Friday, May 27, 2016
by Mark Moschetti, Seattle Pacific Sports Information

BRADENTON, Fla. – By his own acknowledgement on Thursday, Cody Thomas is more of a day one guy in the decathlon.
 
By his own performance on Friday, he’s not a bad day two guy, either.
 
After building a 168-point lead through the first five events, Thomas hung onto it throughout the last five, and laid claim to the crown at the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships.
 
“I finally put a day two together,” Thomas said. “Pole vault was pretty clutch for me. It was one of the three events we were targeting, and it was a pivotal one.
 
 “I did the work on the first day. Then basically, the game was to compete and stay near the top in every event,” he added. “I managed to do that. So if I can beat people in individual events, it’s going to be hard to beat me overall.”
 
For day two supposedly not being his stronger day, all Thomas did was set school records in the 110-meter high hurdles (14.74 seconds) and the pole vault (14 feet, 9 inches), and season bests in the discus (122-6) and javelin (166-6).
 
He knew even before he arrived at the stadium on Friday that the hurdles and the pole would be key. He wound up third overall in the former and sixth in the latter.
 
“Hurdles was a good start – I didn’t give up too much of that lead early on,” Thomas said. “The pole vault, I was basically trying to hang on as much as I could. It’s a big-point event. It’s basically 30-ish points a bar, so just getting a couple bars ahead of someone, that’s (worth) almost six seconds in that 1,500.”
 
Twice in 80-plus degree temperatures at IMG Academy Field, Thomas – the first GNAC national men’s champion since teammate Cody Parker won the javelin in 2013 – saw his margin over Azusa Pacific freshman Shakiel Chattoo get precariously small – seven points after the discus (Event 7) and just 10 points heading into the meet-ending 1,500 meters.
 
But while Thomas ran in the middle of the 1,500 pack (and finished 10th among the 16 in the race), Chattoo was far behind him, both on the track (41 seconds, placing 16th) and in the final standings (242 points, but still good for runner-up).
 
Thomas – the New Zealand native who is called “Kiwi” by friends, teammates, and even fellow competitors – was just glad that he finally sealed the in the last meet of his college career.
 
“It’s about time,” he said. “It’s a very nice way to finish off a bittersweet last season.”
 
GO ‘WHOLE SOUL’ OR GO HOME
Some guys might back off a bit during the high jump, depending on how their bodies are feeling.
 
Mikel Smith isn’t one of those guys. And on Friday night, that philosophy yielded the biggest possible reward when he won the NCAA Division II men’s high jump championship.
 
The Saint Martin’s junior tied with Jeron Robinson of Texas A&M-Kingsville at 7 feet, 1 inch, with both clearing on their first attempt. Both also cleared their previous two bars on their first attempt.
 
The tiebreaker was their first bar of the night, 6-8.75. While Smith cleared it on the first try, Robinson needed a second attempt.
 
“Even if I’m hurting, I try to put as much power into each jump as possible,” Smith said.
 
That 7-1 felt extra good to Smith, who was runner-up at indoor nationals in March.
 
 “I put my whole soul into that jump just trying to make it over,” Smith said of his career-best leap. “That’s what I needed to do from there on out was put my whole soul into each jump. It was either this or go home or take second. I was trying to go for gold, and I accomplished that.”
 
He still had to wait and see if Isaac Jean-Paul of Lewis could get over at 7-3.25. Jean-Paul missed on his first two runs at it, then passed on a third try.
 
“I’m still excited. It still hasn’t completely hit me,” Smith said.
 
MUTUAL RESPECT CLUB FOR DECKER, KOCH
The last time Lynelle Decker of Seattle Pacific and Carsyn Koch of Cedarville stepped onto the track together, it was in Pittsburg, Kan., at the NCAA indoor championships on March 14. Koch won the 800 meters that night, but Decker stormed back from fifth place to take second behind her.
 
Earlier this outdoor season, Decker ran the fastest 800 in Division II at 2:08.08. That stood for two weeks until Koch went 2:03.58 at the Mt. SAC Relays, then went even faster (2:02.39) at Stanford’s Payton Jordan Invitational.
 
On Friday, they found themselves in the same 800 preliminary heat. After a blistering first lap (about 61 seconds), Koch pulled ahead, Decker followed, and together, the two of them left the other six runners way behind.
 
Coming down the stretch, Koch glanced back to make sure they were still well clear of everyone else for the two automatic qualifying spots to finals. Then, she glanced at Decker.
 
“On the last 50 meters and with 5 meters to go, she was looking behind and saying, ‘Lynelle, we’re good’, and that I could go ahead of her,” Decker said. “That was nice.”
 
“She earned my respect last year when she was a freshman competing with Lindsey (Butterworth, of Simon Fraser) – the only one who really could,” Decker added. “She has really grown into a really good runner, and is a really respectful, classy lady.”
 
NO JOKE: EGGLESTON IS AN ALL-AMERICAN
Like most collegians, Central Washington senior Dani Eggleston didn’t start out as a steeplechaser. Matter of fact, the first one she entered was mostly on a whim.
 
“I actually tried it halfway through my sophomore year, just as a joke,” she said. “I said, ‘I’m just going to try an off-the-wall sort of event.’ And I did it, got the national provisional the first time I tried, and I really liked it.”
 
She doesn’t joke about the grueling 3,000-meter endurance test anymore. She’s totally serious about it, and she now has an All-American award to prove it after finishing eighth in Friday night’s finals.
 
“It was a really hard race – I’m not going to lie,” Eggleston said. “I just went out there and had some fun. The key lap was No. 6 when I started falling behind (outside of a top-8 All-American spot). I said, ‘You really gotta go if you want this.’
 
“I just remembered that ‘It’s your last race, you’ve got nothing to lose – just a few more laps out there.'”