USA Championchips

Eaton (unless he has a nightmare).

I doubt that Hardee will complete the decathlon, whereas Clay (if fit) will not want to risk injury and will probably do enough just to qualify (8,400 - 8,600 range).

Hardee is definitely not competing at USATF - he has a buy to Daegu as defending champion. For Eaton and Clay, the key is qualifying and being ready for the WCs; winning this meet is not important. Neither one wants to pull a Dan O'Brien! Since, with Hardee's bye, three other Americans will qualify, even a score of 8300 should be enough to get through. The tense competition likely will be for that last spot; Jake Arnold is the favorite, but some of the younger guys have a shot. And as we know, anything can happen in a decathlon.

I meant that Hardee will not compete IN THE DECATHLON at USATF. Rules say he has to compete in something - He's entered in the hurdles and the LJ.

I have to disagree with you about Eaton. I believe that he will use the USATF in order to proof (mostly to himself) that the string of amazing PBs can be translated into (very) high score in the decathlon that can compete with Hardee. Furthermore, after his amazing 13.35 he said that he loves to compete in Eugene and I think that this will also contribute to his score. I do hope that unlike O'Brien he will not start his PV at 4.70 but will take a safety jump first. I predict that he will score more than 8700.

As for Clay he is so talented that even if he puts 80% effort he should be able to score ~8,500. I agree with you that Arnold is the favourite for the last spot. It would be interesting to see if the young generation will recover enough from the NCAA in order to give him a run for his money.

Here is official entry list:


Men's Decathlon Qual. Mark Entry
J Trey Hardee Nike 8689 qualified
Bryan Clay Nike 8483 qualified
Ashton Eaton Oregon TC Elite 8457 qualified
Jake Arnold Asics 8253 qualified
Michael Morrison University of California, Berkeley 8118 qualified
Curtis Beach Duke University 8084 qualified
Miller Moss Clemson University 7996 qualified
Chris Randolph unattached 7814 qualified
Isaac Murphy unattached 7806 qualified
Chris Helwick unattached 7799 qualified
Mark Jellison unattached 7781 qualified
Jon Harlan unattached 7720 qualified
Nick Adcock unattached 7707 qualified
Matthew Johnson unattached 7686 qualified
Nick Huber Cornell University 7593 qualified
Kenny Greaves University of Texas at Austin 7583 qualified
David Klech University of Oregon 7581 qualified
Edward Broadbent HPC Elite 7558 provisional

Long range weather (for what it's worth):

Day 1 (Thurs) 71 - mostly sunny
Day 2 (Fri) 68 - few showers

From Hardee's twitter page:


treyhardee @DanTomlin I'll be doing select dec events as well as the open LJ and 110h's... Saving it for Korea man!!
about 16 hours ago in reply to DanTomlin

Olorin, you could well be right about Eaton. We shall see.

Also, I understand Joe Detmer is competing, tho he is not yet on the entry list. If this information is accurate, he could be in the mix for the last spot.

Question -
In the TFN formchart they ranked Pappas on third place.
Is he still competing?

I believe that ashton eaton would make above 8700pts and clay 8500 like you said olorin.
Anyway i am very excited to see what he can do with such speed, i hope he is in shape...
let's see on thursday

Pappas is not yet entered. I doubt that he is competing.

First day scores:
Eaton 4604
Clay 4196
Broadbent 4175
Moss 4128
Morrison 3984
Beach 3954

Some of the above questions were answered:

Eaton is aiming for a big score. I believe that he is relatively happy with his performances except for the SP. Tomorrow he has another chance to prove that he has improved also in the throws. If he will do it (say ~48, ~60) an American record is likely. Barring a catastrophe 8,700+ is given.

Clay is well out of sort. You can save yourself in the throws and in the jumps but 14.25 in the SP is very bad indication of his form. Note that Clay leads the fourth place by only 68 points. Given is current shape he is likely to lose a lot of points on the 1,500. However, given that none of his competitors have an “A” standard fourth place is also likely to be enough to qualify.

The fight for the third place is really tight. Of all the athletes in the list only Beach and Morrison have the “B” standard (8,000 points). Morrison is likely to increase his lead in the throwing event but Beach will close in the 1,500. Both athletes should “thank” the NCAA for placing a decathlon two weeks before the trials.