{"id":60927,"date":"2012-06-06T08:13:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T12:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=60927"},"modified":"2012-06-08T12:08:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T16:08:27","slug":"waruch-heads-to-best-athlete-competition-in-ncaa-decathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/06\/waruch-heads-to-best-athlete-competition-in-ncaa-decathlon\/","title":{"rendered":"Waruch Heads to ‘Best Athlete’ Competition in NCAA Track and Field Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update: Jake Waruch was forced to withdraw from the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships on Wednesday, after pulling his hamstring in warm-ups at the Outdoor NCAA Championships.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/a>
Jake Waruch '12 (CLAS), who won the decathlon in the Big East during both the indoor and outdoor seasons this year, will compete in the decathlon during the NCAA Championship Finals, June 6-7. (Steve Slade '89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Jim Thorpe was told by King Gustav V of Sweden that he was \u201cthe best athlete in the world\u201d after winning the decathlon, the 10-event track and field competition that still carries the same imprimatur at the international level.<\/p>\n

In the Big East this year, Jake Waruch \u201912 (CLAS) won the decathlon during both the indoor and outdoor seasons in men\u2019s track and field. Does he consider himself the best athlete in the conference?<\/p>\n

\u201cI get kidded from time to time,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s always the next meet for me. I always feel whenever you get complacent in anything, you have a tendency to fall behind. I made a promise to myself to keep going as long as I can while I\u2019m able to compete. I want to maximize my potential as best as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Waruch<\/a>
Waruch arrived in Storrs as a 400-meter runner and was then moved to a multisport position on the track and field team. (Steve Slade '89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next competition for Waruch will be the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, when he will compete against the best college decathletes in the nation on June 6 and 7.<\/p>\n

Waruch arrived in Storrs as a 400-meter runner and was moved to what is called a multisport position. In addition to running track in high school, he played football and basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I couldn\u2019t do just one thing. I had to do something a little bit different,\u201d he says about his sports experience.<\/p>\n

Associate head coach Rich Miller \u201995 (ED) says molding an athlete with multiple skills into a successful decathlete is like creating a work of art.<\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent kids handle different volumes of work and pick up things quicker or slower,\u201d Miller says. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a challenge. It takes a lot of creativity in devising a program to meet their potential. It\u2019s a challenge to put in the amount of time between school, the time spent doing the events, as well as getting a sense of how much their bodies can handle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decathlon is a two-day competition, with athletes compiling points in five events each day. The first day is the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400-meter race. The second day is the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1500-meter race.<\/p>\n

\"Shot<\/a>
Shot put is one of 10 sports in the two-day competition. (Steve Slade '89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Waruch says focusing on each event as it takes place is a key to maintaining focus on the overall goal of winning a 10-event competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have a short-term memory,\u201d he says. \u201cI go into the first event, the 100-meter, thinking I\u2019m a 100-meter runner; that\u2019s all I think about. You can\u2019t think about the long jump when you\u2019re running the 100. Then you go to long jump and you\u2019re a long jumper now. Even if you ran a bad 100, there\u2019s nothing you can do about it. You have to be very disciplined, let the past go, and not think too far ahead of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a competition, Miller will offer reminders \u2013 which they refer to as \u201ccues\u201d \u2013 to Waruch about what to focus on in a specific event taking place at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith these guys doing so many different events, it\u2019s easy to pay attention to too many things,\u201d Miller says. \u201cWe try to hone in on what they respond best to; the cues that allow them to hit the reset button, refocus, reground them in the fundamentals of the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waruch is having his most successful season, after missing his junior year due to injury and illness. He contracted an illness after a tick bite, broke his wrist during a weight-lifting session, and then had a bout of pneumonia. \u201cThey say bad things come in three; that was my three,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Miller says Waruch is a great competitor. \u201cHe understands what it means to compete,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s better when he steps into a competition than he is in practice. He\u2019s got a tremendous work ethic. A lot of the guys do who attain this level. The decathlon breeds a certain personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waruch is looking forward to testing himself against the top decathletes from other top college track and field programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to go out there and compete in every event against the best in the nation,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve put up the scores I have because I go to every event, and my goal is to win every event. I\u2019m excited for it, to push myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decathlete Jake Waruch ’12 (CLAS) will compete against the best athletes in the nation at the NCAA Championships June 6-7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":60906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-60927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 06:30:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60927"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61111,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60927\/revisions\/61111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/60906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60927"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=60927"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=60927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}