University of Tennessee Athletics
Thompson Wins Trojan Classic Decathlon
March 18, 2002 | Men's Track
March 18, 2002
LOS ANGELES -- With the first meet of the outdoor season in the books, Tennessee worked on its NCAA Outdoor Championships roster Monday evening at USC's Trojan Classic. The Volunteers added Kevin Thompson's name to that list after his career-best, 7,567-point effort captured victor's laurels in the Trojan Classic decathlon at Katherine B. Loker Stadium.
"My goal coming in was to do whatever it took to qualify (for the NCAA Outdoor Championships)," Thompson said. "I'm really happy with my score. I expected to score higher, but conditions were rough yesterday and we had to run into a headwind in the hurdles today. I wrote my ticket to nationals today. I'm happy I get to share the experience of the NCAA (Outdoor) Championships with my team this year, unlike last year when I didn't qualify. It's a special team we have this year, and I'm really excited to be a part of it."
Thompson became the first Vol to notch a NCAA Outdoor automatic qualifier with his winning 7,567 effort, a full 266 points better than his previous personal record. Thompson poured on the steam to improve his previous personal-best second-day (last five events) score by 263 points. Thompson posted decathlon PRs in the shot put (46-8), 110M hurdles (14.95) and discus (150-5). Thompson started the final day with a fury by winning at least a share of the first three events in the 110M hurdles (14.95), discus (150-5) and pole vault (14-7 1/4). Thompson managed a 161-10 in the javelin and 4:51.91 in the 1,500M run to close out the final two events.
Alex Hritcu made strides with his third-place, 7,112 score in cracking the 7,000-point barrier for the first time of his career and lacking just 38 points to notch a provisional qualifier. In fact, Hritcu upped his personal-best overall score by 143 points and his second-day score by 124 points. On the second day, Hritcu posted decathlon PRs in the pole vault (13-3 1/2) and javelin (159-4). Hritcu also posted a 15.68 in the 110M hurdles, 138-11 in the discus and 4:42.68 in the 1,500M run.
Brett Frykberg offered up a respectable 6,883 in his first collegiate decathlon. Frykberg's winning javelin measurement of 185-4 served as his highlight of the day. Frykberg notched a 16.38 in the 110M hurdles, 125-9 in the discus, 13-3 1/2 in the pole vault and 4:59.23 in the 1,500M run.
Additionally, co-captain Tim Bell and Blake Sabo closed out the meet with promising finishes in the open section of the javelin. Bell, a high jumper moonlighting as a javelin thrower, flung the spear 195-9, more than four feet farther than his previous career best. Likewise, Sabo, a decathlete who also has a chance to score at the conference meet in the javelin, measured a lifetime best 193-10.
"I'm pleased with what we accomplished today," head coach Bill Webb said. "We got quite a bit out of this early season decathlon. All three of our guys had lifetime bests. We'll probably have four or five guys compete in the next decathlon at the Sea Ray Relays. This week, we're putting the team back together for the Cal Invitational, a high-powered, team-scored meet. That will be a good early-season test to see where we are."
As Webb mentioned, the Vols will have their hands full at the Cal Invitational Saturday with the likes of host Cal, Stanford, Washington, Cal-Davis, Nevada and Kent State. The Vols hope to finish the first team-scored meet of the season with an unblemished record. Most of the NCAA Indoor competitors held out of the Trojan Classic will return for the Cal Invitational.
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