Great Southwest Track and Field: Missouri's Smith perseveres for repeat decathlon title
Jun. 2—Jordan Smith had plans to compete on Saturday at the Great Southwest Track and Field Classic.
"Was supposed to," he said, wearily. "But I'm scratching."
It was understandable, given the circumstances, and an obvious bout of fatigue written all over his 17-year-old face.
After two days and 10 events, Smith, from Kansas City, Missouri, had won the decathlon at the University of New Mexico Track and Field Complex on Friday afternoon.
He scored 6,247 points over Thursday and Friday as he successfully repeated as the Great SW decathlon champ. He improved by more than 400 points from last year's victory, although he said he fell short of his pre-meet goal of 6,500 points.
"Usually," he said with a slight smile, "it's not this hard."
Smith, who just completed his junior year at Park Hill High in Kansas City, got out quickly on Thursday, winning the 100-meter dash (in a PR time of 11.20 seconds) and also the long jump (with a mark of 21 feet, 5 1/2 inches).
"The first day wasn't too bad," he said. "But once (I) came back on (Friday) morning, it hits you. Most of it was, I just hadn't done it in a while."
He added event victories Friday in the discus (115 feet, 2 inches) and his specialty, the javelin (162-6).
It was somewhat sweet justice since an injury to his right (throwing) elbow a couple of weeks ago — which occurred while in a javelin competition — forced him to miss Missouri's state high school meet, which was last weekend.
"It was a huge bummer," he said, adding that he re-injured the elbow Friday, but it was the penultimate event of the meet.
After the discus and javelin on Friday, Smith enjoyed enough of a cushion that his 10th-place finish in the decathlon's final event, the 1,500, didn't hurt his cause.
Even if it was painful.
"It didn't hurt too bad until there was about 300 left," he said. "Then I started feeling it."
But he was certainly pleased to leave Albuquerque with a second straight decathlon title.
"It feels great to go back-to-back," he said. "And I'm (going to) try to make it three next year."
Smith's margin of victory was 326 points. Kael Stephens of Magdalena finished sixth in the decathlon, scoring 5,608 points. He won the high jump on Thursday (6-0).
One of Smith's fellow Missourians won the girls heptathlon on Friday.
Angela Dobbins, from Malden, Missouri — a tiny town about three hours south of St. Louis — captured the two-day event with 4,213 points. Sandia High's Gabriella Domenici was the runner-up (4,066).
Dobbins won the high jump and 200 on Thursday. Domenici's best individual event was the shot put, where she placed second (30-9).
SATURDAY: The majority of the meet will unfold on Saturday at UNM.
All of the 14 field events will be spread out from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. The running program begins at 10:30 a.m., although most of the premier events/finals won't begin to be held until the late afternoon, following the opening ceremonies at 4:30.
Several of New Mexico's top runners are scheduled to compete along the way, including Santa Fe's Bryce Melton, and Los Alamos' Melaki Gutierrez and Jaiya Daniels.
Saturday
Great Southwest Track &Field
UNM, running finals 4:30 p.m
