By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

HOOVER – Kai Christenberry of Oak Mountain High School and Furman Taylor of Helena High School participated in the decathlon held at Hoover High School from May 11-12. Christenberry placed 37^th out of 40 while Taylor placed 32^nd.

The decathlon is an event made up of 10 individual events, the 100-meter dash, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump, the 400-meter dash, the 110-meter hurdles, the discus throw, the pole vault, the javelin throw and the 1,500-meter run. There is a complex scoring system in which each individual event is scored based on an accepted benchmark for that event. For example, the accepted benchmark in the 100-meter dash is 10.395 seconds, which scored 1,000 points. The farther below that benchmark, the less points are granted, but if someone beats that time, more than 1,000 points are granted.

Oak Mountain’s Christenberry scored 541 points in the 100-meter dash, his highest point total of the decathlon. Christenberry ran a 12.58 second 100-meter dash, which was a competitive time. Christenberry also scored above 500 points in 1,500-meter run with a time of 5:07.17, good enough for 519 points and in the 400-meter dash as well with a time of 57.39, good enough for 506 points.

Christenberry also was disqualified from the 110-meter hurdles, and received a score of zero, which drastically affected his overall point total. He finished with 3,720 points total.

Taylor broke 700 points in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:34.00, good enough for 719 points. Only two competitors scored higher than Taylor in the 1,500-meter run. Taylor also scored 645 points in the 400-meter run with a time of 53.87, good enough for eighth place overall in that event. A zero also affected Taylor’s overall point total. He did not register a height in the pole vault, and his score suffered accordingly, Taylor finished with a 4,056.