In the Olympics, the winner of the decathlon is considered the best athlete in the world. If that adage holds true for college athletics, UNM senior Mark Johnson might be the best athlete in the Mountain West.
Johnson is the reigning 2004 Indoor Heptathlon Champion, and he set five personal records last week in Austin, Texas, for a career-best score of 7,141 in the decathlon competition.
"He had a real solid performance this weekend," decathlon coach Scott Steffan said. "There were 20 of the top decathletes in the country there."
Johnson finished seventh overall and surpassed the NCAA provisional qualifying score by 141 points. He finished third in the pole vault, sailing 16-04.75, which is eight inches above his previous best. He finished the 1,500-meter run in 4:44.46, ran the 100-meter dash in 11.3 seconds, threw the discus 127-01 and the javelin 144-04 - all of which are personal records.
"I knew it was coming," Steffan said. "This is his third year doing this, and we've really been working on this stuff. But he really needs to score about 300 more points in order to get into the NCAAs."
The decathlon is a two-day event consisting of 10 individual competitions. Day one includes the 100-meter dash, shot put, long jump, high jump and 400-meter dash. Day two consists of the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the 1,500-meter run.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Johnson said his best event is the pole vault, and his worst is probably the javelin. Steffan agreed that the javelin toss was Johnson's weakest showing Thursday.
"He did (set a personal record), but he's still about 20 feet short of where we need to be," Steffan said.
Johnson will compete in the decathlon three times this year, which is the most he's ever done in a season.
"You don't do the decathlon every meet because it's too grueling," he said. "Usually you just do three or four events at little meets every weekend."
While most track and field athletes have their own specialties they focus on throughout the season, decathletes spread their concentration over several events and might practice an event only once between competitions.
Joining Johnson on the decathlon team are junior Jason Bigott, sophomore Rodney Hocker and sophomore Dan Feltman. The decathletes said they are the closest-knit group of athletes on the team.
Assistant track and field coach Mark Henry said in most cases decathletes are considered to be "jacks of all trades." He said although they are exceptional athletes, they do not exceed at one event in particular.
"Usually they're just good - not great - in every event," he said. "It takes them a little while to improve on everything."
Johnson said he is about average, sometimes above average, and that's exactly where his strength comes from.
"You don't have to place first in every event," he said. "You just have to be up there."
Johnson will not go with the team to the Arizona meet this weekend. Steffan said Johnson will stay in Albuquerque and rest and prepare for Mount SAC Wednesday and Thursday in Walnut, Calif.
