The Hoosier decathletes are back at it again.
Juniors Stephen Keller and Dylan Anderson stole top-five totals at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas on Wednesday and Thursday.
After placing 9th and 10th in the Indoor National Championships just two weeks ago, the duo took on the best decathlon competition of the young outdoor season, with Keller finishing third (7,149) and Anderson placing fifth (7099).
“It was tough doing a heptathlon, a heptathlon, and then a decathlon in such a short amount of time,” said Keller, who now owns the second-best collegiate total in the nation.
The first five events, the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and the 400-meter dash all took place on Day One of action, and Keller started quickly, setting a personal record with a long jump of 7.02 meters and placing in the top-six in three of the first five events.
Anderson set a personal record in the inaugural event, the 100-meter dash, with a time of 10.93 seconds and a fourth place finish, and the Hoosier duo finished the first day with Keller in fifth and Anderson in seventh.
“I was really excited about my 100 PR,” Anderson said. “Coach [Jake] Wiseman just kept telling us not to get into the cycle of having a rough event and getting bummed, and then having another rough event and then getting bummed again.”
Wiseman’s advice was necessary for the second day of competition, as both decathletes failed to place top-ten in three of the five final events.
Barely hanging on to their places claimed with early success, both athletes finished 13th and 14th in the first two events yesterday, the 110-meter hurdles and the discus throw, before heading to an event of strength, the pole vault.
Keller placed seventh with a vault of 4.70 meters, helping him jump from sixth to third, and Anderson finished fifth with 4.90 meters, leaping to fourth from eighth place.
“The change from seven to ten events hurts our performance a little bit,” Anderson said. “Just because we haven’t had much practice with the different events, like discus and javelin.”
Keller ended his decathlon with a victory in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:33.34.
“Even though we got personal records, this wasn’t the performance we wanted exactly,” Keller said. “We were hoping for some bigger PR’s and we, of course, always look to win.”
Keller improved his decathlon total by 195 points since last season’s Texas Relays, where he finished 13th, and Anderson increased his 12th-place score by 218.
Keller also increased his record by 195 points, sixth-best in school history, while Anderson jumped just 11 points for the seventh-best performance in IU history.
“I am happy with an overall PR,” Anderson said, “but I can’t help but be a little disappointed that it wasn’t bigger. That’s what we came in here expecting.”
Both athletes said that they have weak events to work on in practice, such as the hurdles and discus throw, while Anderson wants more miles to improve his long distance running in the 400 and 1,500.
“Our improvement shows that the work we put in during the offseason is paying off,” Anderson said. “It also shows that there is a lot of improvement to be made and a lot to look forward to.”
