MARION, Ind. — Oregon Tech junior Bryant Sentman is in fourth place
halfway through the NAIA national championships decathlon
competition, and scored 3,537 points Thursday.
Sentman was second in the shot put and high jump during the first day
of competition, fifth in the long jump, seventh in the 100-meter dash
and 13th in the 400 in the first five events.
Bryant Sentman in day 1 competition of the decathlon (photo by Kelly Caleb)  |
Today, decathletes will compete in the 110 high hurdles, discus, pole
vault, javelin and 1,500.
Also Thursday, Trevor Lundsten gave OIT its first point at the NAIA
meet with an eighth-place finish in the men’s javelin. Lundsten, a
freshman, threw a career best 197 feet, 9 inches.
The seven individuals to finish higher than Lundsten all were over
200 feet.
In the same event, OIT junior Kyle Gomez placed 19th with a best
throw of 170-5, more than 21 feet below his season best. Of the top
nine javelin throwers, eight were from Oregon, California or British
Columbia schools.
In the women’s javelin, OIT senior Sarah Schelb, in her fourth and
final national appearance, finished 12th with a throw of 135-0,
almost five feet short of placing and well below her season best of
155 feet.
She would have finished second Thursday with a throw to match her
season best.
In the women’s 100-meter hurdles, OIT senior Nikki Smith reached
today’s semifinals with a 14.86-second effort in the preliminary
round Thursday. Smith likely would have to trim about one-half second
off Thursday’s time to have a chance to make the finals.
Four other OIT athletes completed their national competition Thursday.
In the women’s long jump, Emilee Nehring was 10th with a best effort
of 18-3. That left her three inches shy of placing, and five inches
shy of winning All-American honors.
OIT’s quartet of Rachel Novak, Statia Smith, Amanda McMillan and Lori
Carter was timed in 9:57.75 and placed 28th in the 4x800-meter relay
time trials. The Hustlin’ Owls would have needed a 9:16.68 to qualify
for the finals.
Reid Gustavson of the University of British Columbia was the surprise
leader in the decathlon with 3,942 points. He entered the national
meet with the fifth best qualifying score, and well behind the leaders.
Sentman was third in qualifying, behind Baker University’s Aaron
Hannon and Azusa Pacific’s Casey Stevick. Hannon was third after
Thursday’s competition with 3,584 points. Stevick is further back and
has 3,469 points.
In third after the first five events is Derik Douglas of Oklahoma
Baptist with 3,595 points.
Sentman’s 3,537 points betters his previous school first-day record
in the decathlon of 3,409 points at the Mount Hood Community College
multi-events competition earlier this season.
He set the school record of 6,598 points at the MHCC meet.
His highest scoring event when he set the school record earlier this
year was in the high jump, when he cleared 6-8¾ for 805 points.
Thursday, he went 6-3½, good for 731 points.
The only other Cascade Collegiate Conference decathlete at the
national meet is Southern Oregon’s Alex Waroff, who scored 3,346
points Thursday.