Latham Second in Decathlon at Larry Ellis Invitational
Tyler Latham finished second in the decathlon at the Larry Ellis Invitational on Thursday.
Freshman Tyler Latham of the Central Connecticut men's outdoor track and field team finished second out of seven competitors in the decathlon at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, NJ on Thursday afternoon. The decathlon consists of 10 different track and field events that took place over the previous two days at the Weaver Track and Field Stadium on the campus of Princeton University.
The 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter dash, 110 meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meter run were the events that comprised the decathlon.
LARRY ELLIS INVITATIONAL DECATHLON RESULTS
Latham completed the first day of the decathlon on Wednesday with a score of 3,572 points, contesting in the 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 meter dash, to sit in second place after day one.
Latham opened up the decathlon with a personal-best time of 11.22 in the 100 meter dash, finishing first, to take an early lead over the field. He followed that up with another personal-best in the long jump. The rookie leaped to 6.60 meters to earn a second place overall finish in the event.
In the third event of day one, the shot put, Latham launched the shot 12.13 meters to earn back-to-back runner-up finishes. He would follow that up with another second place finish, his third straight, in the high jump, clearing 1.84 meters. Latham just missed setting new personal-best marks in both events by just .04 meters respectively.
The Mystic, CT product then closed out day one of the decathlon strong with a victory in the 400 meter dash. He sprinted to a time of 51.10 to earn the gold in the event and sit in second place overall with total of 3,572, just 146 points behind the leader.
In the first event on Thursday, Latham picked up right where he left off and ran the fastest time in the 110 meter hurdles. He turned in a time of 15.33 to earn the gold and take the outright lead in the decathlon through six events.
Latham then picked up a third place finish and fifth place finish in the discus throw and pole vault, respectively. He tossed the discus 34.10 meters to earn the bronze in the discus and then cleared 3.15 meters in the pole vault.
The javelin throw and 1,500 meter rounded out the second day of competition and 10 events of the decathlon. Latham recorded his fourth, first place finish of the decathlon in the javelin throw, hurling the javelin to 57.22 meters before crossing the finish line third in the 1,500 meter run with a personal-best time of 5:02.02. In total, Latham racked up a 6,565 points over the 10 events to record a second place overall finish.
Princeton's Stephan Soerens won the decathlon with a final score of 7,101. Latham was second with 6,565 points followed by Marc Stefan Hoeller (Manhattan - 6,483) to round out the podium. Bryan Oslin (Princeton - 4,565) finished fourth followed by James Burns (Princeton - 4,138), James O'Connor (TCNJ) - 3,967) and Andew McNutt (TCNJ - DNF) to complete the seven athlete field.
The rest of the Central Connecticut men's outdoor track and field team will also compete this weekend either at the Larry Ellis Invitational on Friday and Saturday or at the Mark Young Invitational at Yale on Saturday. Follow live results of the Larry Ellis Invitational here and check back for full recaps of both meets over the course of the next two days.