Coming a long way in a short time

"When I found out what it was, I knew I would have fun with it," O'Connor said.

O'Connor, 19, just completed his freshman year at College of San Mateo. He has competed in three decathlons and has quickly become one of the best in the state. His first meet, the Northern California championships, O'Connor finished third with 6,150 points. That earned him a spot in the California Community College championships where he again finished third with 6,658 points in only his second time competing in the event. Over the weekend, O'Connor, competing in the Junior National championships at the Home Depot Center in Carson, finished sixth with 6,670 points. O'Connor made the national championships by meeting the qualifying point total of 5,950.

"I was surprised with my performance at NorCals. I was even more taken aback by my performance at state. I wasn't expecting third. I [set personal records] in eight of 10 events," O'Connor said.

The decathlon consists of 10 different track events split up over two days. The event encompasses all aspects of track and field - running, jumping and throwing. The first day consists of 100-meter sprint, the long jump, shot put, high jump and 400-meter race. Day two features the 110-meter high hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run.

Despite the tremendous success O'Connor experienced in a short amount of time, he was a bit disappointed with his performance at the national championships. O'Connor's said his best events are the sprints and the jumping events - long jump and high jump - that he competed in while at Serra High School. The rest of the events, however, are still a work in progress. He finished the first day in second place, but believed he left some points out on the track.

"Pretty much my whole decathlon is carried by my first day," O'Connor said. "Even though I was in second, that was good, but I knew my second day was pretty raw. I asked around and some of these guys have been doing [decathlons] since they were freshmen in high school.

"I left the meet with my head still high, but knowing I could have done a lot more."

Excelling at athletics is nothing new for O'Connor. He played football and ran track at Serra, but his junior and senior track seasons were plagued by injuries. He was a long jumper and high jumper his freshman and sophomore years. His junior season was wiped out by a back injury. His senior year, he blew his knee out playing football. He recovered in time for track season but switched to the sprints - the 100 and 200 - to take pressure off the knee.

It was during his senior year that Serra coach Jim Marheineke first suggested O'Connor attempt the decathlon when he got to college.

"[Marheineke] planted the seed for the decathlon," O'Connor said.

O'Connor had already decided to play football in college when CSM track coach Joe Mangan approached and asked if O'Connor wanted to attempt the decathlon. O'Connor accepted the challenge and thanks to the CSM coaching staff, improved by leaps and bounds.

"[The coaching staff] kept it all basic. Even now, [all the instruction is] all basic. All they're telling me is simple things. I look forward, over the summer, for it to get more complicated."

O'Connor believes his current success is carried by his athletic ability. He acknowledges that there isn't a lot of thought or strategy put into the events. He just tries to maximize his effort in each one.

"Because of my inexperience in all these new events, I'm just doing it. Like in the discus, right now, it's go out and chuck this thing as far as I can," O'Connor said. "For me, I was taking [the national championships] one event at a time and [the rest of the competitors] were talking about extremely complicated things."

The sudden success in the decathlon suddenly has O'Connor thinking big things - like competing at the national level or even an Olympic spot in the future. That, however, would require him to train year 'round. Right now, he is weighing his football career against that training.

"(I want) to see how far I can take it (the decathlon). I'm really raw in a lot of these events and there's only one way to go and that's up," O'Connor said. "I think if I continue on this improvement curve, I believe I have a shot at [competing at a high level]."