The final events in the 2013-14 Track and Field season are the Heptathlon and Decathlon and this year we had three athletes who stepped up to face this rigorous, 2 day challenge!
Participating in 2 or 3 events in one meet is challenging enough for most athletes, but being competitive in 7 (for the girls) and 10 (for the boys) events all in one meet is why they call these “the worlds best athletes“.

For the girls, Jr- Kelsey Johnson again stepped up to the challenge in the Heptathlon. Unfortunately, Kelsey got sick just before the competition and probably should not have even attempted the running events. She struggled through though and of the 61 girls who entered, Kelsey finished 37th with 2692 points. She improved her PR in her Shot put and in her 200m dash time.

For the boys, Jr- Rob Russell was also making his 2nd appearance in the Decathlon.
The bad news is that Rob had suffered an ankle injury in a training accident earlier in the week and though he tried to tough it out, in the end he had to attempted the pole vault (an event he was favored to place 3rd or 4th in and score BIG points) from just a two step run and had to pull out of the 1500m run altogether.
While this was a disappointing outcome for Rob he still managed to improve his PR in the Long Jump and Shot Put and being a JR, he will have a chance to prove himself again next year!
Of the 85 entries in the Decathlon, even injured and totally missing one event, Rob managed to finish 58th.

Our NEW entry in the Decathlon was Freshman Jake Russell (no relation to Rob).
Jake proved what we already know about him and that is, he is a phenomenal athlete!
Of the 10 events included in the Decathlon, he was competing in 8 of those for the first time !
This was only Jake’s 3rd time to ever try the Pole Vault and he not only made the opening height but ended up jumping 8 feet and finished 45th in the 85 man field! He also set a PR in the long jump and in the 1500m Jake finished 5th, setting a NEW SPARKMAN RECORD for that distance!
Of the 85 entries, Jake finished 29th! With more experience under his belt, it will be a lot of fun to see how he does the next 3 years.