June 12, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Missouri track & field team once again had a strong showing from their decathletes on Thursday in the second day of the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Sophomore Nick Adcock (Kansas City, Mo.) and frosh Lars Rise (Trondheim, Norway) both earned All-America honors in the 10-event decathlon with fourth- and seventh-place national showings, respectively. Adcock used three event personal bests to earn his second All-America honor of the year, matching his indoor finish in the NCAA heptathlon final. In addition, senior Nate Englin (Shoreview, Minn.) advanced to Saturday's final in the men's shot put today.
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Adcock's score of 7,615 is just off his personal best set earlier this season at the Big 12 Championships. Rise finished the two days with 7,534 points. The season marks the first time that Missouri has had two decathletes win All-America honors in the same meet. The duo also scored big for the Tigers in the team competition, pooling seven points for the Tiger team tally.
The competition started yesterday with wind, rain, and lightning and was delayed three hours after the completion of the first event, the 100-meter dash.
"Day one was a challenge for everyone," Adcock said. "The three-hour rain delay, the swirling winds, really affected everybody, and some came out of it better than others. Today and yesterday was about putting up solid marks and I was happy to have done that in most of the events.
"I think rankings get me hyped up. I think most projections in the track & field world didn't even have me scoring [finishing in the top eight]. I think I wanted to prove that wrong."
As a sophomore, Adcock had one incredible season, winning the Big 12 heptathlon crown on the first day of March by a sizeable margin, turning around to earn his first All-America honor with a fourth-place showing at the NCAA Indoor meet in Fayetteville. In the outdoor season, Adcock took runner-up honors in the Big 12 while adding second All-America honor today with a fourth-place national outdoor finish. He becomes the first Tiger since 2005 (Ashley Patten, Hans Uldal, and Conrad Woolsey) to receive All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
"This season was going to be great," Adcock said. "Between my conversations with my coaches and the training and progressions I was making, I really felt like that this was going to be the beginning of something awesome. I came to Missouri because I knew the coaches were going to be great and show me the way to go. We all get down, and no one is tougher on me than me, but I am already looking forward to next year."
Next year will be here soon, but Adcock's season may continue if his score set at the Big 12 meet holds as an Olympic Trials qualifier. Should his score hold and he is accepted into the meet, he will be one of the youngest in the very elite field.
The running of the 110-meter hurdles, today's first event in the decathlon, was reversed to take advantage of decent South breeze. But, in the two of seven heats that contained a Tiger, the winds swirled and became a hindering headwind. Adcock lost a spot in the standings in falling to fifth after a 14.59 clocking, passed by Florida State frosh Gonzalo Barroilhet who came in at 14.11. Rise was near a PR in running 15.52, but fell from sixth to ninth in the total order.
Rise made the discus an adventure in fouling his first two throws just right of the sector line. His third throw, kicked up the preverbal chalk, but was fair enough to grant him a throw of 140-11 (42.96m) and move him up to seventh overall through seven events. Adcock scored a personal best in the event with a 122-9 (37.42m), but moved down to sixth as Long Beach State's Chris Richardson used his best event to pass Adcock with a 142-10 (43.55m) toss. Tennessee's Jangy Addy widened his lead over Oregon's Ashton Eaton with a field-best throw of 154-5 (47.06m).
Adcock ramped up the game in the pole vault. Clearing 15-1 (4.60m) on his first attempt for a new personal best. Adcock cleared his day's best and four bars below on his first attempt and looked strong throughout the two-hour competition. Adcock's effort moved him to fifth place overall. Rise also cleared 15-1 (4.60m), a half-bar raise below his PR, to maintain seventh in the overall standings. Barriolhet had the best clearance at 17-¾ (5.20m) to ultimately separate himself, Eaton, and Addy from the rest of the field. Eaton had a better vault than Addy to start chipping away at Addy's lead, trimming it to within 74 points.
Adcock locked-in a throw of 175-0 (53.35m) for his best of the day in the javelin. Rise marked 173-5 (52.85m). Adcock slipped to seventh (6,903) and Rise to eighth (6,879) as Richardson from LBSU unleashed a 215-8 (65.75m) toss on his final attempt to move to fourth overall (7,064). Rickey Moody of Washington State also passed the Tigers with a 185-9 (56.63m) throw to move to fifth (6,938).
In the final event, the 1500 meters, Adcock ran the fourth-fastest time in the field with a personal best 4:35.53 to jump from seventh to his final placing in fourth. Rise clocked a season's best in the warm weather with a 4:44.07 to gain a spot over Moody for seventh overall. Eaton ran a 4:33.05 to lock up the overall title with 8,055 points. Addy finished second overall with 7,916 while Barriolhet took third at 7,907.
In the qualifying round of the men's shot put, senior Nate Englin (Shoreview, Minn.) made good on his second chance by throwing 60-4 (18.39m) on his final of three attempts to place eighth among the field and qualify for Saturday's national final that's primed for live broadcast on CBS. Preceding a foul on his second try, Englin's first throw of 58-6 (17.81m) would not have been good enough to make the final; therefore the clutch performance was needed.
Shernelle Nicholls and Krishna Lee took 13th and 21st in the qualifying rounds of the women's shot put. Nicholls missed qualifying for Saturday's final by just over an inch with a throw of 52-6¾ (16.02m).
Tomorrow, the lone Tiger to compete will be sophomore Brian Hancock (Monroe City, Mo.) in the national final of the men's pole vault. A live video stream, provided by the NCAA and CBS College Sports can be accessed, beginning at 4 p.m., central, here ... http://all-access.cstv.com/cstv/player/player.html?code=ncaa&sport=c-track&category=live&media=69621. In addition, CBS College Sports will show live coverage of the meet from 7-10 CST.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS, Day 2 of 4
(MISSOURI events only)
PR - personal best
SB - personal season best
BOLD indicates All-America status
MEN
Decathlon (final)
1. Ashton Eaton, Oregon, 8,055 pts
(4289 / 14.27, 39.96m, 4.60m, 53.93m, 4:33.05)
2. Jangy Addy, Tennessee, 7,916 pts
(4238 / 13.74, 47.06m, 4.30m, 52.67m, 5:05.13)
3. Gonzalo Barriolhet, Florida State, 7,907 pts
(3958 / 14.11, 43.12m, 5.20m, 55.84m, 4:50.79)
4. Nick Adcock, MISSOURI, 7,612 pts
(3963 / 14.59, 37.42m (PR), 4.60m (PR), 53.35m, 4:35.53 (PR))
7. Lars Rise, MISSOURI, 7,534 pts
(3945 / 15.52, 42.96m, 4.60m, 52.85m, 4:44.07 (SB))
QUALIFYING ROUNDS
Shot Put
Qual, (8) Nate Englin, MISSOURI, 18.39m, 60-4
WOMEN
QUALIFYING ROUNDS
Shot Put
DNQ, 13. Shernelle Nicholls, MISSOURI, 16.02m, 52-6¾
DNQ, 21. Krishna Lee, MISSOURI, 15.24m, 50-0
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