Penn State's Jamie Cooke wins Penn Relays decathlon

Tania Longe ofTania Longe ofMichigan takes theTania Longe ofMichigan takes theheptathlon title Penn State sophomore Jamie Cook took the first step towards this summer's Olympic Games yesterday at Franklin Field. By compiling 7,600 points in the decathlon, Cook not only finished first at the Penn Relays, but also automatically qualified for the NCAA championships and provisionally qualified for the Olympic Trials. "I was solid throughout," Cook said. "I don't have any one strong event, but I'm a good competitor." Cook scored over 700 points in all 10 events to complete one of the best all-around performances in years. He finished first in both the shot put and the discus. Army's Jon Pontius came into the final event with the lead, but fell to second place after the 1,500-meter run. Even after he lost the title, the junior was still happy with his performance. "Today just amazed me," Pontius said. "I set a decathlon personal record in all five events today. I want 7,500. That's my goal." Pontius fell only nine points short of that, finishing with 7,491 points. Last year's winner, Ryan Werner of Liberty, scored 7,475 points to take third place overall after starting the day in sixth place. Even though he scored 12 more points than last year and won the javelin, pole vault and 1,500-meter events, Werner could not catch Pontius and Cook. The Penn competitors did not fare very well. Sophomores Eric Hyde and Brian Smith finished 10th and 12th, respectively. After a solid performance yesterday and a good start today, Hyde struggled in the javelin and 1500-meter. "I was disappointed," Hyde said. "I expected to have a lot better second day. The javelin really hurt me today -- after that, I lost my focus." After throwing the javelin 53 meters last weekend at Cornell, Hyde was only able to loft it 40 meters this week. "He just fell apart in the last two events," Penn assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "The javelin was disappointing. It should help him learn that he's got to be even more focused event by event." With a better performance in the last events of the day, Hyde may have been able to break his personal record of 6,403 points. He came within 42 points, scoring 6,361. The women completed the heptathlon yesterday with the javelin, long jump and 800-meter events. Michigan sophomore Tania Longe won the overall competition handily with 5,500 total points. She won the long jump and placed second in the javelin en route to the victory. Courtney Ruckert of George Mason took second place with 5,181 points. She won the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 17.87 seconds. Villanova's Melanie Sklepko took third place overall, compiling 5,159 points and winning the javelin throw. The rest of the women's events will begin tomorrow. The action will start at 10:30 a.m. with the 400-meter hurdles and continue throughout the day. Although Penn did not enter any competitors in the heptathlon, it will be out in full force today.