Hardee leads men; Day, Wade top women at USA Indoor Combined Events Championships

INDIANAPOLIS - Two-time world champion Trey Hardee will make his first appearance at the USA Indoor Combined Events Championships along with two of his teammates from the 2011 World Outdoor Championships, Ryan Harlan and Sharon Day, this Saturday and Sunday at the Gladstein Field House in Bloomington, Ind.
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The heavy favorite in the event, Hardee boasts an indoor heptathlon best of 6,209 points and a decathlon best of 8,791 points, which places him third on the all-time U.S. list only behind Olympic champions Dan O’Brien and Bryan Clay. Hardee has the best indoor marks of the field in the 60 meters, long jump, 60m hurdles and pole vault.

Hardee’s top competitors are his fellow 2011 World Championships teammate Harlan and the defending USA Combined Event Champion Nick Adcock. Harlan has the second best marks of the field with an indoor heptathlon score of 6,102 points and a decathlon best of 8.171 points. Harlan won this event in the early days of his professional career with wins in 2005 and 2006. In his first year as a post-collegiate, Adcock won the 2011 edition of this event with 5,711 points.

On the women’s side, 2011 USA Heptathlon champion Sharon Day (Costa Mesa HS 2002; Cal Poly SLO 2008)and 2011 USA Indoor Pentathlon champion Bettie Wade will battle for the top spot. With only two points separating the pair, Wade enters with a slightly higher PR of 4,469 points to Day’s 4,467 points. In 2011, Day competed for Team USA at the World Championships to finish 18th, and Wade competed for Team USA at the Thorpe Cup where she took first.

The local favorite is sure to be Abbie Stechschulte, who finished as the runner-up in this event last year. Stechschulte is currently enrolled at IU seeking her master’s degree in kinesiology.

The women’s pentathlon competition will consist of the 60m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m. The men’s heptathlon consists of the 60m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1,000m.

Competition starts on the campus of Indiana University at 1:00 p.m. Saturday and resumes on noon Sunday. Admission is free. For more information visit www.usatf.org
About USA Track & Field

USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track & field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, the World's #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport, and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.

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