Full Results

WORCESTER, Mass. – UMass Lowell sophomore Dennis Peary (Woburn, Mass.) won the decathlon, Thursday afternoon, on the Hart Track at the Luth Athletic Complex, at the Holy Cross Multi-Event Meet in Worcester.
 
"That was a great performance, it shows how far he has come," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Gary Gardner.  "His strength is that he doesn't have any events in which he is weak."
 
The decathlon is a ten-event competition, over a two-day period, with points awarded based on performance rather than placement.  Athletes are given just 30-minutes between events which also makes the decathlon not just a test of athleticism, but a test of endurance.
 
Peary put up personal bests numbers in six of the ten events as he accumulated 6,280-points.  His total was a personal best and some 345-points ahead of his nearest competitor.
 
"You have to be a good athlete, but you also have to be mentally tough," according to Gardner.  "If you have a bad event you have to put it behind you and move on.  In this case he was solid across the board, he did not have a bad event; he had two good days."
 
The sophomore won two of the ten events.  He took the shot put with a toss of 41-feet, 5 3/4-inches and added a personal best throw of 166-feet, two-inches in the javelin.
 
Peary also turned in personal bests in the 100-meters (11.53-seconds), 400-meters (51.58), 110-meter hurdles (16.10), discus (104-feet, six-inches) and the pole vault (11-feet, 11 3/4-inches).  He produced solid performances in the long jump, finishing second with a leap of 19-feet, six-inches, and the high jump where he cleared the bar at five-feet, 10 1/2-inches to claim second place.  He wrapped up the competition finishing second in the 1,500-meters with a time of 4:51.42.  That was good for a second place finish in the group of nine.
 
Peary was the only River Hawk in the competition.  UMass Lowell will return to action Saturday, April 22, at what is the only home event of the season, The George Davis Invitational at the Cushing Field Complex.