Cal Poly senior James Nunno rallied from fourth place at the end of Friday’s session to win the decathlon at the Big West Conference Multi-Event Championships hosted by UC Irvine on Saturday.
Sitting in fourth place and trailing Cal State Northridge’s Robert Robinson by 183 points, Nunno capitalized with a 16-foot, 4 3/4-inch clearance in the pole vault to get within striking distance.
Nunno won with a new personal-best, 7,208 points. Cal Poly sophomore Corbin Duer finished second with 7,135, also a personal best.
Nunno’s comeback was almost halted by a groin injury that forced him to take just one throw at the javelin.
Duer led by 53 points heading into the 1,500. Nunno needed to finish ahead of Duer by 7 seconds or more to take the title.
As the race began, Nunno came out fast.
“I was yelling from across the lap, ‘Slow down!’” Cal Poly’s multi-event coach Jack Hoyt said in a release. “I think once he came around the first lap and heard the announcer he realized and slowed up a bit.”
Nunno would slow down, but not until notching a new personal-best 4:32.57, over 20 seconds ahead of Duer. During the race, Nunno had splits of 28 seconds at the first 200 and 62 seconds for the first lap.
“I knew I could take the pace out pretty hard,” Nunno said. “I actually got boxed in out of the start for the first 100 and then just tried to separate myself. After that, I just tried to hold on and dug deep in the final 300 meters to find that other gear.”
Saturday’s victory is the second championship for Nunno. He won the title in 2007 and had aspirations for another in 2008 before a pole vaulting accident left him with a ruptured spleen. Nunno had his spleen removed and lost three pints of blood after his pole snapped during practice and struck him in the abdomen.
“When I crossed the line in the 1,500, it was just unexplainable. I’ve never had an emotional reaction to an athletic competition like that,” Nunno said. “There were so many times when I felt it could be out of reach, but I knew I had to keep striving for it. I just knew I couldn’t give up.”