UCLA
Pac-10 Decathlon Championships
Perez Has Huge Final Day At Pac-10 Decathlon Championships
May 07, 2011 | Track & Field
May 7, 2011
Decathlon Results in PDF Format 
Trent Perez catapulted himself into the UCLA all-time top-10 in the decathlon after an impressive final day of competition at the Pac-10 Multi-Event Championships in Tucson, AZ on Saturday as the junior finished third overall with a lifetime-best score. The Bruins had three athletes score over 7000 points as UCLA picked up 15 big points in the team competition and stand in first-place heading into the full meet next weekend.
Back in April at the RJ/JJK Invite, Perez narrowly missed the 7000 point barrier as he scored 6992. Today, Perez finally broke through, scoring 7315 points behind three lifetime-bests and two event wins on Saturday.
He started off the day with a lifetime-best run in the high hurdles, clocking the sixth-fastest time of the day, 15.35 (808 points). Then, he placed 12th in the discus with a mark of 105-7 (508 points).
With his best three events remaining (pole vault, javelin and 1500m), Perez was primed for a big score. He cleared a season-best 15-9.75 in the pole vault to tie for third overall, picking up 856 points. Perez then won the javelin with a big lifetime-best throw of 180-5, improving by nearly 16 feet on his previous best while picking up 663 points. In the final event of the day, the 1500m, the junior clocked a new lifetime-best of 4:17.42 to win and pick up 829 points to add to his new lifetime-best total. Perez becomes the first Bruin since 2004 to move into the all-time top-10 at UCLA.
Early enrollee Marcus Nilsson came up big on day two as well as he finished fourth overall with a score of 7253 points. The Swede was seventh in the 110m hurdles in a time of 15.39 (803 points) and sixth in the discus with a mark of 118-3 (585 points). He cleared 14-6 in the pole vault for the eighth-best mark of the day (737 points). He posted a big throw in the javelin as well, finishing third overall with a mark of 173-2 (630 points). Nilsson ended the day with a fifth-place finish in the 1500m, running 4:30.69 (740 points).
Sophomore Dominic Giovannoni rounded out the Bruin scorers as he placed fifth with a solid score of 7117 points. Giovannoni was third in the high hurdles with a time of 15.20 (825 points) and then finished second in the discus with a throw of 130-4 (659 points). In the pole vault, he tied for ninth with a clearance of 14-2 (708 points). Giovannoni had the 11th-best throw in the javelin with a mark of 148-9 (520 points) and was 11th in the 1500m (4:52.97, 601 points). He was just 75 points shy of his lifetime-best of 7192 which he scored at the RJ/JJK Invite.
Sophomore David Thomas finished 10th with a lifetime-best score of 6705 points, bettering his previous best by 450 points. In the high hurdles, Thomas placed 13th in a time of 15.86 (749 points). He then placed ninth in the discus with a mark of 114-1 (559 points). Thomas had a big day in the pole vault as he finished second with a lifetime-best clearance of 16-1.75 (886 points). In the javelin, he threw 147-6 to finish 12th and pick up 514 points. He ended the day with the 13th-best time in the 1500m, 5:08.34 (513 points).
The main Pac-10 Championship meet will be next Friday and Saturday in Tucson, AZ.
Players Mentioned
