E-W’s Fellows captures decathlon title

  • By Nick Patterson For The Enterprise
  • Tuesday, June 8, 2010 8:59pm

LAKE STEVENS — For Alec Fellows, the state high school decathlon championships were a perfect 10.

Fellows recorded decathlon personal-best marks in each of the competition’s 10 events, and the Edmonds-Woodway junior claimed the boys decathlon title June 5 to conclude the 39th annual Dennis McDonald Multi Events State Championships, held at Lake Stevens High School.

Fellows finished with a two-day score of 6,308 points. That was 203 better than Stanwood’s Kale Schmidt. Schmidt, the 2009 champion, settled for second.

“It feels so good,” Fellows said about being crowned champion. “It’s what I’ve been training for all year.”

It turned out to be a banner meet for local athletes as five of the top nine in both the boys decathlon and the girls heptathlon hailed from area schools. Curtis Clauson from King’s rounded out the top three in the boys decathlon, while Lake Stevens freshman Brooke Pahukoa took second in the heptathlon.

And for Fellows it was a meteoric rise from the previous year. He bested his 2009 score by nearly a thousand points as he jumped from sixth to first.

“I was hoping for that kind of improvement,” Fellows said. “Last year my discus, pole vault and hurdles were all not very good. I scored a lot more points in those events this year.”

Fellows and Schmidt ran 1-2 throughout the decathlon’s two days. Schmidt was stalking Fellows the entire second day, but was never able to close the gap as Fellows built on the 44-point lead he held after the first day.

Fellows opened Saturday’s second day strong by turning in the best time in the 110-meter hurdles (15.76 seconds), giving himself some breathing space. Then his throw of 161 feet, 31/4 inches in the javelin — the meet’s penultimate event and a personal record by 15 feet — was the clincher, allowing Fellows to take it easy during the concluding 1,500.

“The javelin (put me over the top), definitely,” Fellows said. “It would have been close in the 1,500 if I hadn’t had that because my throw before was really bad.”

Schmidt, who’s headed to the University of Washington to compete in the decathlon, topped his winning score from last year (6,105-6,059). But Fellows’ dramatic improvement meant it wasn’t enough to repeat, despite an inspired run in the 1,500 (4,41.09).

“I was hoping for first, but it’s all right,” Schmidt said. “I’ve been doing other sports all year round, and Alec has been working hard all year long for this, so he deserves it.

“I felt pretty good about today,” Schmidt added. “It wasn’t too hard, but that 1,500 is brutal.”

Clauson used a mammoth effort in the javelin to pull into third — his throw of 212-9 1/2 was a meet record. He finished with 5,784 points.

Pahukoa served notice that she’ll be a force in the heptathlon the next three years. She finished fifth last year competing as an eighth grader, then this year she used a strong second day to vault herself up into the runner-up position. Her score of 4,417 set a new freshman record, eclipsing the mark of 4,330 recorded by Cascade-Leavenworth’s Megan Franza in 1994.

Pahukoa, who was participating in just her second ever heptathlon, finished just 101 points behind Auburn Mountainview senior Alexi Morton.

“I was surprised by some of it,” Pahukoa said about her performance. “Not doing the javelin before and throwing a 102 (feet), that was a shock to me. I knew I could get top five and that was my goal.”

Pahukoa’s twin sister Brittney finished fifth with a score of 3,903.

In the girls decathlon, Stanwood’s Kalina Eveland was the area’s top placer, finishing fourth with a score of 4,110. Lakeside’s Emi Lawson set a new meet record, winning with a score of 5,381.

Nick Patterson writes for the Herald in Everett.

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