WEST FORK -- Caden Callahan learned one valuable lesson when he competed in last year's state high school decathlon -- it's not like competing in a regular track and field meet.
The West Fork senior hopes to use that experience to good use when he competes in this year's event, which takes place over today and Thursday at Fayetteville's Ramay Junior High School.
"I learned it was very taxing," Callahan said. "Normally, during regular-season meets, I may do six events every meet. But there are five events each day, and I didn't have a lot of experience in some of those events. I was getting pretty tired.
"I also learned that, just because you're fast or you're good at certain running events, it doesn't mean that you'll be able to do good at something you haven't practiced that much."
Callahan did well enough over the 10 events to score 5,080 points and earn a 12th-place finish out of the 59 athletes that completed last year's competition. He was able to be that successful despite not being able to practice on a home track.
Now he aims for a top-five finish to complete his high school career, although West Fork Coach Tiffany Surber said she will settle for him to finish among the top-10 athletes.
"I wish we would have him do the decathlon when he was a sophomore," Surber said. "The decathlon and heptathlon are fairly new to our program, and there were some events that I feel he was weak in. But he's been able to practice those events more of the year, and he's also physically stronger.
"We're hoping that he will PR in the 110-meter hurdles, and he's definitely gotten better there. He's always been a strong 400 runner of the years, and we're hoping he will get a lot of points there. Then there's the pole vault. We don't have a real pole vault pit, so we've been practicing over in the sandpit."
The hurdles should be Callahan's strong suit. He is the Class 3A state champion in the 110 and 300 hurdles, and his winning time of 15.20 seconds in the 110s at the state meet is more than a second faster than what he ran in last year's decathlon.
He said it's the hardest event to practice on the West Fork football field, where he conducts most of his practices.
"It's really hard because you don't have spikes," Callahan said. "So the grip is a lot different. My steps seem like they've been really off every time I've practiced hurdles here. So every time I've been at a real meet, it's been like a practice."
He improved enough on the pole vault to finish second in the event during the 3A-1 Conference meet at Lincoln, and ran cross country in the fall to help him out with the 1,500. He was able to get in practice in the other events by doing them in various meets throughout the season.
Now comes the time for Callahan to put all his work into good use.
"We haven't focused on the decathlon all season long," Surber said. "We focused more on his hurdles during the season, and now that we're here we're touching up each event. We're just taking one day at a time and working on one event every day."
At a glance
STATE HIGH SCHOOL DECATHLON/HEPTATHLON
At Ramay Junior High School, Fayetteville
WHEN Today-Thursday
HIGHEST RETURNING PARTICIPANTS Decathlon — Payten Durning, Ozark (finished eighth last year). Heptathlon — Layla Reese, Cabot (finished third last year)
List of events
TODAY Boys (starting at 11:30 a.m.) — 100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400. Girls (starting at noon) — 100 hurdles, long jump, discus, 200.
THURSDAY Boys (starting at 9 a.m.) — 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, triple jump, 1,500. Girls (starting at 9 a.m.) — High jump, shot put, 800.