[Eugene, Oregon] The longest week of the Sasquatch track season turned out to be one of epic proportions. While the main body of the team competed at the Oregon State High Performance meet, including all three of the school’s decathletes. The main event for these student athletes began on Monday May 1 with the first five events of the two-day NWAC Decathlon Championships.
The decathlon crew consisted of Jaxson Nichols, Cameron Galbreath and Hunter Beatty. A total of twenty-five personal bests out of thirty events was just the beginning for this group. Each recorded a season and lifetime best total score.
The best athlete in the conference, Jaxson Nichols went a perfect ten for ten in winning five events, shot, discus, long jump, high jump, and the javelin throw. He finished second in three other events setting a new best total score of 6069 a 606-point improvement from his previous best.
Jaxson led most of the competition yet saw himself in second place overall following the pole vault competition by a mere two points. Let’s just say the fire was lit heading into the javelin portion of the event. Determined to regain his lead and a possible point cushion before the last event the 1500, Nichols had three personal bests in a row in the javelin. His last throw of 158’ 7” was a bomb that earned him enough points so tat he just had to run even with his top rival to secure the decathlon title for the first time.
Cameron Galbreath one of the top 400 hurdlers competed in his second decathlon of the season and likewise saw huge improvement in each event, as well as a 341-point improvement moving from 4755 points to 5096. Galbreath has personal best in nine of the ten events. His best finish being a second place in the javelin with a very nice, best throw of 148’.
Galbreath was jumping very well in the pole vault when an errant cross bar smacked him in the head opening a gash that needed medical attention for a short time and causing him to retire early from the vault. Fortunately, he was able to continue the other events and finish strong helping to earn the team a total of 14 highly valuable points that will carry forward to the regular conference meet May 22-23.
In his first college decathlon was Hunter Beatty. Suffering a fractured lower leg back in the first week of January Hunter showed an extreme amount of dedication during the recovery process. Endless workouts in the pool, long endurance sessions through any means made his participation nothing short of amazing. Recording eight season bests Hunter clearly showed the heart that it took to compete in this grueling ten event challenge. His best individual finish was in one of his favorite events the discus, where his toss of 84’8” was good for fourth. His 118’ 8” javelin was a 13’ improvement from the meet at OSU on Saturday.
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#Men's Track and Field