Redshirt junior Dakotah Keys won the decathlon with a personal best of 8,027 points at the Oregon Relays at the University of Oregon.
The total for Keys ranks third in the NCAA this season and moves him up to a tie for fourth in Oregon history.
The redshirt junior entered the final event of the day, the 1,500, needing to post a 4:28 to break 8,000 points and top his PR of 8,001 set last year at the Pac-12 Championships. He blew past that time and closed with an impressive PR of 4:24.21 to vault him up the Oregon record book.
“Every time I do this it comes down to the wire,” Keys said. “I had to run a 4:28, and from my training I knew I was capable of that. A PR and a 4:24…I didn’t know that was in me.”
While Keys said his training gave him confidence he could set the PR, it was some Hayward Field magic that pushed him harder.
“Every time I started to kind of doubt myself, my mind would click back on and – instead of just hearing silence and getting drowned out by the running and the pain – that’s when I heard the fans,” he said. “I could feel my adrenaline again and felt like I was revived. There’s nothing like it.”
Freshman Mitch Modin finished second in the decathlon with a personal best 7,457 points.
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Annie Whitfield, a sophomore at Oregon, placed seventh in the javelin at the Oregon Relays, with a throw of 137-7.
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Corban University junior Olivia Johnson was a winner at the Lewis and Clark Invitational Saturday, April 19, helping the Warriors to the women’s team title in Portland.
The Corban women had a trio of first-place event finishes in winning the team championship with 120 points, outscoring host Lewis & Clark, which placed second with 113. Western Oregon finished with 102 and Linfield with 101, followed by Portland (63), George Fox (56), Pacific (42), Concordia (41) and Northwest Christian (10).
Johnson, who has already qualified for the NAIA National Championships in the marathon, took the 5000-meter run in a time of 18:59.50.