Richards' double honor: decathlon champ and grad
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Manuel Richards of Fair Haven was the decathlon champion. JON OLENDER / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By Tom Haley Herald Staff - Published: June 16, 2007
CHESTER — It was a day Fair Haven's Manuel Richard won't forget. He won the Knights of Columbus Vermont State Decathlon Friday afternoon at Green Mountain Union High School and then had to hurry back to his graduation that evening.
It was also a day where Fair Haven made a sweep of the 32nd edition of this event as Fair Haven's Ashley Brown won the heptathlon championship.
Fair Haven coach Dave Heitkamp has seen this before. It was in 1999 when his son Mike Heitkamp became the decathlon champion and Fair Haven teammate Shannon Corliss wore the heptathlon crown.
"I think we owed this to our coaches," Richards said. "They know a lot of stuff and they taught us well."
Richards began the day with the thinnest of leads over Essex's Jamie Kida, 2,991 to 2,990, after Thursday's competition. It had the earmarks of a battle between future teammates at the University of Rhode Island.
But Kida made a tactical error in the pole vault, his specialty, that cost him dearly. The state champion decided he would not start vaulting until the bar was set at 12 feet. He never made that height and scored zero points.
Conventional wisdom says you start at a low height and at least get some points in the bank. The zero slid Kida all the way to ninth in the final standings.
Richards finished with a score of 5,420 to 5,280 for Thetford's Matt Longwell. Essex's Beau Cameron was third with 5,151. Also receiving trophies were Essex's Jason Polakowski with 5,126 points and Essex's Scott Cayea with 5,077.
The next 15 finishers were awarded plaques. They were Mount Abraham's Alex Huizenga (5,031), Windsor's Tim Lens (4,887), Mount Abraham's Adam Hannah (4,838), Kida (4,832), Fair Haven's Nick Montello (4,700), Green Mountain's Tom Martin (4,558), South Royalton's Cal Wilmot (4,504), South Royalton's Pete Doyle-Braman (4,473), South Royalton's David Mattern (4.394), Fair Haven's Mike Rogals (4,379), South Royalton's Ki Walker (4,303), Burlington's Michael Perry (4,269), BFA-St. Albans' Andrew Jehle (4,246), Thetford's Tyler Murdoch (4,217) and Burlington's Jim Dang (4,198).
Richards knew what he had to do to hold his lead over Longwell heading into the final event, the 1500 meters.
"Coach told me I needed to be within 23 seconds of him. I knew that if I was with him or ahead of him that I was golden," Richards said.
Richards more than stayed with Longwell. He clocked 5:04.27 to place 15th among the 36 finishers. Longwell was in 17th place with a time of 5:05.94.
"I was in fourth place coming into today and I just wanted to stick in the top five," said Longwell, who is headed to Boston University.
It was also a special day for Martin on his home track. He wanted to break the GMUHS school record of 13-3 in the pole vault, set by Matt Ernst in 2000.
He didn't make it, but he did clear a personal best 13-0.25 to win the event and has another year to continue his assault on Ernst's mark.
"I am confident I can get it eventually," said Martin, who will be attending a pole vault camp this summer in Pennsylvania.
Nohea King of BFA-St. Albans won the 1500 with a time of 4:26.15, edging Dang's 4:26.54. Dominic French showed the depth of BFA-St. Albans' distance team with a third-place clocking of 4:40.71.
St. Johnsbury's Zach Racenet won the discus with a mark of 119-02.
Kida took first place in the javelin with his throw of 144-06 to the second-place mark of 142-05 by Longwell.
Polakowski took top honors in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.70 while Mattern was victorious in Friday's other event, hitting a mark of 37-10.50 in the shot put, just ahead of the 37-06.5 by Huizenga.
It was a day Richards and Kida will undoubtedly rehash while wearing the blue and white of the URI Rams.
Richards had narrowed his choices to Coastal Carolina and Rhode Island.
"I got accepted to both. It came down to URI having about 80 majors because I'm undecided about what I want to do right now," Richards said.
Notes: One of the BFA-Fairfax coaches is Maria Short, a Rutland native and daughter of Hugh Short of Rutland area road racing fame. … Heitkamp was especially happy that Rogals finished 15th to bring home a plaque in his senior season. He had just missed picking up hardware the last couple of years. … Richards was third in the hurdles with a time of 16.47. That represented a personal best by two seconds.
Contact Tom Haley at tom.haley@rutlandherald.com
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