Dakotah Keys threw a huge PR of 219-2 in the javelin to come from behind and win his second consecutive Pac-12 decathlon title by just three points Sunday at USC in Los Angeles.
Keys was in third place after eight events, 223 points behind Washington’s Jeremy Taiwo. But Keys’ monster throw catapulted him into the lead by 54 points. He then stayed just close enough to Taiwo in the 1,500 meters to win with a personal-best score of 8,001. Taiwo was second with 7,998 points and Dominic Giovannoni of UCLA was third with 7,364 points.
“It feels really good,” said Keys. “It didn’t start sinking in until a little bit ago. It was really stressful. I didn’t think anything would top what happened last year at home but this is probably one of the best memories with track and field that I have.
“Jeremy’s such a great competitor and I was really nervous about him being here. I guess my training kicked in, though. I’m just really excited.”
Keys’ score was the fifth best decathlon total in school history, trailing only Ashton Eaton’s 8,457, Pedro daSilva’s 8,176, Muhammad Oliver’s 8,087 and Craig Brigham’s 8,027. It was also the third-best score in the NCAA this season.
Keys opened the second day of the decathlon by running a personal-best 14.60 in the 110 meter hurdles. Despite that, he fell to third in the overall standings, where he would remain in the javelin.
After a throw of 117-1 in the discus, Keys won the pole vault with a personal-best clearance at 16-0 to close the gap on Taiwo by 50 points.
Keys then captured the javelin with a throw that was a personal best by more than eight feet.
That left the 2013 Pac-12 title to be decided in the 1,500 meters, in which Keys needed to stay within approximately seven seconds of Taiwo. The Husky senior has a PR of 4:17 in the 1,500, while Keys’ best time prior to Sunday was 4:30.
“When he pulled away with 800 to go I was nervous,” said Keys. “In my head there was a second where I just thought, ‘He won and there’s nothing I can do.’
“With about 200 to go and I just thought, ‘this is all I can do, I’m going to go as hard as I can,’ and I just started pumping my arms. Coach said lean and so I leaned at the finish.”
Taiwo won the event in 4:18.23, but Keys ran a :05 personal best to finish in 4:25.76 and edge Taiwo.
Keys opened the competition on Friday with a big personal best in the 100 meters, running 10.94, which was the second-fastest 100 of the day and an improvement of two-tenths of a second over his previous best.
He followed that with solid efforts in the long jump and shot put. Keys went 23-6.75 in the long jump, which was the third best effort on the day. He also threw 41-8 in the shot put.
Keys then hit his second big personal best of the meet by clearing 6-10.25 in the high jump. That was an improvement by more than an inch over his previous high bar and was tied with Taiwo for the top clearance among the decathlon competitors.
Keys then wrapped the day with another PR in the 400 meters, going 50.75 – a personal best by half a second – in the 400 meters.
The 4,025 points were also a first day PR for Keys. His previous first day best was 3,969 points set while winning the 2012 Pac-12 decathlon.
Keys will be one of the decathlon favorites at the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field June 5-6.
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Maria Kropf has caught fire in her inaugural track season at Grand Canyon University, knocking a second off her personal best in the 100 hurdles, her specialty, this year.
Kropf, a redshirt freshman, ran 14.46 at the Beach Invitational in Cerritos, Calif. on April 20, then came back with a bang on April 26-27 at the the inaugural Pacific West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Point Loma University on April 26-27 in San Diego, to run 14.35 in the preliminaries on Friday, then ran 13.95 in the finals to win. She also placed fourth in the 100, in a four-runner sweep for the Antelopes, in 12.36.
Kropf is half a second shy of the automatic NCAA Division II qualifying time in the hurdles, 13.56, but is well under the provisional time of 14.40. She has one more chance at the automatic qualifier at the Azusa Pacific Last Chance Qualifier on May 11 in Azusa, Calif. The NCAA Nationals are May 23-25 in Pueblo, Colo.
Grand Canyon’s women’s track and field team is ranked at the top of the latest United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association national outdoor poll, released last week, under third-year coach Tom Flood.
Olivia Johnson placed second in the 5000 at the Pioneer Invitational as Corban’s women’s track and field team captured its first team title in program history, winning by 22 points over host Lewis & Clark April 20 in Portland.
In the final team standings, Corban earned a program-record 150 points, followed by Lewis & Clark (128.50), Pacific (118), Linfield (85), Warner Pacific (79), George Fox (53), Portland (49) and Western Oregon (44).
Johnson is scheduled to run the 10,000 at the Cascade Collegiate Championships at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham Friday, May 10, and then is expected to run the marathon at the NAIA National Championships May 23-25 at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind.
She became the first-ever Corban runner to qualify for naitonals in the marathon after winning her age division at the annual Cascade Half Marathon in January, running 1:28.05 to better the “A” qualification standard of 1:31.00 by almost three minutes.
Annie Whitfield threw 137-7 to place third in the javelin at the Oregon Twilight Meet held at Hayward Field in Eugene May 3.
Whitifield has been consistently in the high 130’s for most of the season in this, her rookie year at the University of Oregon. She placed third at the Texas Relays on March 28 with a season-best throw of 143-9.
The Pac-12 Championships will be held this weekend at USC.