April 2, 2009
AUSTIN - Trinity Otto scored a career best 7,355 points in the decathlon to place fourth at the 82nd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on Thursday.
The score for Otto moves him to No. 9 on the Texas A&M all-time list and is a provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA Championships. He also takes over the Big 12 lead.
"That was a big deal to me," Otto said of reaching that level with his score. "I had a few events in this decathlon that didn't go as well as I thought they should. To know that I can score that high and still have average or below average days in those events makes me feel good about the next one I'll do in the conference meet."
Camille Vandendriessche of Abilene Christian, who covered last year's Texas Relays for French newspaper L'quippe, took over the lead in the eighth of 10 events. His winning score totaled 7,531 points.
Winds measuring between 35 to 40 miles per hour prompted officials to delay the pole vault portion of the decathlon by four and a half hours, until 6 p.m. Then once the vault was completed the javelin and 1,500-meter run were the two remaining events.
Having started the second day of the multi at 11 a.m. with the 110 hurdles, the event finally wrapped up at 10:45 p.m. in the evening.
"Hurdles were good for me and the javelin was a huge PR for me," Otto noted. "I also had a personal best in the 1,500."
Otto ran the hurdles in 14.85 seconds with a 3.3 meter per second aiding wind. Then a 128-2 discus followed. Otto still led the field at that point with 5,447 points with Andrew Webb of Texas in second at 5,298.
In the pole vault Otto cleared 13-7.25 for 659 points, but slipped to second place with 6,106 points when Vandendriessche cleared 16-2.75 to vault into the point lead as his 895 tally turned into an eight-event total of 6,185.
"Today, the only event that really upset me was the pole vault," noted Otto. "I was struggling today in the pole vault, it wasn't coming natural to me like it should. To only clear 13-7 was real frustrating."
While Otto reached a career best 180-9 in the javelin for 664 points, Vandendriessche heaved the spear 194-3 for 726 points. Going into the final event the ACU senior sported a 6,911 total over Otto's 6,770.
Needing at least a time faster than 5:03 in the 1,500 would earn Otto a score above 7,300 and he delivered with a career best 4:55.71 to get 585 points in the event.
"The bleachers were nearly empty by the time we ran the 1,500, but at every part of the track I could hear a coach yelling for me," Otto said. "That really helped, having people around the track yelling for me. It kept my mind off the pain and helped me focus."
Akron's Daniel Kinsey (4:46.30 - 7,385) and Cory Roberts of Southeast Louisiana (4:37.80 - 7,364) both ran well enough to pass Otto in the final event and nab second and third place, respectively.