By Jack Pfiefer // Photo by Kim Spir

EUGENE, Ore. – A Princeton senior who has been a journeyman decathlete is having the competition of his life here at the NCAA Championships and is threatening the school record in the dec of 7,466 points, set in 1988 by Peter Hunt.

Stephen Soerens, a 6-5, 220-pound native of Fayetteville, Ark., barely made the competition here. He was 25^th on the yearend list, one short of making the field, but because of a withdrawal, he was added to the competition. His season-best score came in winning the Heptagonal Championships, where he scored his current PR total of 7,319.

After Day One, he stands in 4^th place, with 4,091 points.

“I had a good first day,” Soerens said. “I’m definitely happy with it. I had PRs in the 100 (11.11) and long jump (24-1 ¾) and a decathlon PR in the shot put (48-9).” His other two first-day marks were 6-5 in the high jump and 50.16 in the 400.

Soerens, who got his degree in civil and environmental engineering earlier this spring, was measured in his success so far. “I’m a stronger first-day decathlete,” he said, “but it’s a good feeling to be up there with the other guys.”

The first-day leader is Pau Tonnesen of Arizona, at 4,230.

Soerens’s hometown is the site of one of the leading track schools in the country, the University of Arkansas, but he chose to attend Princeton instead. “I was pretty academically focused coming out of high school,” said Soerens, whose father is on the Arkansas faculty.