Harrison takes 2nd in first collegiate decathlon

Harrison Williams is at it again.

Williams, a Memphis University School graduate who won nine state championships and set numerous state records during his junior and senior years, scored 7, 518 points to finish second in the decathlon at the 88th Clyde Littlefield Relays at the University of Texas on March 26.

Williams, now a freshman at Stanford, finished second to Evan Weinstock, a Brown graduate who now serves as a Stanford volunteer coach. Weinstock finished with 7. 557 points.

Williams’ total was just 74 points from the Stanford record, held by the legendary Bob Mathias, who set the mark in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.

Williams had the record within reach heading into the final event, the 1 , 500 meters. But despite running a 4:36.83, a personal best by over four seconds, he fell a little short.

“Overall, it was a pretty solid meet for me,” Will iams told GoStanford. com. “My main goal coming in was just to get a score that would qualify me for the NCAAs so I’m pretty happy with t hat. But I definitely left a lot of points out there.”

The top 24 nationally will qualify for the NCAA Championships June 10-13 in Eugene, Ore. and both Willia ms a nd Sta nford multi- events coach Michael Eskind are confident the score will hold up. Williams’ next decathlon is scheduled to be at the Pac-12 championship meet May 9-10 in Los Angeles but there’s a chance Williams could skip that competition to focus on his two specialty events, the pole vault and the 110 hurdles.

Williams broke the U.S. hig h school decat hlon record last year, scoring 7, 760 points while f i nishing sixth at the I AAF World Ju nior Championships. The Littlefield meet, however, was his first decathlon with collegiate-weight t hrowing i mplements a nd higher hurdles.

And despite battling an upset stomach a couple days before the meet that caused him to lose plenty of sleep, his total easily surpassed t he Stanford freshman record of 7,007 points.