Jeremy Taiwo finishes second in Pac-10 decathlon...

BERKELEY, California--University of Washington sophomore Jeremy Taiwo (left/photo by Randy Miyazaki, trackandfieldphoto.com) put the finishing touches on the best performance by a Husky in the decathlon in 24 years Sunday to take runner-up honors at the Pac-10 Multi-Event Championships at Cal's Edwards Stadium. Taiwo amassed 7,521 points over the past two days, and finished with a dominating win in the 1,500-meters.

The Newport HS graduate's score was a lifetime best, eclipsing his previous score of 7299 set last year, and moves him to fourth on the all-time UW list, behind only Mike Ramos (8322 set in 1986), Steve Erickson (8063 in 1985), and Gary Gefre (7758 in 1980).

Taiwo also moves up to 10th on the current NCAA descending order list, all but guaranteeing himself a spot at nationals in Eugene next month.

Taiwo finished behind Oregon's Ashton Eaton, a senior and the two-time NCAA decathlon champ and world record holder in the indoor heptathlon, as Eaton posted 8,154 points.

Washington State's Kyle Schauble, a senior from Kennewick, Wash., took sixth place in the decathlon with a PR total of 6,899 points, and was only 10 points from fifth place.

Washington's Andrew Ferleman finished eleventh with a final score of 6199 points.

Taiwo started the day off with a strong run in the 110-meter hurdles. He was second overall in 14.54 seconds, earning 906 points, his highest point total in any event. Next came the discus, where Taiwo was second again with an eight-foot PR of 136-feet. He then cleared 14-7 ¼ in the pole vault, but had a higher clearance wiped out when his pole bumped off the crossbar. The javelin proved to be his low-scoring event as he threw 157-7 but he didn't lose much ground.

Finally, Taiwo came out and crushed the field in the final event, the 1,500-meter run. He dropped 13 seconds from his career-best time, winning in 4:17.57 at the end of a grueling two days. The victory in the final event gave him his second win in the ten event competition.

Schauble was in eighth place after the first day's five events. He ran the 110m hurdles in a time of 14.91 seconds, threw the discus 103-feet, 4 inches (31.51m), pole vaulted a PR height of 14-3 1/4 (4.35m), threw the javelin 174-3 (53.12m), and ran the 1500m in a PR time of 4-minutes, 28.02 seconds. Unfortunately the NCAA provisional mark in the decathlon is 6,900 points so Schauble missed that standard by one point.

In the heptathlon, Oregon's Brianne Theisen, a world championships competitor and reigning NCAA heptathlon champion, cruised to an easy victory with a score of 5917 points.

Washington State's Angela Jensen, a junior from Tacoma, finished sixth with a PR total of 5,017 points, and Jasmine Johnson-McKeown, a freshman from San Bernardino, took seventh place with a PR total of 4,962 points.

For the Huskies, freshman Sarah Schireman was ninth and junior Lindsey Kirschman placed 10th, both setting new PRs in their first Pac-10 multis. as they scored 4623, and 4382 points, respectively.

Both Cougar women maintained their first day heptathlon places. Sunday Jensen long jumped 17-2 1/4 (5.24m), threw the javelin 114-11 (35.04m), and ran the 800m in a PR time of 2:24.46, a four-second improvement. Johnson-McKeown long jumped 16-8 (5.08m), threw the javelin 121-0 (36.89m), and ran the 800m in a PR time of 2:25.48 which is nearly six seconds off her previous best.

Schireman, out of Archbishop Murphy High in Everett, PR'd by 165 points in just her second career heptathlon. In today's final three events, she started with a season-best long jump of 18-5 ¾ to take sixth in that event. She then closed with a four-second PR in the 800-meters, running 2:27.04.

Kirschman, who made the rare switch from mid-distance events to the multis this season, also raised her PR by 154 points since the Mt. SAC Relays just last month. As usual she was a standout in the 800-meters, taking third overall in 2:15.21 for 890 points, her highest of any event.

The Pac-10 meet resumes May 15th and 16th in Berkeley with the full slate of events. paulmerca.blogspot.com will be on site to provide coverage of the meet.

Complete results from the Pac-10 track & field championships by event are available here.

NOTE: The University of Washington, Washington State University, the Pac-10 Conference, and the University of California contributed to this report.