A week before individual event competition at the Pac-10
Championships kick off, Oregon will be looking to pocket the
majority of the points in the decathlon competition this
weekend.
Chris Staton’s job will be to ensure that doesn’t
happen.
A grueling combination of 10 events awaits Staton, the lone
Bruin competing in the decathlon in Tucson, Ariz., this Saturday.
Oregon’s Andy Young, Gabriel LeMay, and Ryan Voge are among
the favorites in the competition, but Staton will be looking to
break up the potential three-way sweep.
“I’d like to deny them as many points as possible
this year,” Staton said. “The real goal is to beat
Oregon so we can win Pac-10.”
Arizona State, UCLA and Oregon, each among the nation’s
top 15 teams, should be in contention for the Pac-10 title next
Saturday. But Oregon will be the team to beat this weekend in the
competition’s multi-event portion, with its arsenal of strong
decathletes.
Oregon’s Santiago Lorenzo won the decathlon a year ago,
and the Ducks had three athletes placing in the event.
UCLA’s lone entry last year, Andrew Phillips, placed
ninth, just out of scoring range.
This will be Staton’s first time competing in the
decathlon at the Pac-10 meet.
He is currently the No. 6 decathlete in the Pac-10, behind all
three Oregon Ducks.
Staton’s most recent decathlon score (7,052 at the
California Invitational Decathlon in April) legitimizes his
possibility of scoring.
“I’ve been doing the high jump for the longest, and
traditionally it has been my strongest event,” Staton said.
“But I’m having a breakout year.”
Staton’s performance in the javelin last weekend against
USC, in which he recorded a personal best of 183 feet, 8 inches,
signifies his ability to improve on his decathlon score.
“I just need to fine-tune all my events at this point and
go for it,” Staton said.
In addition to his progress in the javelin, Staton has improved
on his hurdle mark this year.
He has also qualified for the Pac-10 championship meet in the
long jump, high jump and triple jump, but is unsure whether he will
be competing in the individual events.
“I’d love to be able to contribute to the team in
those events as well,” Staton said. “But we’ll
see after this weekend’s performance.”
In order to automatically qualify for the decathlon at the NCAA
championship meet, Staton believes he must raise his score to 7,500
points.
There are no regional qualifiers in the decathlon, so if Staton
is going to achieve this score, it will have to happen this
weekend.