Though Craig Saalfeld had never competed in a decathlon before, he promised he would at least give it a shot.
“The coaches last year touched base with me a little bit and said, ‘Hey, I think you’d be good at decathlon,’” Saalfeld said. “I told them, ‘Well, put me in, and I’ll do it.’”
The Emporia State junior was rewarded for having an open mind on Thursday.
After five events, Saalfeld is the leader out 19 competitors in the men’s decathlon at the ESU Open Multis. He has 3,690 points, which is 48 better than unattached competitor Darius Walker.
Saalfeld, who had never been in a decathlon before Thursday, only started training for the event in the fall.
“I just wanted to come in top 10 at least, and I’ve exceeded those expectations,” Saalfeld said, “so I’m pretty happy.”
Saalfeld was helped by the fact that all of his strongest events came on the first day.
The junior sat in eighth after three events before finishing with the high jump and the 400-meter run.
He cleared 6 feet, 8 3/4 inches in the high jump to take first. The showing also boosted him from eighth all the way to first in the overall standings.
Saalfeld backed that up with another victory in the 400, as he finished in a time of 49.52 seconds.
“I kind of knew I had some strong events and some weak ones,” Saalfeld said. “I just had to go out and do my best in the events I was good at and see how everything else fell into place.”
Saalfeld also took second in the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 11 1/2 inches.
Things will be more interesting today, as Saalfeld finishes with five events he’s not as familiar with.
They include the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run.
“Second day is probably my weak point — especially the throws,” Saalfeld said.
“I don’t have a lot of weight and have no experience at all in the throws, but we’ll see how it goes.”
On the women’s side, ESU’s Ryan Green sits at 12th place out of 25 competitors after four events in the heptathlon.
If her placing stood up, Green would score team points for Sunday’s D-II Challenge.
“I felt really good going into it,” Green said. “I’m doing as good as I expected.”
The highlight for Green came in the 200-meter run, as she was able to win her heat with a time of 26.46 seconds. That was good enough for fifth place overall.
“I had a really get block start,” Green said, “and came out of the curve really good.”
Green also was in the top 10 in the shot put (sixth, 32-5 3/4) and 100-meter hurdles (ninth, 16.15).
The Open Multis wrap up today, with events beginning at 10:30 this morning at Welch Stadium.
The ESU Papa John’s D-II Challenge track meet, which was supposed to take place Saturday, has been pushed back to Sunday. The meet was moved back because of weather concerns.
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