Griffiths wins gold at Inaugural Women’s Open Decathlon Championships
GRASS VALLEY, Calif. – Kansas track & field junior Morgan Griffiths won the gold medal at the Inaugural Women’s Open Decathlon Championships in Grass Valley, California, June 30-July 1.
Griffiths, a native of St. Charles, Missouri, took advantage of the unique opportunity to compete in the decathlon this weekend, scoring the highest point total of the 12 women under 30 competing in the event.
Totaling 5,939 points, Griffiths kicked the weekend off with 694 points in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.44 seconds. In the second event of the weekend, Griffiths notched the top performance in the long jump with a wind-aided mark of 5.62 meters (18-5.25 ft.) to add 735 points to her total.
Griffiths scored 507 points in the shot put with a mark of 9.66 meters (31-8.5 ft.), which was the second-best mark in the women’s decathlon. She then cleared the second-highest bar of the day at 1.57 meters (5-1.75 ft.) in the high jump to score 701 points and finished the first day off with a 1:04.69 400-meter dash time to score 523 to bring her total to 3,160 points.
Despite starting the second day by falling in the 100-meter hurdles and only tabbing 488 points with a time of 18.00 seconds, Griffiths rebounded by posting the top mark in the discus with a throw of 32.29 meters (105-11 ft.) to score 506 points and the top clearance in the pole vault at a height of 3.60 meters (11-9.75 ft.) to add another 803 points – her highest point total of any event in the decathlon.
Griffiths finished second in the penultimate event of the decathlon, the javelin, with a mark of 26.35 meters (86-5 ft.) to tab 408 points before finishing her weekend off with 574 points in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 5:41.43 seconds.
EVANS PERFORMS WELL AT BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS
Kansas freshman George Evans finished fifth in the discus and seventh in the shot put at the 2018 British Athletics Championships in Birmingham, United Kingdom, June 30-July 1. Evans notched a mark of 52.76 meters (173-1 ft.) in the discus and 15.05 meters (49-4.5 ft.) in the shot put.
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