Cal Track & Field: Hakim McMorris Aiming High in the NCAA Decathlon

Back on April 13 and 14 at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California, Cal’s Hakim McMorris assembled the best decathlon performance of his life.

After the first day, he had a huge score of 4,444 points.

But the two days weren’t perfect.

On Day 2, after running a strong race in the 110-meter hurdles, McMorris stumbled in the discus. It’s not his best event anyway, but he began his three-throw series with a mark of 97 feet, 6 inches — 34 feet off his best.

“I’m really nervous, my heart’s beating real fast,” McMorris recalled thinking. “I think that’s what got to me. The next two throws were really, really bad.”

He fouled on his second attempt, then threw 96-0 on his final try.

McMorris recovered to post a career-best score of 7941 points that must have been equal parts exciting and disappointing.

That mark earned McMorris a place in this week’s NCAA Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. He is seeded No. 8 for the start of competition on Wednesday in what shapes up as one of the best decathlon fields ever at the collegiate nationals.

“My expectations are I want to do the same thing I did at Mt. SAC but actually throw the discus this time,” said McMorris, a junior from Santa Ana. “Everything went really well for me last time. I even surprised myself, honestly.”

McMorris knows his subpar performance in the discus cost him a school record. That’s held by Mike Morrison, whose score of 8118 points won the 2011 NCAA title.

By equaling his best discus mark at Mt. SAC, McMorris would have added 209 points to his final score in a competition where marks are assigned points, which are totaled for the event’s final score. McMorris would easily have scored better than the most recent of four Cal athletes to win the NCAA decathlon.

“I think it’s in reach,” McMorris said of Morrison’s record. He has worked hard at the discus in recent weeks, adding, “I’m really excited to see what I can do.”

So is Dan Lafever, Cal’s assistant coach who works with multi-event athletes.

“It might be one of the strongest decathlon fields in history,” Lafever said. “We’re really trying to finish at the top. Being the top three would be amazing.”

That’s because the top two entries both have broken the NCAA record this season. Ayden Owens, a junior at Arkansas, eclipsed the record with a score of 8528 at Mt. SAC before Georgia sophomore Kyle Garland topped that by scoring 8720 at the USATF Combined Events Championship last month.

The field also includes Georgia senior Joanne’s Erm, who is No. 4 on the collegiate leaders this season but won the 2019 NCAA title with a mark of 8352.

At Mt. SAC, McMorris strung together lifetime bests of 10.42 seconds in the 100 meters, 46-6 3/4 in the shot put, 46.36 in the 400, 161-8 in javelin and 4:33.05 in the 1,500. His long jump mark of 24-7 1/4 was just 3 1/4 inches off his best, and his clearance of 6-6 in the high jump was just 3/4 of an inch shy of his best.

The decathlon involves more than 6 1/2 hours of on the track or in the field on Day 1, then 8 1/2 hours more on Day 2.

McMorris talks in the video above about how he prepares for the decathlon and manages the grind of the two days.

As long and exhausting as the decathlon is, Lafever notes that an athlete competes for really only about seven minutes over those two days.

“Each event’s got its own preparation and pyscho-emotional sweet spot,” Lafever explained. “That’s the real goal — to put yourself in the right place for each event. In my opinion, that’s the behind the scenes how you can be a successful decathlete.

“We’ve been working on that a lot the past several years.”

For McMorris, that means overcoming a past foulup in the discus. Lafever has seen progress, and expects more.

McMorris’s trouble spot was the pole vault when he first took up the decathlon at the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he attended after earning a special scholarship.

He talks in the video above about his start in the event, and about his older brother Malik, who played fullback for the Cal football team and also was a capable shot put and discus competitor.

McMorris’s best vault mark in high school was 10 feet, 6 inches. It’s now 15-1 1/2, and he sees bigger things, perhaps even a 16-foot clearance. “Oh definitely,” he said. “I go pretty high in practice.”

“Once his Day 2 really comes into its own,” Lafever said, “he’s going to be really dangerous.”

CAL DECATHLETES AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Cal has had 10 top-5 finishes in the decathlon at the NCAA meet in the past 50 years:

1976: Ed Miller 1st (7443 points)

1979: Dave Steen 5th (7456 points)

1980: Dave Steen 4th (7616 points)

1993: Chris Huffins 1st (8007 points)

1996: Ross Bomben 2nd (7752 points)

1998: Ross Bomben 4th (7693 points)

1999: Bevan Hart 3rd (7773 points)

2000: Bevan Hart 1st (8002 points)

2010: Mike Morrison 2nd (7801 points)

2011: Mike Morrison 1st (8118 points)

Cover photo of Hakim McMorris, center, in the 110 hurdles by Isaac Wasserman