Florida Gators
SEC Championships
Hommel Near Top Of Decathlon Leader Board After Soggy Day One Of SEC Championships
Friday, May 16, 2008 | Track and Field
A two-hour rain delay on Thursday didn't deter University of Florida sophomore Steffan Hommel (Albershausen, Germany) from using a pair of career bests to post a day-one score of 3,944 in the decathlon at the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships, positioning himself in second place after five events. Senior Kurt Lee (Spring Hill, Fla.) also registered two personal bests on Thursday, and currently ranks 10th in the field with a tally of 3,421.
Making his debut at the SEC outdoor meet, Hommel resides just 343 points behind leader Jangy Addy of Tennessee, who recorded 4,287 points on the opening day of competition. Lee, whose total fell only 77 points shy of his first-day PR, is just 159 points out of eighth place, the final scoring position.
“We didn't come out and do anything spectacular today, but we were solid across the board,” Florida multi-events coach Rana Reider said. “That's really what we needed to do – have both guys get through five events. We accomplished that with some good marks, so I'm happy with the performance of both Steffan and Kurt so far.”
Hommel opened the action on a positive note with a strong performance in the 100m, finishing third with a time of 10.95. The effort was the fastest of his collegiate career, and earned him 872 points. Lee grabbed 744 points in the opening event after placing 13th with a mark of 11.54, just over a tenth of a second away from matching his career best.
Hommel was able to carry his momentum from the dash onto the long jump runway for the next event, where he uncorked a leap of 7.09m/23-3.25 on his third attempt to again place third in the 14-man field. The jump was worth 835 points, bringing his total to 1,707, just 123 off the pace. Lee recorded a jump of 6.40m/21-0 on his initial attempt to finish 11th and earn 675 points.
Both Gators made a move up the standings in the shot put, as Hommel led the way with a runner-up toss of 14.62m/47-11.75 to earn 766 points. The performance moved him into second place after three events with 2,473 points. Lee jumped from 13th place to eighth after the shot by way of a career-best heave of 13.61m/44-8. The effort was good for fourth in the field and 704 points, increasing his total to 2,123.
Hommel maintained his second-place standing in the high jump by clearing a height of 1.86m/6-1.25, tying for sixth in the field and garnering 679 points. Lee successfully negotiated a personal-best height of 1.77m/5-9.75 to earn a share of 11th in the event and add 602 points to his total, though he slipped to 10th place in the overall standings.
The duo wrapped up the opening day of the decathlon with the running of the 400m, which saw Hommel post a career-best time of 50.50 to finish sixth and collect 792 points. The performance brought his day-one total to 3,944 points, putting him squarely on pace to eclipse the NCAA automatic-qualifying score of 7,500. Lee clocked in with an 11th-place time of 52.67, earning 696 points to finish the day in 10th place.
“We know what Steffan is capable of accomplishing, and it was great to see him perform the way he did today,” Reider said. “Tomorrow is all about having another five solid events. He doesn't have to do anything extraordinary to have great success. If he can stay focused on being solid in all five events, he'll have a chance to be a factor. Kurt Lee is also in a good position heading into Friday. He's definitely a second-day guy, so we're looking for him to move up the standings tomorrow and score some team points for us. When it's all said and done, I think he'll either have a new PR or be very close to his current one.”
The SEC Championships will continue tomorrow with the remainder of the decathlon, as well as a full schedule of both running and field events. Live results will be available via www.GatorZone.com.
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