Engelking Qualifies for Nationals in Decathlon, Bardin and DeSalvo to NEs

(4/11/2010) Full Results

With the exception of one minor hiccup, it was an amazing weekend for the quartet of Jumbo decathletes this weekend at the Tufts Last Second Decathlon. A rare NH for high jump specialist Mike Blair kept the team from having all competitors qualify for the New England Championships.

As it happened, Frank DeSalvo, Bobby Bardin, and Jared Engelking all hit the mark with Engelking also surpassing the NCAA provisional standard. What made this weekend all the more impressive was the fact that the Jumbos could easily perform better in 40 of the 40 performances. Although many of the events yielded PRs for the competitors, each one left the venue with a renewed vigor and excitement for their next decathlon.

A cold start to the competition led to some incredibly conservative marks on the 1st day, especially in the 100m and LJ. The four decathletes battled through and posted some solid Day 1 marks. The overall theme of the weekend was one of ‘firsts’ due to the fact that 16 of the individual events were being contested for the first time ever. Guaranteed PRs, if you will.

Most impressive had to be DeSalvos 17.19 in his 1st ever hurdle race. Additionally, Blair cleared 3.19m in the PV in his first competition. Blair, who had attempted the discus the week before, added an additional 30+ feet to his mark. Each competitor worked the kinks out of the javelin with each toss. Blair added 8 feet to his mark from the week before as he ironed his approach.

Although Engelking failed to post a decathlon or lifetime PR in any of the 10 events, he still assembled the 3rd best decathlon of his life. He currently sits almost 300 points of his progression from last year that saw him finish 3rd at the National Championships with 6834 points.

It should be an exciting post season for the Jumbo multis. They will be focusing on individual events and the team conference championships until their next decathlon at the DIII NE Championships. Stay tuned.


Full Results