If Sweet Home’s Dakotah Keys was a secret to anyone in the track and field community prior to last week, he isn’t any more.
Keys, 16, and entering his junior year in high school this fall, won the young men’s division (17-18) of the decathlon last Wednesday at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Omaha, Neb., scoring 7,204 points.
His total was the best non-wind-aided score for a high school student in the United States this year and bettered Keys’ own personal record with high school implements by nearly 600 points. Keys set personal bests in seven events and broke the Sweet Home school record in the pole vault with a jump of 14-11.
“I feel pretty good, pretty excited,” Keys said after the win. “I’m pretty tired and my muscles hurt.”
The decathlon involves 10 separate events, staged over two days, each day lasting eight to 10 hours. Points are awarded based on athletes’ performances in each event, according to a table set by the International Amateur Athletics Foundation.
Keys, one of the two youngest athletes in the competition, won three events, the 110 hurdles, the discus and the javelin, winning by 199 points.
“He had some pretty impressive numbers,” said Sweet Home Coach Billy Snow, who did not make the trip. “He just had a great day. That (decathlon score) was incredible.”
Snow noted that Keys’ score is the best in state history for a competition using high school implements, including Olympic champion Dan O’Brien, who scored 6882 while at Henley. Jay Goff of Cascade had the previous record of 7029, set in 1998.
“A couple have gone higher with international implements, but that probably means they were seniors when they did it,” Snow said.
Keys had competed in the Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships in June, where he placed fifth in competition against athletes as old as college freshmen and using heavier international implements in the throwing events.
In last week’s competition, which ran Tuesday and Wednesday, July 22-23, Keys improved on his juniors score by 537 points.
He got off to a quick start Tuesday with a PR in the 100, running 11.64. He followed that up with personal bests in the shot (42-7 3/4) and the high jump (6-2 3/4) 134-0 and the 400 (51.91), faltering only in the long jump, in which he leaped 21-8 1/2, well below the lifetime best of 23-4 1/2 that he jumped to win the state 4A title in that event.
“In the long jump, I couldn’t get things going,” he said, noting that he had trouble with the fact that decathletes only get three attempts instead of the six that competitors who reach the finals get in a normal competition. “By the third one you know what you did wrong.”
Regardless, Keys led Daniel Gooris and Curtis Beach of the Albuquerque, N.M., Track Club, after the high jump on Day One. Beach had finished third with 7026 points at the national junior meet in June, while Gooris was sixth (6700), one spot behind Keys (6767). But Beach, who is 18, turned his ankle during warmups on the first day and “his score is not indicative of his ability,” said Keys’ mother and summer coach, Lela Danforth.
On Day Two, he started off with a decent 100 meters, then posted personal bests in the discus (134-0), the high jump (6-2 3/4), the pole vault (14-11) and the 1500 (4:42.35).
“The biggest surprise for me was him winning the discus,” Danforth said. “He just had it.”
She said Keys had an intestinal bug throughout the week and it affected his stomach during the decathlon. He also had a case of shin spints from competing in an all-comers meet the week before.
“I didn’t even know on the second day whether he was going to be able to complete it,” Danforth said. “If anything surprised me, it was that he battled through sickness and shin splits to pull that off.”
But after his PR’s in the high jump and the pole vault, Keys said, he knew he could win.
“I knew there was no way Daniel Gooris could catch me,” he said. “I knew going into the javelin that he couldn’t catch me because I throw 50 feet farther than he does.”
Keys took advantage of a strong headwind and came in just under a foot behind his personal best of 192-10 in the javelin, finishing with 191-6 while Gooris placed second in 161-4.
Keys said he trained harder in the shot and discus this year than last year, when he completed four decathlons in a little over a month. That pace caught up with him in the Junior Olympic competition, in which he scored 6048 points to place second behind fellow Oregonian Andrew Gay’s 6300. Gay, of Putnam, concentrated on the throwing events during the high school season and did not compete in the decathlon this year.
Keys said he spent less time this year being concerned about how he would place overall, as he did last year, and focused more on how he needed to perform in each individual event in the decathlon.
“This one, after each event I told myself that I was in this position and now (in the next event) I have to score this much,” he said. “So I didn’t worry about how I would place.”
Keys said he plans to take “a week” off and then start doing some distance work because he plans to run cross-country this fall.
Brian Schaudt of Philomath was the only other Val-Co athlete in the boys competition at the meet. He placed fourth in the triple jump, leaping 47-11 1/4, a bit off the PR of 48-9 he jumped in winning the boys 4A title at the state meet in May. William Clay of Phoenix, Ariz., won the event, jumping 51-6 1/2.
