Sophomore finishes second for Bruins; BA senior runner-up in DII

 By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
A Lazas won the TSSAA Class AAA state decathlon title a third straight year as Brentwood High junior Jake Lazas took home the championship that belonged to his older brother Kevin the past two seasons.

Bruins sophomore Eric Hoff finished on Lazas’ heels in second place, putting the defending state champion BHS boys track team atop the rankings with 18 points going into the rest of the track and field meet Thursday-Friday at MTSU. That’s two more than Kevin Lazas and last year’s teammate Clay Kosack provided their team at the 2010 decathlon.

BHS junior Jake Lazas long-jumps during his state decathlon championship, won the previous two years by brother Kevin. (Photo by Peg Fredi)

After Jake set a personal record in the final 1500-meter event to cap off Tuesday’s championship, Kevin congratulated his younger brother on the track. Kevin drove in for the second-day events from the University of Arkansas, where he has qualified for the NCAA decathlon championships in two weeks as just a freshman.

“It’s not really a rivalry because he wants me to beat all his records,” Jake said. “He helps me out. He’s a good brother -- I’m glad to have him as a brother.”

The two have older siblings, but nobody to follow behind them. “It feels awesome. Too bad he’s the last guy that we’ve got, but we’ve got one more year,” Kevin said.

In the Division II meet, Brentwood Academy senior Josh Davies came up just short in his bid to win the decathlon his final season, finishing runner-up while battling a sinus infection and a strained hip muscle.  BA’s Cody Russell was seventh, with the duo giving BA 10 points for a tie for first in the boys team standings.   

Davies’ older brother – Ben – had won four previous decathlon state titles and competes in the Southeastern Conference (at Georga). Last year Josh Davies, who is Jake Lazas’ summer training partner at Kinder Sports, was sidelined by an Achilles injury.

Jake Lazas scored more than his brother did at the state high school meet the past two seasons (6,649 in ’09 and 6,510 after no-heighting in high jump last spring), although Kevin had scored 7,300 and 7,700 points at other meets. Jake’s winning total was 6,865 points to Hoff’s 6,293.

“It does put pressure on” to repeat next year like Kevin, “but I think the pressure definitely helps,” Jake said. “It’ll help me train harder and maybe come go in next year and win it again.”

Brother's his biggest fan

Jake and Kevin are very different athletes, their father Don notes, with varying strengths and weaknesses. And younger brother Jake, at about 6-foot-3, is about 4 inches taller than Kevin.

“He’s a better runner than me, obviously,” Kevin said. “He runs faster in the 1500, and he was faster in the 400 yesterday. This is just his first year of training really.”

Decathlon champ Jake Lazas, right, celebrates with his brother, previous two-time winner Kevin, and dad Don, left. (Photo by Renee Yarbough)

Kevin was the one that encouraged his brother to try decathlon. Jake had played football but suffered a season-ending injury as a freshman – “I was burned out and didn’t want to end up in a wheelchair when I was 30,” he said. Jake also played basketball as a freshman and sophomore but decided he wasn’t good enough, then tried track last spring.

“I kind of hinted to him that he should do the dec,” Kevin said. “Last year he just did 300 hurdles and stuff. You could see that he would be a really good track athlete – decathlete.”

Jake began training last summer and was second in his debut decathlon, the won the Junior Olympics.

After Jake ran a PR in the ending 1500 after two days and 10 events, Kevin told “me I did a good job, he was proud to have me as a brother,” Jake said.

“It’s a family thing,” Kevin said, dispelling any suggestion of sibling rivalry. “I love him. He’s like my best friend. When I was I here, we hung out all the time. That’s why I want to get him to Arkansas and train together, a good training partner, a really good runner.”

Jake opened Tuesday with a personal-best decathlon time for the 110 hurdles (785 points) despite another strong headwind. He then long-jumped 21-8.25 (723 points), but only took three jumps.

