Even after three personal bests and an NCAA automatic qualifying mark, redshirt senior Santiago Lorenzo did all he could to state his case that he is back and better than ever.
With the conclusion of the decathlon Thursday, Lorenzo was 14 points shy of his second title at the 2003 Clyde Litterfield Texas Relays.
Lorenzo walked away from Mike A. Myers Stadium with a 22-point personal best and an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 7,911 points. He fell short to Auburn junior Maurice Smith (7,925) after a charge in the final three events where Lorenzo made up 333 points.
“It’s a little bittersweet,” Lorenzo said. “I can’t complain with a PR but I felt a little rusty.”
Lorenzo’s other personal bests came in the 110 hurdles at 14.83 seconds and the discus, at 145-feet-8 inches. His other marks include 15-9 in the pole vault, 199-2 in the javelin and 4:32:58 in the 1,500 meters.
After sitting in third place after day one and a sour finish in the 400 where he ran his slowest time in six years, Lorenzo got off on the right foot with a personal best opener of the 110 hurdles.
Although Lorenzo’s 3,950-point day was capped early, Smith cushioned his lead by 112 points after winning the hurdles and throwing the event’s best mark in the discus.
Lorenzo had been there before, with his best events still ahead. After clearing 15-9 in the pole vault, the eighth event, Lorenzo had rallied 196 points and earned 75 more with a 199-2 toss in the javelin.
“I was really proud of the way I was able to step up on the third-attempt chances in the field events,” Lorenzo said.
The final event, the 1,500, saw Lorenzo needing to run miracle time for a courageous comeback victory. He needed to beat Smith by 11 seconds and his all-time best of 4:21.84 was just less than a second faster than Smith’s.
Lorenzo was paced through the entire event as fellow teammate Andy Young blocked the wind and carried him through at 4:32.58, only eight seconds ahead of Smith.
“All of the credit in the 1,500 goes to Andy,” Lorenzo said. “I came in thinking that a time of 4:35 would be great, so to go 4:32 is all I can ask for. He kept me going and gave me a shot to win.”
As for Young, the sophomore finished 11th overall in his 10-event debut with 6,948 points, which easily met the Pacific-10 Conference qualifying mark of 6,800.
Young won the final event after pacing Lorenzo in 4:30.16 and leading start to finish. The Newberg, Ore., native also posted personal bests in the 110 hurdles at 14.39, 15-9 in the pole vault and 170-10 in the javelin.
“Santiago and Andy had outstanding efforts; you couldn’t have asked for better openers,” Oregon assistant coach and decathlon mentor Bill Lawson said.
In other action, the all newcomer — junior Adam Bailey, and freshmen Ryan Flaherty, Tomas Finol, and Jan Olszowsky — group finished seventh for the Oregon men in the 4×800 relay at 7:36.83. Oregon also saw freshmen Matt Scherer and Eric Mitchum finish fourth and second in their respective heats with both notching Pac-10 qualifying marks.
In women’s action, senior Jordan Sauvage earned a personal best in the hammer at 191-4 and finished fourth among Thursday’s 25 entrants.
In today’s action, the third of the event, Mitchum will compete in the 110 hurdles for the men with sophomore Derek Strubel in the triple jump. On the women’s side, Sauvage will compete in the discus with senior Heather Murtaugh in the 100.