Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
WAC Outdoor Championships
Young Second In Decathlon After Opening Day Of WAC Championships
5/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 9, 2007
Fresno, Calif. -
Day 1 Decathlon Overall Standings
Day 1 Heptathlon Overall Standings
Junior Evan Young leads the Bulldogs after the first day of the 2007 WAC Track and Field Championships. Young and freshman Derek Garza were the only Bulldogs competing for Fresno State in the opening day of the meet, which featured the first day of the decathlon and the heptathlon.
Overall, Utah State's John Strang led the decathlon with 3,730 points, followed by Young with 3,468 points. Garza stood in fifth at the end of the day, earning 2,770 points. In the heptathlon, Hawai'i sophomore Annett Wichman held the lead with 3,337 points, followed by Utah State's Carrie Yost and Idaho's Molly Burt.
Action started this afternoon in the four-day event, with the men's 100m dash and the women's 100m hurdles starting the day. Strang took the win in the opening event with a time of 10.85, followed by Young who had a time of 11.27. Burt and Annett finished the 100m hurdles in the top two positions for the women.
Wichman continued her consistency through the day, wining both the high jump and the shot put, as well as finishing fourth in the 200m dash in what was a deep women's heptathlon field with 11 competitors.
Through the remainder of day one's decathlon events, Strang and Young continued to battle. Strang had the top mark in the long jump, closely followed by Eric Demers of Boise State, but Young made up the ground to take the lead after the shot put, with a huge throw of 14.20m, a career-best for the junior that provided him with a 152-point cushion over his next closest competitor in the event.
Young also recorded a career-high in the high jump, clearing 1.77, but was unable to match Strang's 2.04m mark which put him back into the lead, which extended slightly as he edged Young in the 400m to close out the day. For Garza, his best event of the day came in the opening sprint, earning 665 points with an 11.93 second time.
Both Young and Garza look forward to their strongest events tomorrow. Young has spent the year competing in the javelin and the pole vault, and Garza entered the year as a hurdler rather than a decathlete, and will likely post a strong time in the hurdles on Thursday.
The decathlon and heptathlon continue tomorrow starting at 1 p.m., with the final five events for the men and three more for the women. Admission is free for the day. The remainder of the events begin on Friday, as the rest of the teams take center stage beginning at 12:30 p.m. with the men's hammer throw.
Players Mentioned
