Henry Vildosola

Gary,
I agree with David and BJ. Trust me, I'm well aware that he wasn't a true freshman this season, but there's no denying the facts. He's 20 and has gone 8000. You're right, he's not the traditional decathlete. He's not freakishly fast in the sprints or going 8 meters in the long jump like Eaton (but who is?), and he has a lot of work to do in the throws, but I think that just gives him the opportunity to be different. Everyone keeps saying he'd be better off switching to middle distance, but I don't think so. Why should he? He's still improving, and that's what it's all about. According to his personal bests on tfrrs, he has 7 events that are 850 and over. So he has 3 weak events, which is really just one weakness: throwing. He's only 20 (almost 21) and has one weak event type; I can't see how you could tell a decathlete in his position to switch. He's getting better, and everything I've seen and heard about him tells me he will continue to, and hopefully he'll become a better thrower. But that aside, the fact is he's young, improving, and already at the top of the NCAA. I've always been taught to never count the 1500 runners out in the dec, because they can always make up huge ground at the end.

So I'm just saying, don't count him out.

Yes, you're correct. He did 13 events that day, I dont think it came into play in shot and discus as much, but Im pretty sure he walked back from the 110 hurdles at 39" to do them at 42" with virtually no break. With shot and disc, he's not scoring a lot anyway, but hurdles is one of his more important events and I honestly don't see how he was able to run 14.7 after that. I wish he wouldve picked just one decathlon to do that meet so we could see what he was capable of.

gary, you make a really good point. I wasn't aware of all of those high-caliber performances before the conversions took place. And if what you're saying is true, then the New Mexico kid (Beach) doesn't deserve the national record. However, I think you're not giving him near the credit he deserves. He scored 7909 with the high school implements and 7466 with the collegiate implements while in high school. That's right up there with some of the best we've had in America as far as juniors are concerned