Slack Outruns Chief Rival To Win Pac-10 Decathlon

Leo Slack of Washington State won the decathlon and Nicole Haynes of Southern California earned the heptathlon title Sunday as the Pacific-10 Conference multi-event competition ended at UCLA’s Drake Stadium.

Slack, a sophomore from Kennewick, survived a late surge from Oregon’s Ray Livingston to become the first Cougar to win the conference decathlon championship since Simon Shirley in 1987.

Slack led Livingston by three points going into the 1,500 meters - the last of the 10 events - but outran his rival by more than 27 seconds to finish first in the overall competition with a personal-best total of 7,743 points. Slack finished fourth as a freshman in 1995.

Paul Pappas of Oregon won the 1,500 meters in 4:33.52. Slack was fifth. Livingston finished sixth.

Slack won the discus with a personal best of 147 feet, 1 inch, and the javelin with a throw of 180-7.

Arizona’s Dominic Johnson won the pole vault in 16-4-3/4. Stanford’s Josh Gleason won the 110-meter hurdles in 15.07 seconds.

Livingston, also the Pac-10 runner-up last year, totaled 7,543 points. Ross Bomben of California placed third with a career-best 7,526 points.

Haynes totaled 5,786 points to outdistance runner-up Jennifer Thomas of Oregon, who had 5,280 points, in the heptathlon. Arizona State’s Adra Hysong was third with 5,253.

Washington State’s Heidi Schultz, eighth after the first day, improved to fifth place with 5,074 points.

Haynes, a senior from Torrance, Calif., won the long jump with a leap of 20-2-1/4 and the javelin with a throw of 134-4. Tish Henes of Oregon won the 800 meters in 2:16.90.

The multi-events competition was a prelude to this weekend’s track and field championships, also at UCLA.