form, Rhonemus started slowly, was in fourth place after Day 1 and then made his usual Day 2 charge up the leaderboard on Day 2. He charged to the No.1 position after the pole vault and had a narrow lead heading into the 1500 meters. Despite recording a season-best time in the 1500 meters, he still dropped to third place in the final standings.
Rhonemus had four events where he scored over 700 points during the competition. His highest-scoring event was the 110-meter hurdles, where he ran a 15.77 and earned 759 points.
Rhonemus bettered the field of 17 athletes in two events. He came through with a long jump mark of 20-10.50 to win that event and tied for the top mark in the pole vault with a height of 14-05.25. Both marks gave Rhonemus over 700 points.
His final 700-plus point event came on the final competition of Day 1 where he ran a 52.34 in the 400 meters and scored 710 points.
Pipho used his scores in the 100-meter dash, 400 and javelin to post his podium finish. He ran a 11.31 in the 100 which earned him 793 points. Pipho clocked a 53.00 in the 400 that gave him 682 points, while his distance of 169-04 in the javelin scored 613 points. His marks in the 100 and javelin were second-best among all athletes in the event.
Molstre's top-scoring event came in the opener where he scored 697 points by clocking a 11.77 in the 100-meter dash. He also scored over 600 points in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.93.
UP NEXT: The three Cobbers athletes will meet up with the rest of Concordia next weekend when they compete in the overall MIAC Championship Meet on May 10-11 at Hamline.