FAYETTEVILLE -- Haze Farmer had a certain pace in mind as he ran the final event of the Arkansas high school decathlon, but his Lake Hamilton coaches yelled at him to run a little faster.
The senior did what he wanted to do -- become the fourth person to win back-to-back decathlon titles -- but it was far from easy. Farmer erased a 155-point deficit on the 1,500-meter run and came away victorious Thursday at Ramay Junior High. Farmer compiled 6,192 points over the two-day event, just 37 more than runner-up Sebastian Frazier of Springdale.
"The pole vault didn't go the way I wanted it, so I had to step up in the 1,500," said Farmer, who joined Richard Brothers of Rivercrest (1982-83), Orlando Green of Crossett (1996-97) and Brad Culp of Fayetteville (2011-12) in earning repeat titles. "Then I get pushed by these guys, and I still ended up on top.
"It's hard. I'm not a distance runner, so I don't know how to pace. I just tried to listen to them and tried to keep the pace. I just had to dig deep because they told me I was going to have to run a fast time. It was all on that race."
Farmer trailed first-day leader Ty Graser of Rogers Heritage by 125 points to start Thursday's five events, and he fell further behind after the 110 hurdles and the discus. He still felt good about himself at that point because the next event was the pole vault, where he owns the Class 5A and state overall records.
The Georgia signee, however, only cleared 16-0 3/4 -- well short of his record performances earlier this month. He was still able to cut into his deficit, then he helped his cause with a 42-4 outing in the triple jump, which gave him 566 points and clipped another 39 points off Graser's lead.
"That came as a surprise," Farmer said. "I had no idea."
Farmer quickly jumped ahead of Graser during the 1,500 and continued to pull away, but Farmer's biggest threat wasn't the person behind him. Instead, it was Williams that was providing the competition.
Williams bolted ahead of the pack and finished the 1,500 in 4:40.32. That gave him 678 points, 115 more than Farmer, who finished in 4:59.47.
"I'm feeling pretty excited," Williams said. "It was a big improvement since I finished eighth last year. It was a close battle, but a good two days. The 1,500, I knew I had to make up some points, so I went out there and gave it my best."
Graser actually had some bad luck on his final attempt on the triple jump and hurt his ankle. It caused him to struggle through the 1,500, and he only picked up 346 points with his time of 5:41.16.
That gave him 6,130 points for the two-day event. Carsen Lenser of Vilonia was fourth with 5,936, while Ahman Johnson of Fountain Lake rounded out the top five with 5,923, 85 more than Adrian Block of Prescott.
"I think, off my second phase, I think I pushed off a little weird," Graser said. "I think my ankle rolled, and I pushed off it. It was hurting a little bit and twisted up. It's a little swollen now, and it's something that happens.
"I don't have any excuses for it. My ankles did hurt. Everything hurts after the end of the decathlon. But I gutted it out and tried to get through it. I did the best I could with what I had."
Sports on 05/17/2019