SAN ANGELO -- ACU mutli-event athlete
James Hardin won the decathlon Friday at the 38th Annual ASU David Noble Relays at the ASU Multipurpose Stadium and provisionally qualified for next month's NCAA Division II outdoor championship meet in the process.
Hardin's winning point total was 6,699, which was 561 points more than the runner-up total of 6,138 points posted by Stormy Strothers of South Plains College. Ted Dugie of Texas A&M-Kingsville was third (6,011 points), followed by Kyle Weaver of Texas A&M-Commerce (5,875 points) in fourth and Steven Aragon of Eastern New Mexico in fifth with 5,841 points.
Hardin, who was in third place behind Strothers and Weaver after Thursday's first day of competition, made his move in the first event of the day when he won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.13 to collect 834 points and move into first place.
He never relinquished the lead the rest of the day as he finished fourth in the discus, second in the pole vault and easily won the javelin throw to build a huge margin going into the final event, the 1500 meters. All Hardin had to do was finish the race to win the event and he did that, finishing sixth in 5:01.83.
Hardin's point total is a solid provisional qualifying number for next month's outdoor championship meet in Charlotte, N.C. The ACU men's and women's teams will be in action Saturday at the Texas Tech Invitational in Lubbock.
