BHS junior Jake Lazas, left, tied a personal-best in pole vault and leads AAA decathlon. BA senior Josh Davies, above, is third in DII. Their brothers both won state decathlon. (Photos by Peg Fredi)

Younger siblings trying to follow in footsteps of brothers as state champs

By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
Junior Jake Lazas is not only doing his best to keep the Class AAA state decathlon championship at Brentwood High School, but also all in the family.

Lazas, who just took up the 10-event sport a year ago, leads going into the final day of the event –which his brother Kevin

won while at BHS the past two seasons. Bruins teammate Eric Hoff also stands in second place after five events as just a sophomore.

“My brother was doing decathlon, and he kept encouraging me to do it,” said Jake, who made state in 300 hurdles in his first season in track last year after stopping football and basketball.

“Last summer I started training for the decathlon. I really enjoy it because it’s multiple events so you don’t get tired of one event. I did two decathlons in the summer -- I got 2nd in my first one and 1st in the Junior Olympics, and I’m like ‘I’ll stick with this.’ ”

Brentwood Academy senior Josh Davies, whose brother Ben also won two Division II state decathlons, was suffering from a sinus infection and will enter the day in third place after a strong 400 meters at the end of Monday. BA senior Cody Russell is in sixth. 

Kevin Lazas, who just set an American junior world record as Southeastern Conference runner-up as a freshman, is on his way from the University of Arkansas to watch his brother compete today at MTSU’s Dean Hayes Track & Field Stadium.

Davies’ brother Ben will be competing in the NCAA javelin throw for the University of Georgia on Thursday and won’t be able to make it. “He’d loved to be here,” Josh said.

Bruins breaks or ties 4 personal bests in 5 events

Lazas took over first place after the second event, where he cleared 12 feet, 6 inches (565 points) to tie his personal record in the pole vault. Hoff’s 12-11.75  tied for first (606), moving him from seventh to second.

“I don’t want to be cocky or anything. I’m feeling pretty good,” Lazas said. “I think I have a shot at it.”

Lazas opened with the second-best 100-meter dash time of 11.53 seconds (746 points) despite a big head win. After the vault, he broke his personal record by 3 feet with a discus throw of 115-2 (566 points), the third best in AAA.

He also had a decathlon PR with the field’s second-best triple jump at 43-6 (610 points), pushing the lead to 2,487-2,294 over Hoff.

Lazas then capped off the day by beating his PR in the 400 with Class AAA’s best time of 50.22. “I was dying,” he said.

His brother no-heighted in the high jump last year after hurting his ankle, but still won the title – although he didn’t break a state record as he had hoped.

“I can’t think of the negatives. I just go out tomorrow and give it my best and whatever happens happens,” Jake said.

Hoff was seventh in the 100 in 12.10 (631), fifth in discus at 105-5 (507) and triple jump at 41-10.75 (550) and fourth in the 400 with a 51.84 (732).

“I thought I did pretty well for the first day,” the Bruins 10^th-grader said. “I’ve just got to keep it up for the second day.”

Hoff said being one of the youngest helped motivate him. He feels good that Lazas and he can stay 1-2.

“Jake’s beating me in everything but pole vault right now, but I’m used to it because he keeps me in check and pushes me my best.”

Eagle senior suffering from sinus infection

Davies went to the doctor Sunday night and is on antibiotics and other medication for his sinus infection. He has 3,019 points to trail Evangelical Christian School senior Sam Tabor (3,280) and Briarcrest junior Lane Austell (3,070). Russell has 2,737.

“I’m not where I want to be,” Davies said. “… I feel terrible right now.”

Davies was third after his 100-meter dash of 11.84 (683 points), and Russell was in fifth at 11.86 (679 points). The Eagle teammates were tied for fifth after Davies’ triple jump of 39-4 meters (458 points) and Russell’s 39-5.25 (462 points).

The two then both cleared 10 feet, 11.75 inches (444 points) on the pole vault to continue sharing fifth.

Davies moved up to fourth with a 122-10 discus throw (613 points), and ran a sub-50 even with some headwind on the homestretch to jump up to third in the 400 (821 points).

“I’m definitely a Day 2 kind of guy so I’ll definitely move up depending on how I feel with my sinus infection,” he said.

Russell was seventh in the day’s final two events, with a 97-1 discuss toss (457 points) and 52.68 in the quarter-mile (695 points).

“It definitely helps training with Josh because he’s so smart in all these events,” Russell said. “It’s tough. There’s so many events you use so many muscles and work on.”

Russell said Day 1 was tough, but that Day 2 is harder. The final day starts off with 110-meter hurdles for each classification, then the three divisions rotate among the high jump, shot put and long jump. The decathlon ends with the 1500 meters.

 “We’re going to go get in an ice bath, eat a good meal and go to sleep -- try to get as much rest as we can,” Russell said.

Bruins sophomore Eric Hoff, in the discus above and pole vault at right, had the highest vault and is in second.		Jake Lazas broke his discus PR by 3 feet on the first day of decathlon.

	BA's Cody Russell takes off on pole vault attempts, at left and above.