Union City’s Adrian Crawford emptied his tank in the final event of the Class 1A state decathlon on Thursday.
That finish fueled him to a runner-up showing, which was Union City’s best since 1964 when Tom Jernigan won the program’s only decathlon championship.
School Communications Director Mike Hutchens said Crawford finished the two-day, 10-event competition with 5,590 points. Only MASE’s Jacob Jones, whom the Tornado sophomore beat for the sectional title last week, had more with 5,759.
Entering Day 2, Crawford was third in the 12-person field. He finished no worse than fifth in any of Thursday’s five competitions, winning the high jump with a leap of 6-8 and placing second in the long jump at 20-6.75.
He clinched his second-place overall finish with a memorable ‘kick’ in the 1500-meter run, passing two competitors down the stretch to come in fifth in that race while shaving more than 30 seconds (5:03.19) off his previous best time.
“He gave himself a chance to win today,” Union City head coach Wade Maddox said. “I just wanted him to be the best version of himself he could be, and he was. He competed, and I loved that about him.”
Crawford ended Day 1 with a subpar showing in the 400 meters – finishing 10th while struggling the last several meters.
There were no lingering effects from that disappointment Thursday, though.
“Things didn’t end well for him Wednesday, but he didn’t pout,” Maddox continued. “Instead, he showed up today with a good mindset and elevated himself to second place from third.”
“In that last event, we knew he was two hundred points or so out of first, and it’d be tough to make that up. But we also knew he had a couple of people challenging him for second place. He answered the call.”
Thursday’s highlight for Crawford was his high jump exhibition where he easily outdistanced the rest of the field by six inches. He did not miss until the bar was raised to 6-10.
Additionally, he placed third in the shot put (33-9.25) and fourth in the 110 high hurdles, where he set a personal record at 17.62.
“Quite obviously, I’m proud of him. He’s naturally gifted, but he works hard too. He wants to be good at a lot of things,” Maddox added.
“This was a good first experience for him. But I don’t think it’ll be his last.”
(photos: Mike Hutchens – School Communications Director)
