Steve Rainbolt
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DECATHLON HANDBOOK & MEDIA GUIDE 24th THORPE CUP USA vs GERMANY TEAM DECATHLON Dusseldorf, GER July 29-30, 2017 by: Frank Zarnowski The Decathlon Association www.decathlonusa.typepad.com [email protected] TABLE of CONTENTS SECTION #1 BACKGROUND (pp 2-5) Team Rosters: USA, Germany Page 2 Time Schedule 2 Outlook for 2017 Meeting 2 -3 Meet History 3 Previous Team and Individual Medalists 4 Individual Meet Records 5 SECTION #2 PAST RESULTS (pp 6-8) Recent Results 6-8 2016 2015 6 2014 6 2013 6-7 2012 7 2011 7 2010 7-8 SECTION #3 EVENT RECORDS (pp 8-10) Individual Event Records: 8-10 World 8 American 8 Collegiate 9 German 9 Thorpe Cup Meet, 10 SECTION #4 DELEGATIONS (pp 11-25) USA Delegation: 11-20 Steven Bastien 11-12 Kurtis Brondyke 12-13 Scott Filip 14 Dan Golubovic 15 Gabe Moore 16 Steele Wasik 17 Tim Wunderlich 18-19 Alternate: Thomas FitzSimons 19-20 Ed Fye, Head Coach 20 Steve Rainbolt, Assistant Coach 21 German Delegation: Nico Beckers 22 Marvin Bollinger 22 Ituah Enahoro 22 Felix Hepperle 22 Patrick Scherfose 23 Rene Stauss 23 Luca Weiland 24 Alternate: Manuel Eitel 25 Stefan Press, & Georg Zwirner--Coaches 25 SECTION #5 Personal Best Page 26 SECTION 1- BACKGROUND ROSTERS- U S A Name affiliation age hometown PR score seasonal best Bastien, Steven Michigan’17 23 Saline, MI 8015 (’17) 8015 Brondyke, Kurtis The Other Guys(Central’11) 28 Clinton, IA 7795 (’16) 7746 Filip, Scott Rice U’18 22 Bloomingdale, IL 7915 (’17) 7915 Golubovic, Dan Duke’17 23 Los Angeles, CA 7717 (’17) 7717 Moore, Gabe Arkansas’19 21 Freeport, FL 7699 (’17) 7699 Wasik, Steele Texas’19 21 Medina, OH 7715 (’17) 7715 Wunderlich, Tim Shore AC (Dartmouth’09) 30 Westminster, MD 7636 (’12) 7528 Alternate: FitzSimons, Thomas Santa Barbara TC 28 Hamden, CT 7791 (‘15) 7494 Coaches: Ed Fye, Doane College; Steve Rainbolt, Wichita State University. GERMANY Name affiliation age hometown PR score seasonal best Beckers, Nico Aachener TG 23 Aachen 7487 (’17) 7487 Bollinger, Marvin LG LAZ Saar 05, 20 Saarbrucken 7735 (’16) 7735 Enahoro, Ituah Club ASV 34/Nigeria/LG Bayer 19 Nigeria 7768 (’17) 7768 Hepperle, Felix LG Neckar-Enz 27 7618 (’14) 7610 Scherfose, Patrick LG Weserbergland 25 7693 (’15) 7562 Stauss, Rene LAV Tübingen 30 Ratingen 7907 (‘15) 7508 Wieland, Luca U Minnesota’17 22 Saarbrucken 8201 (’17) 8201 Alternate: Eitel, Manuel SSV Ulm 20 Ulm 7446 (’17) 7446 Coaches: Stefan Press, Georg Zwirner Staff: Hermann Holzfuss(Team Leader) Meet Schedule: Saturday- July 29, 2017 Sunday- July 30, 2017 Introduction of teams 100 meters 110m Hurdles Long Jump Discus Shot Put Pole Vault High Jump Javelin 400 meters 1500 meters Outlook for 2017 Meeting Team USA selected itself from the recent USATF National Championships in steamy Sacramento where the major news was 100˚F temperatures each day. Athletes placing 4-9 were selected and coaches added a discretionary selection, the defending champ Scott Filip. Team USA has only two returnees from last year’s lineup in Fayetteville and this is decidedly a lineup-up of youngsters with only two post collegians. In fact the 2016 team averages 24 years of age with ony two over age 23. Central (IA) grad Kurtis Brondyke, who was 4th a year ago in Fayetteville and Dartmouth coach Tim Wunderlich are the elder statesmen. The remaining five USA team members are current year college students. This group is led by Big Ten champ Steven Bastien of Michigan , an 8015 performer who was 4th at both the recent NCAA and USA national meets. Solid and consistent performers include Duke senior Dan Golubovic (11th at NCAAs, 6th at USAs), Arkansas soph Gabe Moore (12th and 7th), and Texas soph Steele Wasik (10th & 8th), all of whom have posted 7700 scores during the season. Defending champ Scott Filip, a junior at Rice University who was 5th at the NCAAs (7867) before a vault snafu in Sacramento, was the coaches selection rounding out a deep, talented squad. Germany’s Team Zehnkampf, sent Dennis Hutterer, Tim Nowak and____________ to the Euro u23 championships in Bydgoczsz, Poland. And they are holding Rico Freimuth, Kai Kazmirek, Mathias Brugger and alternate Luca Weiland, last year’s Big Ten Minnesota champ, for the world champs in London. But their Thorpe Cup lineup is talented and deep, a mixture of experience and youth. They are led by Rene Strauss (almost 30) who was 3rd in 2015 and 2015 and is making his 5th Thorpe Cup appearance. Felix Hepperle (27), Patrick Scherfose (25) and Nico Beckers (23) all have Thorpe Cup background and are solid performers. Youngster Marvin Bollinger (20) who was 14th a year ago in Fayetteville has made significant progress as has 19 year old Ituah Enahoro, an athlete of many nations, who has international experience for both the Netherlands and Nigeria. Sprinter