Tom FitzSimons won the decathlon at the 2015 Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational. (Presidio Sports Photos)
Santa Barbara Track Club members Thomas FitzSimons and Barbara Nwaba captured the decathlon and heptathlon titles at the Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational on Saturday at Westmont College.
FitzSimons dominated in the field events on the second day of competition and scored a personal best 7,791 points. He posted personal bests in the discus (132-06) and javelin (195-0) and tied a PR in the pole vault (15-01). On the track, he ran a PR of 15.16 in the 110 high hurdles for 830 points and capped the afternoon with a 4:15.64 clocking in the 1500 meters for 842 points.
Thomas Hopkins, who was the leader after the first day, started the second day on a good note, taking second in the 110 high hurdles in 14.62. That gave him 896 points. Canada’s Damian Warner, the IAAF World Championships bronze medalist, won the hurdles in a meet-record time of 13.51.
Hopkins, who was competing in his first decathlon, scored 506 points in the discus but then no-heighted in the pole vault, putting him out of contention.
University of Wisconsin athlete Charlie Foss finished second in the decathlon with 6,319 points.
Just as she did on the first day, Nwaba finished strong on Saturday, running the 800 in a meet-record of 2:07.47. That was good for 1,002 points.
Nwaba finished second in the long jump at 19-6 to maintain her lead and stayed on pace to break 6,000 points. She finished with 6,292 points, ranking her No. 1 in the world. She beat out Annett Fleming (6,051) and SBTC’s Lindsay Schwartz (5,998). Fleming set a PR in the javelin with a throw of 169-02.
