Rice and Elvert shine in decathlon and heptathlon season opener
Whitewater, Wis. - Jacob Rice and Grace Elvert competed a two day event hosted at UW-Whitewater on April 16 - 17, completing the first multi event of the season. Both Rice and Elvert saw several personal best marks in their events. Rice is currently ranked No. 10 in the national rankings and No. 5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Learn more about what it takes to be a decathlete and heptathlete...
Whitewater, Wis. - Jacob Rice and Grace Elvert competed a two day event hosted at UW-Whitewater on April 16 - 17, completing the first decathlon and heptathlon event of the season. Both Rice and Elvert saw several personal best marks in their events. Rice is currently ranked No. 10 in the national rankings and No. 5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).
Jacob Rice, Decathlon
Rice, a junior from Sheyboygan Falls, Wis., achieved personal best marks in six of the ten events that comprise the decathlon. The decathlon includes the 100m dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m dash, 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and 1500m run. The decathletes contest these 10 events over the course of two days. Rice ran a personal best in the 100m dash, clocking a time of 11.06 seconds. He also ran a personal best in two more running events, the 400m dash and 1500m run. Rice ran 53.43 seconds in the 400m and 4:56.10 in the 1500m. In the long jump, Rice jumped a personal best 6.61m (21-8.25). Two more personal bests came in the discus throw and pole vault. Rice threw 33.25m (109-1) in the discus and leaped to 4.05m (13-3.5) in the pole vault. In the remaining four events (shot put, high jump, 110m hurdles, and javelin) Rice achieved marks close to his personal bests and overall, 6,440 points were scored.
Grace Elvert, Heptathlon
Elvert, sophomore from Weatland, Iowa, saw personal best marks in five of the seven events that comprise the heptathlon. The heptathlon includes seven events, 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m dash, long jump, javelin throw, and 800m run. Similarly to the decathlon, the heptathlon takes place over two days. Elvert saw personal best in the 100m hurdles, shot put, 200m, javelin, and 800m run. She ran 17.17 seconds in the 100m hurdles, and cruised to the finish line in 28.04 seconds in the 200m dash. In the 800m run, she broke 3:00 to run 2:59.08. Elvert threw personal bests in both throwing events, marking a throw of 8.96m (29-4.75) in the shot put and 27.86m (91-5) in the javelin. Elvert finished the heptathlon with an overall 3,439 points.
Historically, the decathlon and heptathlon events developed from the ancient Greek Olympics pentathlon. Today in NCAA DIII track and field, the events are known to bring together student-athletes who challenge themselves in multiple disciplines of track and field. Give the diversity of the decathlon or heptathlon, these competitions are contested to determine the best all-around athlete. Student-athletes earn points on each of his or her events based on a performance table. At the end of the decathlon and heptathlon, these points are added to obtain the total score.
The next time the Pioneers will compete in the decathlon and heptathlon will be the WIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 7 -8 at UW-River Falls. Until then, the Pioneers will continue to catch excellence in their craft and prepare for the championship season of track and field.