“I was kind of saving my body for the other events I had coming,” he said.

His high jump was 6 feet (653 points) –2 inches below his PR – and then he got a new PR in the shot put by two feet at 44-4 (698 points) on his first throw. In the 1500, he set a new PR with a second-place 4:34.58 (715 points).

Jake now gets a day off before competing in at least four other events for the Bruins – the 110 and 300 hurdles, triple jump, 4x800 and possibly 4x400– that is if you call it a day off. He has to take three makeup exams Wednesday, a day after school was out at BHS.

10th-grader gives Bruins team a boost

Lazas and Hoff both moved into first and second after the second event on Monday’s first day, when Hoff tied for first the pole vault. Neither relinquished those spots, except for Hoff briefly slipping to third in the next-to-last event, the shot put, behind Cody Blanc of Knoxville Central.

Hoff said he didn’t expect to place so high – “not as a sophomore. It feels really great. I was kind of nervous coming into the 1500 but I ran a good 1500.”

Brentwood's Eric Hoff was second as a sophomore. (Photo by Peg Fredi)

Jake Lazas said he and Hoff helped each other while also competing at each event.

“It sure helped me a lot because just from him being better than me, he’s really pushed me to where I got a lot better too,” Hoff said. “And I guess if I’m getting there, maybe I’m pushing him a little bit. So it’s kind of a mutual competition.”

The Brentwood 10th-grader was second to Lazas in the 110 hurdles in 15.61 seconds (777) and placed fourth in the long jump at 20-4.25 (630 points), high jump  at 5-10 (610 points), and shot put at 40-9.50 (633 points). His 1500 was sixth at 4:50.25 (617 points), but Blanc finished last of 12 for only 379 points.

Hoff will compete later this week in pole vault and as a member of the 4x400 relay team. He was happy to have given BHS a head-start in the team points race.

“State really comes down to two or three points between the winner and second place so 18 points really helps a lot,” he said.

BA's Davies hopes to feel better for other events 

BA’s Davies was obviously disappointed with his second-place finish despite his ailments and the wind conditions. He pulled his hip muscle at regions and finally got antibiotics two days ago for a week-long sinus infection.

BA senior Josh Davies was runner-up in Division II. (Photo by Renee Yarbrough)

“I can’t breathe at all,” he said.

But Davies wouldn’t make excuses, calling his performance “average.” He totaled 6,343 points to the winning 6,510 by Sam Tabor of Evangelical Christian School near Memphis. Russell had 5,357.

“Sam definitely deserves it. He outcompeted me, he had a good second day so it goes to him,” the Eagles senior said.

Davies had the fastest 110 hurdles at 15.48 (792 points) running into a head wind, but Tabor was second in 15.60. Davies and Tabor were also 1-2 in the shot put, with the BA senior throwing 49-8.25 (798 points) to the ECS senior’s 44-9.50 (707 points).

“Other than that it kept going downhill for me,” Davies said.

Tabor won the long jump, while Davies was third at 19-11.50 (604 points), and was second in high jump, where Davies tied for fourth at 5-8 (569 points). Davies’ 1500 was third best at 4:59.81 (561 points).

A Samford University signee, Davies now will compete in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, shot put and 4x400 for BA.

 “Hopefully I’ll be back to normal by Friday,” he said.

Russell’s best performance of the day was in the high jump, where he was third at 5-10.

In the A/AA competition, Christ Presbyterian sophomore Christopher Charles finished seventh with 4,692 points. He had the best pole vault on Monday.

AAA boys team rankings:  Brentwood 18, Knoxville Central 6, Ooltewah 5, Bartlett 4, Cordova 3, Hendersonville 2, Lenoir City 1                                          

DII boys team rankings: Evangelical Christian 10, Brentwood Academy 10, Montgomery Bell Academy     7, Briarcrest Christian 5, Christian Brothers 4, Battle Ground Academy 3