Wake Forest Athletics
Huffins Wins Second Straight National Championship
6/29/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
June 29, 1999
EUGENE, Ore. - Chris Huffins, an assistant track coach at Wake Forest, won his second consecutive national championship in the decathlon event last night at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Huffins led all the way in the two-day, 10-event competition, finishing with 8,350 points -- 163 more than runner-up Tom Pappas of Tennessee.
Huffins ate just two Fig Newtons all day long, and his lack of energy showed in the final event, the 1,500 meters. He ran a 5:10 to finish 12th in the 13-man field. But he had a big enough lead overall to hold off Pappas, who picked up just 544 points after running the race in 5:02.71.
"I probably should have eaten a little more," said Huffins, who said the cold, wind and occasional rain played havoc with the competitors.
"We had a horrible head wind in the pole vault," he said. "If we would've turned the pits around, everybody would've jumped out of their minds."
First-place finishes in the 100 meters, long jump and high jump Thursday gave Huffins a 245-point lead over second-ranking Stephen Moore after the first day of competition.