U.S.A. Track and Field Junior Olympic Nationals
Final Scores
(1) Dakotah Keys, (birth year) 1991, Unattached, Sweet Home, Oregon 7204 points; (2) Daniel Gooris, 89, Atc, 7005; (3) Curtis Beach, 90, Atc, 6376; (4) Richard York, 90 Team Missouri, 6262; (5) Michael McPherson, 89, Real Training, 6223; (6) Mark Horist, 89, Unatt So Califor, 6160; (7) Daniel Fleming, 89, Angelic Flyers TC, 5992; (8) Taylor Schmidt, 91, Unatt Pacific NW, 5953; (9) Tyler Clark, 90, Ames TC, 5899; (10) Robert Perez, 90 ,Victory Atl, 5868; (11) Alexander Sementelli, 90, Texas Express TC, 5800; (12) Taylor Short, 89, Texas Express TC, 5719; (13) Grayson Culbreth, 90, Cerritos Blaze, 5383; (14) Thomas Filer, 91, Bellevue Breeze, 5370; (15) Brad Higgins, 91, Norfolk, 5325; (16) Michael Bolligar, 90, Arizona Puma Youth, 5280; (17) Cory Beenken, 91, Draft Pick Academy, 5168; (18) Shawn Wilson, 91, Finger Lakes, 5016; (19) Collin Hughes, 90, Hoover Parks, 4909; (20) Zachary Milroy, 89, Huskie TC, 4831; (21) Samuel Beckwith, 91, Finger Lakes, 4286; (22) Winston Williams, 91, South East M, 3287.
Top Five and Other Key Finishers
Day One
100 Meters – (1) Daniel Fleming 11.38, 778 points; (2) Michael McPherson 11.42, 769; (3) Curtis Beach, 11.57, 738; (4) Dakotah Keys, 11.64, 723; (5) Cory Beenken, 11.79, 693.
Long Jump – (1) Daniel Fleming, 6.76 meters, 22 feet, 2.25 inches, 757 points; (2) Michael McPherson, 6.73m, 22-0, 750; (3) Dakotah Keys, 6.62m, 21-08.75, 725; (4) Taylor Short, 6.58m, 21-07.25, 716; (5) Mark Horist, 6.53m, 21-05.25, 704.
Shot Put – (1) Shawn Wilson, 13.51 meters, 44 feet, 4 inches, 698 points; (2) Daniel Gooris, 13.46m, 44-02, 695. (3) Dakotah Keys, 12.99m, 42-07.50, 667; (4) Tyler Clark, 12.75m, 41-10, 652; (5) Grayson Culbreth, 12.57m, 41-03, 641.
High Jump – (1-tie) Curtis Beach and Michael Bolligar, 1.95 meters, 6 feet, 4.75 inches, 758 points; (3-tie) Dakotah Keys and Daniel Gooris, 1.90m, 6-02.75, 714; (5) Richard York, 1.85m, 6-00.75, 670.
400 Meters – (1) Michael McPherson, 50.84, 776 points; (2) Robert Perez, 51.10, 765; (3) Daniel Gooris, 51.44, 749; (4) Curtis Beach, 51.50, 747; (5) Daniel Fleming, 51.79, 734; (6) Dakotah Keys, 51.91, 729.
Day Two
110 Meter Hurdles – (1) Dakotah Keys, 15.33, 810 points; (2) Alexander Sementelli,15.59, 780; (3) Michael McPherson,15.68, 769; (4) Taylor Schmidt, 15.69, 768; (5) Daniel Gooris, 15.72, 765; (6) Curtis Beach, 15.83, 752.
Discus – (1) Dakotah Keys, 40.85 meters,134 feet, 00 inches, 682 points; (2) Daniel Gooris, 39.06m, 128-02, 645; (3) Shawn Wilson, 37.80m 124-00, 620; (4) Brad Higgins, 35.63m,116-11, 576; (5) Mark Horist, 35.40m,116-02, 572.
Pole Vault – (1) Daniel Gooris, 4.70 meters, 15 feet 05 inches, 819; (2) Dakotah Keys, 4.55m, 14-11.00, 775; (3) Robert Perez, 4.40m, 14-05.25, 731; (4) Curtis Beach, 4.25m, 13-11.25, 688; (5) Richard York, 4.10m, 13-05.25, 645.
Javelin – (1) Dakotah Keys, 58.37 meters, 191 feet 6 inches, 713 points; (2) Daniel Gooris, 49.17m, 161-04, 576; (3) Shawn Wilson, 48.69m, 159-09, 569; (4) Richard York, 48.14m, 157-11, 561; (5) Tyler Clark, 46.69m 153-02, 540.
1500 Meters – (1) Daniel Gooris, 4:34.58, 715 points; (2) Robert Perez, 4:35.10, 711; (3) Zachary Milroy, 4:37.11, 699; (4) Curtis Beach, 4:42.23, 666; (5) Dakotah Keys, 4:42.35, 666.