Photos by Hillary Ehlen and NDSU Athletics
The North Dakota State men’s track and field team has never lost the heptathlon in the Summit League Championship meet. That streak was in jeopardy this year. Then, history was made. Four NDSU multi-event athletes scored more than 5,000 points during the two-day event. The Bison fought through injuries and doubt and finished victorious thanks to senior Matt Neururer’s performance. His teammates Tony Ukkelberg, Ryan Enerson and Ben Klimpke weren’t far behind.
FACT!
NDSU is one of only four schools in the country with four heptathletes who scored 5,000+ points this year in a single meet.
“I have definitely not seen that as a coach, especially with our program. Usually, that’s what you’ll see from the Georgias, Oregons and schools like that who have four guys who are blowing it up. It was really cool to see that. It wasn’t expected, I’ll say that much.” – Multi-Events Coach Daniel Gooris
What Events Are In The Heptathlon?
- 60-Meter Dash
- Long Jump
- Shot Put
- High Jump
- 60-Meter Hurdles
- Pole Vault
- 1,000-Meter Run
How To Score The Heptathlon
Beware! Letter math ahead. Okay, so scoring the heptathlon is not that complicated once we get the equations down. There are three equations. One for running events, jumping and throwing. Easy enough. Here are the equations for each type of event in the heptathlon:
Track (Ex. 60-meter, 1,000-meter runs): P=a*(b – T)**c
Jumps (Ex. Long Jump, Pole Vault): P=a*(M – b)**c
Throws (Ex. Shot Put): P=a*(D – b)**c
Note:
* = multiplied by
** = raised to the power of
Here’s where it gets tricky. Each of the seven events in the heptathlon has a different value for each variable (a, b and c). Refer to the chart below for a guide.
Event – a value – b value – c value
60m – 58.015 – 11.5 – 1.81
Long Jump – 0.14354 – 220 – 1.4
Shot Put – 51.39 – 1.5 – 1.05
High Jump – 0.8465 – 75.00 – 1.42
60m Hurdles – 20.5173 – 15.50 – 1.92
Pole Vault – 0.2797 – 100 – 1.35
1,000m – 0.08713 – 305.5 – 1.85
T = Time in seconds
M = Measurement in centimeters
D = Distance in meters
As an example, let’s take Summit League heptathlon champion Matt Neururer’s 60-meter dash time (7.22) and see how many points he gathered in the event. However, remember the P must be rounded down to the nearest whole number after calculation.
Formula: P=a*(b – T)**c
Variable Input: P= 58.015 * (11.5 – 7.22)**1.81
P= 806
For fun, let’s see how many points the winner of the 60-meter dash Ben Klimpke received after winning the event with a time of 7.16 seconds.
Variable Input: P= 58.015 * (11.5 – 7.16)**1.81
P= 826
Neururer had 20 points to make up in the other six events to catch Klimpke. Read below to discover how each athlete did during the Summit League championship meet and double check the math to see if each athlete was given the correct amount of points.
Equations according to IAAF Scoring Tables for Combined Events.
decathlon2000.com/upload/file/pdf/scoringtables.pdf – see page 24.
Members Of The 5K Club
Matt Neururer
Senior – 5,414 – 1st Place
Favorite Event
Pole Vault
Competing for the heptathlon compared to a single open event
“It’s really fun, especially competing not only with my teammates but also with other competitors from different schools. We’re doing all these different events together and there’s a dynamic there that isn’t really there in the single events. We all know there are events that we’re good at, and there are events that we’re bad at.” – Matt Neururer
Coach Speak
“He’s so even-keeled, which for the multi is a big thing. You’ll see him get upset and you’ll see him get excited, but it’s a not a huge fluctuation. He can come off a decent or bad event, and then completely blow up the next time and he’ll have no effect. His senior leadership, I hope the youngsters take away that. If you have a bad event in the multi, that doesn’t mean it’s over and that’s why he’s so good. One event doesn’t affect the next.” – Daniel Gooris
Tony Ukkelberg
Sophomore – 5,352 – 2nd
Favorite Event
Long Jump
This year’s stiff competition
“Last year at both conference meets, we knew going into the multis that there weren’t any other top-level multis in the conference, so we were really focused on our individual stuff but this year was a lot different. We knew other guys were coming in with big scores so (Matt) Nuerurer and I were going to have to throw down some big times.” – Tony Ukkelberg
Coach Speak
“He jumped well, sprinted well, the guy is all-around awesome. He threw the shot put 48 feet and then did the high jump 6’8’’, there’s not a lot of guys that are his size and can do that. … At some point in his career, he’s going to clear seven feet. He’s an absolute monster.” – Daniel Gooris
Ryan Enerson
Junior – 5,184 – 4th
Favorite Event
Hurdles
What it was like coming back from an injury
“I was pretty confident. Just being around practices and I had traveled to all the meets when I was injured and watched. Just being in the atmosphere helped, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. I just knew that it was going to be really close this year for conference so I had to go out and do what I could for the team.” – Ryan Enerson
Coach Speak
“I think his understanding of the events is coming around. Out of high school, he was a big kid already. He could jump, he could hurdle, which is really tough, but pole vault? Zero understanding. It was almost scary because he’s so long. You get him upside down, you don’t know which way he was going. For him, to come out and jump 14-feet, 9-inches as someone who didn’t jump in high school is huge for his understanding of the multi as a whole.” – Daniel Gooris
Ben Klimpke
Sophomore – 5,032 – 5th
Favorite Event
Long Jump
Proving he belongs in the multi-event category
“We thought about it and if I didn’t score around 5,000 this year, I would change to a high-jumper, hurdler, long jumper specialist. But, I think this year we’re going to stick with the heptathlon and we’re going to see how the decathlon goes for outdoor. … I like doing the multi stuff, especially throwing the javelin for the decathlon.” – Ben Klimpke
Coach Speak
“We had a sit-down conversation with him in the beginning of the year and said, ‘Multi is tough and you’re such a good sprinter and jumper as it is. If the multi doesn’t start to come around this year, I think we’re going to specialize you in the future as a sprinter and jumper.’ He was game, he understood. He hadn’t done multi all year until conference and he throws up a personal record.” – Daniel Gooris
Summit League Champion Heptathlon Results
Pole Vault
1. Neururer – 4.8m – 849
2. Enerson – 4.5 – 760
6. Ukkelberg – 4.2 – 673
8. Klimpke – 4.0 – 617
Long Jump
1. Klimpke – 7.22m – 866
2. Ukkelberg – 7.03 – 821
3. Neururer – 6.85 – 778
9. Enerson – 6.26 – 644
Shot Put
1. Ukkelberg – 14.80m – 777
2. Enerson – 13.67 – 708
6. Neururer – 11.28 – 563
8. Klimpke – 11.09 – 551
High Jump
1. Neururer – 2.06m – 859
2. Ukkelberg – 2.03 – 831
4. Enerson – 1.91 – 723
T6 Klimpke – 1.88 – 696
60-Meter Hurdles
1. Enerson – 8.39 seconds – 886
3. Klimpke – 8.49 – 862
4. Ukkelberg – 8.68 – 818
6. Neururer – 8.84 – 781
60-Meter Dash
1. Ben Klimpke – 7.16 seconds – 826
T2. Matt Neururer – 7.22 – 806
4. Tony Ukkelberg – 7.25 – 796
6. Ryan Enerson – 7.34 – 765
1,000-Meter Run
1. Neururer – 2:48.85 – 778
7. Enerson – 2:56.59 – 698
8. Ukkelberg – 3:02.94 – 636
9. Klimpke – 3:05.24 – 614