Manuel Eitel rounds out the club. The selection meeting for the German roster came at the Stadwerke Meeting in Ratingen which experienced good weather. Steffan Press and Georg Zwirner, a veteran of 9 Thorpe Cups, will coach the German team. As always, there is no way to forecast the outcome of this meet. There are four reasons why the host German team will be favored: -experience: in the form of Rene Strauss, Patrick Scherfose and Felix Hepperle. -they have a timing advantage since it is now the height of the German CE season and late for the Americans who peaked for the NCAAs and US nationals last month. -how does one say ‘Momentum’ in German? Team Zehnkamp has won the six of the last seven men’s Thorpe Cups. -And they are at home so no travel is necessary. There are four reasons why team USA will be favored: -Team USA broke a six meet losing streak a year ago in Fayetteville and are determined not to give the trophy back. -The USA team is young but with a good deal of experience. Scott Filip is the defending champ. And having a pair of college coaches (Kurtis Brondyke and Tim Wunderlich) on the roster helps. -young legs, (five college students) -no weather conditions can be as bad as they were in Sacramento Nothing is ever taken for granted at the Thorpe Cup and it is always hotly contested. In 1999 the meet was decided by a miniscule, microscopic, tiny, infinitesimal, atomic…(you get the picture!) five points. One German coach described the margin as “a puff of wind.” It was the closest team match anywhere in decathlon history. In 2010 Team Zehnkampf won by two puffs of wind, just 13 points out of a total score of over 77,000. The 2006 winning USA margin in Manhattan was a mere 57 points. This meet will be close. It’s always intense, and that’s why it’s the planet’s best team affair. Thorpe Cup History Now the world’s most important nation vs. nation team decathlon, this meet has been variously called the VISA CUP Meet or the JEEP Challenge. And in 2007 officially took the name of The Thorpe Cup in honor of 1912 Olympic Decathlon Champion Jim Thorpe, Carlisle, PA The concept of an annual team match was initially conceived by VISA-USA team coach Harry Marra and Team Zehnkampf coach Claus Marek in 1993. This is the 20th of a series of annual international team decathlons between the USA and Germany. The US teams holds a 14-9 W-L advantage by breaking a 6 year losing streak last year in Fayetteville, AR. Team USA went 1-2-3-4-5 in 2016 led by a terrific Scott Filip/Harrison Williams dual. Page 3 In the current series, the first meeting was arranged in Aachen, Germany in 1993 where Stefan Schmid of Germany and the VISA USA team were victorious. The American team won 6 of the initial 7 team battles. One, the 1999 affair, also in Aachen was decided by a mere 5 points. Team USA got back on the winning side in 2002 with a major win in Walnut, CA, led by Tom Pappas and repeated in 2003 in Bernhausen. The 2004 meet, scheduled for Kansas State U, was cancelled by the German federation (DLV) in June of that season. In 1996, with the meet in Edwardsville, IL, the USA squad set a world 5 man team record averaging 8121.4 points per man. Only Kip Janvrin, Mike Maczey and Pappas have won the individual title more than once. See below. In the years before the current series, USA and German decathlon teams met twice. Team USA won both, with Bruce Jenner getting a world leading score in 1974 in Tallinn, Estonia (tri meet: USA/USSR/ Germany). Team USA won again in 1983 in Baton Rouge, LA. So, counting the two earlier team meetings, the Americans hold a historical 16-9 national team advantage. History of Team Series: Year Site team scores won/loss differential date 1993 Aachen, Germany USA 39,353 GER 38.292 W + 1061 8/8-9 1994 San Luis Obispo, Ca USA 37,997 GER 37,580 W + 471 8/6-7 1995 Ratingen, Germany USA 39,725 GER 39,831 L – 106 7/29-30 1996 Edwardsville, IL USA 40,607 GER 39,605 W + 1065 7/17-18 1997 Kreutzal, Germnay USA 39,299 GER 39,141 W + 158 7/26-27 1998 Lubbock, Texas USA 39,016 GER 38,667 W + 349 8/8-9 1999 Aachen, Germany USA 38,980 GER 38,975 W + 5 8/7-8 2000 Uniondale, NY USA 38,360 GER 38,832 L – 472 8/12-13 2001 Bernhausen, Germany USA 36,991 GER 39,605 L – 2,614 7/21-22 2002 Walnut, CA USA 39,908 GER 37,817 W +2,091 7/27-28 2003 Bernhausen, Germany USA 37,447 GER 34,962 W +2,475 8/2-3 2004 Manhattan, KS cancelled 2005 Bernhausen, Germany USA 38,548 GER 37,144 W +1,404 7/23-24 2006 Manhattan, KS USA 37,792 GER 37,735 W + 57 8/5-6 2007 Bernhausen, Germany USA 38,084 GER 36,976 W +1,108 8/18-19 2008 Manhattan, KS USA 40,093 GER 38,496 W +1,597 8/2-3 2009 Marburg, Germany USA 39,462 GER 35,927 W +3,535 8/8-9 2010 Marburg, Germany USA 38,255 GER 38,268 L -13 8/7-8 2011 Chula Vista, CA USA 38,870 GER 38,870 L -870 8/13-14 2012 Marburg.