Andy Young nearly secured Oregon its fifth-straight Pacific-10 Conference decathlon title but fell just short with a second-place finish at the Pac-10 decathlon championships in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Oregon’s streak dated back to 2001
when Santiago Lorenzo took home the title with a point total of 7,617. Billy Papas won in 2002, followed by Lorenzo’s second title in three years.
In 2004, then-freshman pole vaulter
Tommy Skipper competed in the decathlon for the first time as a Duck and took home the title, finishing 105 points higher than runner-up Joshua Kinnaman of Arizona State and 89 points higher than the
decathlon automatic standard.
While Young’s second-place finish didn’t extend the streak, it did keep alive an even longer tradition of Ducks finishing the event in the top two. This streak has lasted for six years, coinciding with current Duck decathlon mentor Bill Lawson’s tenure at the University.
For the third straight season, Young scored team points in the Pac-10 meet. His 7,165 score this season was second to last year’s personal best of 7,372.
The Newberg native came into Sunday
in third place, trailing Arizona’s Robert Arnold and eventual winner Darion Powell of Washington State.
Young used an 11-second victory in his final event of the day — the 1,500-meters — and a Sunday
collapse by Arnold to vault into
second place.
Not to be overshadowed, teammate Cody Fleming challenged
California’s Jonas Hallgrimsson for third place, finishing with a personal decathlon best in the javelin
(184 feet, 8 inches). Fleming
finished 22 points behind Hallgrimsson, taking fourth.
The Ducks’ top-four finishes gave the team 13 points going into next week’s Pac-10 team championship.
“Obviously we’re pleased that we picked up 13 points and we’re in first place,” Lawson said.
“I’m very glad that the guys kept their composure through some tenuous moments and challenging conditions. Andy still pole vaulted 16-3 in swirling winds that changed at different points along the runway. Cody competed really well down the stretch and had big personal bests in the javelin and 1,500. Powell is an All-American and had a personal best today, so we have nothing to be ashamed of. Coming in, the best we thought we could have done was
15 points, so I’m happy to end up with 13 and still have everybody healthy to
come back to war next week.”
Powell led all 10 disciplines after the first day en route to his first
10-event tally of the season. The fourth-place finisher from 2003 posted top marks in the 110 hurdles (14.90, w:1.2) and discus (153-8) and ranked second in the javelin (193-9) on Sunday.
Powell’s victory gave the Cougars 10 team points, which currently places the team in second. Cal finished with six, followed by Stanford (4 points), Arizona (3), UCLA (2) and Arizona State (1).

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