The idea of entering a decathlon had crossed Tommy Skipper’s mind once or twice.
Competing for the Pacific-10 Conference decathlon title with little or no training in many of the events, however, was never part of the freshman’s thought process.
Despite being one of the most talented track and field athletes in the country, Skipper entered Friday’s competition with no idea how he’d fare against decathletes who had been training all year. The Sandy native would have to rely on raw ability after focusing primarily on the pole vault throughout the season.
“In the last couple of years I’ve been thinking about opening in a decathlon,” Skipper said. “I touched on a few of the events in high school. I threw the javelin and the disc in some of the events (at Hayward Field) but I never expected to open up without any training or prep work.”
Turns out Skipper’s athletic ability was more than enough as the freshman bettered the nearest competitor by 105 points on the way to being named Pac-10 champion. For his efforts, Skipper was also named Pac-10 Men’s Athlete of the Week on Monday.
Along with the freshman’s overall success came several surprising performances, most notably in the speed events. Skipper had the fastest time in the 100-meter dash (10.69 seconds) and third best time in the 400 (50.26) among the nine decathlete finishers.
“I didn’t know I’d run the 100 that fast,” Skipper said. “I haven’t been training for it at all. I haven’t done any speed work. I also surprised myself in the 400.”
But perhaps the biggest surprise of Skipper’s decathlon was his performance in the 110-meter hurdles, when he finished fifth with a time of 15.44. Prior to the race, his only hurdles experience came during a decathlon he competed in during the eighth grade.
Skipper said he was nervous before the 110 hurdles — the first event of the second day — because he didn’t want to fall behind in the standings.
“I knew that could break my back if I didn’t do well,” Skipper said. “Especially the morning (of the second day), when you wake up and you can hardly get out of bed, you’re like, ‘holy smokes.’ That was my first thought when I woke up: ‘I have to get up and run five more events.’”
Skipper said a combination of encouragement from decathlon coach Bill Lawson, his teammates and physical therapy from the training staff helped him win the conference title.
“I can’t say enough good things about those guys,” Skipper said. “They got me through it. It was kind of a team effort to get everyone through it.”

Looking ahead
With Pac-10s coming up this weekend, several Oregon athletes rank at the top of the conference in their respective events.
The Ducks feature four event leaders, including redshirt junior Brett Holts in the 3,000 steeplechase (8:44.57), sophomore Eric Mitchum in the 110 hurdles (13.50), senior Brandon Holliday in the 400 hurdles (51.08) and Skipper in the pole vault (18 feet, 8 3/4 inches).
Holts, a cross country All-American in 2002, holds a time more than seven seconds better than the nearest competitor. Mitchum’s time happened during a wind-aided race at the Texas Relays, but he posted a wind-legal mark of 13.53 two weeks later.
Holliday’s mark came at the Oregon Twilight, one week after battling food poisoning. Skipper’s mark was a school record posted during the indoor campaign.