By Mack Burke
MURFREESBORO – Hume-Fogg’s Ben Brunson was the Midstate’s lone decathlon winner Tuesday, but there were two second-place finishers.
Brunson, a junior who finished fourth last year, had 5,787 points to beat Greeneville’s Anton Almqvist (5,582) and Pearl-Cohn’s Cameron Watkins (5,227).
“I’m ecstatic for the win,” Brunson said. “Personally, I strive to be versatile, and nothing but the decathlon epitomizes that in a sport.”
Brunson’s highest point total for the second day came in the long jump, where he was second at 20-1.5 feet. He tied for first in the high jump at 6 feet.
“The long jump I did pretty well on and discus could’ve been a little better, but all around, I think I put together a pretty good decathlon,” Brunson said.
Sophomore George Patrick from Brentwood Academy finished second (6,821) in DII behind Memphis University School’s Harrison Williams (7,114).
“(Williams) just knows how to work a decathlon really well,” Patrick said. “It was a battle, but he’s one of the best. Going into it, I wasn’t really thinking about competing with Williams, I was trying to go for 7,000 points. I gave it my best and was drained of energy, though. It motivated me that he was here and that I was so close to him.”
Out of all five of his events in day two, Patrick scored highest in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing second in 14.77 seconds. He also won the long jump (21-7.25) and said he set a personal best in seven out of the 10 events.
McGavock senior Ben Johnson was in first place in front of Josh Wheeler from Collierville in the Class AAA decathlon going into the 1500-meter final event but ended up finishing second overall with 6,517 points.
“The meet was hard,” Johnson said. “I really came through on the discus and high jump, but I didn’t really have that big of a cushion going into the 1500, which, if you ask anybody, is the worst part of the decathlon.
Wheeler won the 1500 meters in 4:31.58 and finished with 6,571 points. Johnson finished with a time of 5:05.50, which was good for eighth.
“That’s the best (1500-meter run) I’ve ever seen,” Johnson said. “I looked at his stats before I came into this, and I knew it was going to come down to this last race.”