Keron Stoute Narrowly Misses 6000 Points in Decathlon Debut

Keron Stoute has a High Jump best of 6'11"

APRIL 4—Central Arizona College sophomore Keron Stoute, narrowly missed scoring 6000 points in his Decathlon debut on Friday, at the Puma Outdoor Invitational at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was third.

The mark of 5958 points places Stoute at No 4 in the NJCAA rankings and qualifies him for next month’s championships in a second event, added to the individual High Jump.  

Facing the 2-day 10-event discipline, Stoute was on pace to eclipse National Record holder Paul “On The Ball” Hewlette’s 6609 score from 1987 after day 1, when he amassed 3644 points.

He started with an 11.21 seconds run to win 100m and picked up 814 points. He added 686 points after a third place showing in the Long Jump, when he cut the sand at 6.45m. His Shot Put heave of 11.68m placed him second with a 587 score. Stoute cleared 2.01m for second in the High Jump, tacking on 813 points to his tally, before closing the first day with 744 points from his 51.57 seconds 400m victory, that gave him a day one tally of 3644 points.

Stoute began his second day by winning the 110m Hurdles in 16.25 seconds for the fastest time in his group and 705 points. His Discus Throw of 29.37m landed him in sixth place with 452 marks. Another 469 points were earned in the Pole Vault, where he finished sixth with a clearance of 3.45m. In the Javelin Throw—his penultimate event—his toss of 40.49m, was good for seventh and 449 points. He completed the 1500m in 6:06.24 to collect 239 points for his 5958 final tally.

“Basically, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, but I’m not one to make excuses. I didn’t do what I was suppose to do,” Stoute said in his assessment of his second day total of 2314 points. “I had a bad Javelin. I had a bad 15, so it just didn’t come together.”

After sitting with his coaches prior to the competition, Stoute said a projected score of 6400 points was the goal, based on his minimum performances, which were not his best marks he said. He was looking for close to 4000 points after day 1.

“Everything didn’t go through as it was supposed to,” he noted. “Those were some of my worst performances since I’ve been here at Central,” he said of marks in the Javelin Throw, Discus Throw and 1500m. “It was really just a bad day. But, once I get everything together, I’m positive I can win nationals. So, I’m looking forward to competing at that.”