Shead takes surprising lead in decathlon
5/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
Portland State sophomore DeShawn Shead, who led the Big Sky Conference in interceptions last fall as a starting cornerback on the Vikings football team, scored 3,777 points Wednesday to take the opening-day lead in the decathlon at the 2009 Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Dornblaser Field in Missoula, Mont. Shead has a 113-point lead over Idaho State???s Nathan Capps and a 142-point lead over teammate Nick Trubachik.
Capps (2006, ???07) and Trubachik (2008) have won the last three Big Sky decathlon titles.
Shead opened the day with a victory in the 100 meters in a time of 10.93 and closed it with a winning time of 49.77 in the 400 meters. He also placed second in the shot put, tied for fifth in the long jump and tied for 10th in the high jump.
Shead scored a Big Sky-qualifying 5,902 points in the decathlon at the Texas Relays in early April in his first career decathlon. His score ranked 13th among this week???s 16 competing decathletes, but his score at Texas included a no-height in the pole vault, which left him out of the pre-championships discussion with such a star-filled field.
???I knew I could come in here and hold down the sprints,??? Shead said. ???I figured if I could come in here and do what I had to do, I was going to be right in the mix, even though I came in here under the radar.???
Shead ranks second in the Big Sky in the 110-meter hurdles, the opening event on Thursday. The decathletes will close with the discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters.
???My main event is the hurdles. After that my discus is solid, my pole vault should be cool, and I???m okay in the javelin. Then in the 1,500 ... I???ve just go to hold on,??? Shead added with a shake of the head, not quite ready to look ahead to Thursday???s closing event.
The steady Capps placed in the top four in all five events Wednesday to remain near the lead all day. He was second in the 100 meters (11.32), tied for third in the long jump (21-5.5), finished fourth in the shot put (41-5.75), tied for fourth in the high jump (6-2.75) and finished second to Shead in the 400 meters (50.16).
Trubachik finished in the top eight in all five opening-day events, tying for second in the high jump at 6-4 and finishing third in the shot put at 44-4.
???We knew if we came in here and did what we know we can do, we could be close after day one,??? PSU multi-events coach Seth Henson said. ???What a great place to compete against (Idaho State???s) Levi Keller, Nathan Capps and (ISU???s) Brad Sylvester. All those guys have won conference (multi-event) titles, so we???re honored to be here and very happy where we sit.???
Shead and Trubachik both qualified at the Texas Relays and had gone nearly six weeks without competing in a decathlon.
???They both qualified at Texas, so we decided we were going to just train, and now we???re seeing the benefit,??? Henson said. ???We put a lot less emphasis on points, points, points and more on working on the things we need to work on to come to conference and compete.???
Keller, with 3,543 points, and Montana State???s Mike Green, with 3,427 points, round out the top five.
Montana junior Chris Hicks, runner-up to Trubachik at last year???s decathlon, sits in sixth with 3,383 points. Hicks had the day???s second-best long jump of 21-10 but wasn???t any higher than seventh in the other four events.
Hicks ran a season-best 11.66 in the 100 meters, went 35-3.25 in the shot put and 6-0.5 in the high jump, then closed with a season-best 51.65 in the 400 meters.
Sophomore Evan Stokken and junior Michael Blanchard, both competing in just their second career decathlon, are sitting 13th and 14th with 3,156 and 3,113 points.
Both had multiple career bests Wednesday. Stokken went a career-best 11.45 in the 100 meters, 34-11.75 in the shot put and 51.53 in the 400 meters. Blanchard went a career-best 11.85 in the 100 meters, 20-1.5 in the long jump, 6-0.5 in the high jump and 53.57 in the 400 meters.
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