DES MOINES - The University of Northern Iowa's Daniel Gooris added his own entry to the list of dominant Panther performances in the Drake Relays decathlon, winning the title on Thursday with a career-best 7,624 points. Gooris conquered the rest of the field over the final five events, coming from seventh place to win by a margin of 300 points.
Gooris' point total currently stands as the 10th-best in the nation. He ranks No. 3 all-time at UNI in the decathlon behind All-Americans Raven Cepeda and Mat Clark.
Six of the past nine Drake Relays decathlon crowns have now gone to athletes with UNI ties. Former UNI head coach and student-athlete Travis Geopfert won the title in 2004 and 2006, former Panther All-American Raven Cepeda won the event in 2007, and former All-American Mat Clark owns the 2009 and 2011 titles.
The Panther junior opened with a huge personal best of 14.95 seconds in the 110m hurdles. He followed up with a throw of 134-08 (41.04m) in the discus.
The pole vault was Gooris' most dominant event of the day, as he cleared a season-best 17-00.75 (5.20m) to take the decathlon lead. His javelin throw of 185-04 (56.48m) was a personal best, and he finished with the top 1500m time at 4:31.39.
UNI sophomore Ben Lindaman placed ninth with a personal-best 6,583 points. He recorded the best javelin throw of all the competitors at 186-11 (56.97m).
Tyler Clark made it a perfect three-for-three on personal-best totals for the Panthers, scoring 6,152 points for 13th place. Clark recorded new top marks for himself in the 110m hurdles, discus and 1500m.
