Shirley, Brown Win Pac-10 Decathlon, Heptathlon Titles

Simon Shirley of Washington State won the Pacific 10 Conference men’s decathlon championship, and USC’s Wendy Brown took the women’s heptathlon title Tuesday at Valley Field.

Shirley had an early lock on his title, but he chose to go out with a strong finish, winning the 1,500-meter run in 4:28.9 to rack up 7,559 points. California’s Steve Degner was second with 7,064 points, and Joe Duarte of UCLA was third with 6,649 points.

Shirley, a native of Australia, led from early Monday with a convincing win in the long jump. He made it decisive by winning Tuesday’s final three events, the pole vault, javelin and 1,500.

Brown had to overtake Camille Jampolsky, an Oregon junior who led by 16 points after the first day.

Brown swept in front Tuesday with a field record of 21 feet in the long jump, while Jampolsky could do only a fourth place 18-1.

Brown padded her lead with a first-place toss of 135 feet in the javelin against 122-4 for Jampolsky. Brown finished with a field-record 5,589 points to 5,477 for Jampolsky and 5,349 for third-place Erin Dougherty of Arizona.

Brown and Shirley are both relatively new to the events.

Missing from the meet was UCLA’s Jim Connolly, who was second last year ahead of Shirley’s third-place finish. Connolly was favored but elected to stay home to rest in preparation for javelin competition in the Pac-10 team meet.