April 14, 2005
Results
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Austra Skujyte of Lithuania with 3,898 points, along with three collegians, completed the first day of competition in the first women's decathlon held in America on Thursday, heading into the final day of the second annual Audrey Walton Combined Event with a chance to break the world record in the event. Currently, Skujyte is 56 points ahead of the World-record pace set by France's Marie Collonville, who established the standard for female decathletes in 2004 with a two-day total of 8,150 points.
Skujyte, the Olympic silver medalist in the heptathlon and Kansas State grad, ended the day with a personal-best time of 57.19 seconds in the 400-meter dash. Her time enabled her to stay in front of Collonville's pace, as well as Brianne Eveland of Kansas State, who had taken the lead in the competition after three events. Eveland, the Big 12 Indoor Champion in the pole vault, used her strongest event to earn 1,018 points with a 13 foot, 5¼ inch (4.10m) vault, tying the overall Walton Stadium record in the event. After five events she has 3678 points, and will become the collegiate record-holder if she can stay in second place through tomorrow's competition.
Missouri Post-collegian Fiona Asigbee took the lead in the heptathlon by posting a personal record one-day total of 3,581 points, 57 points better than the 3,524 points she turned in at the U. S. Olympic Team Trials. Asigbee is also 267 points in front of the one-day pace set by Michelle Moran when she set the meet and Walton Stadium record in the event last year. To set the mark Asigbee established personal bests in the final two events of the day, throwing the shot put 40 feet, 9 ¾ in.(12.44m) and running the 200-meter dash in 24.49 seconds.
In the men's decathlon, Missouri junior Hans Uldal came very close to breaking personal records in several events on his way to third place with a total of 3,845 points. Uldal's long jump of 24 feet, 1 inch (7.34m) earned him a berth in the NCAA Regionals, and was just shy of matching his personal best of 24 feet, 3 inches (7.39m). K-State post-collegian Pat Pyle leads the competition with 3,870 points, eight points ahead of Decosma Wright of Lincoln University, and only 25 points ahead of Uldal.
The men's decathlon saw many good performances by Mizzou athletes, as three other decathletes set career highs. A personal-best long jump of 23 feet, 6 inches (7.16m) and another personal record in the high jump of 6 feet, 2 ¼ in.(1.89m) enabled Missouri sophomore Sommerfeldt to rack up 3,762 points, more than he'd ever compiled on the first day of competition.
The Walton Combined Events will continue tomorrow beginning at 11 a.m. The women's decathlon is scheduled to conclude with the 1500-meter run around 3:30 p.m. For more information and complete results on this meet, visit mutigers.com.