The Human Drama of Athletic Competition

 The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat............The Human Drama of Athletic Competition....... I remember hearing this on TV during the Olympics.  I can't remember the name of the commentator who used to say it, but it was said at the start of every broadcast.  

We traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa to see Carter compete in the Heptathlon.  Seven events over 2 days.  We were in the UNI Dome, and it was nice and toasty inside, while temps outside were well below zero.  

The first event was the 60 M dash...........not Carter's best event.

Carter is the one in the middle, and yes, they are all wearing UNI Panther purple.  Due to illness, etc., none of the other schools brought men to compete in the multi event.  

And you can see that he placed last, but the times were extremely close.  When scoring a heptathlon or decathlon, each event is scored based on the time, height, or distance, so placing is not as important as getting the best time you can get.  This was a PR (personal record) for Carter.

Next up, long jump.

His best jump was 7.37meters, which was over a foot longer than his previous best, so another PR and 2nd place.  His dad, a former state long jumper, was pretty excited.

Then it was shot put.  He threw 11.35meters which was close to his best, and good enough for 3rd place.

Then it was high jump.  This was his specialty in high school.  Thanks to Covid shutting down his senior season, I had never seen him high jump in person.  

It was truly amazing.  He won clearing 2.05 meters which was another PR, topping his high school record.  This thrilled his mom, a state high jumper in high school.

This was the end of the first day of competition and he was in first place overall.  At some point during the day, he was injured.......

and he was enjoying making goofy faces.

The next day started with the hurdles which he won with a time of 8.38 and another personal record.  Then it was pole vault. 

He jumped 3.85 meters and placed second.  That left just the 1000 meter run and he was still in first place overall.  Well, he really wanted to win, so he did.  It was an amazing run.  And he won it by a lot.  So, he won the heptathlon with 5326 points.  

I'm sure his success was due to his large fan club in attendance.  Of course, you shouldn't see his dad in this photo below as he was playing hooky,  "taking his mom to a doctor's appointment" instead of being at school.  The appointment just happened to be in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

We had a lot of fun cheering him on.

Christi