McCallie's Hakim McMorris stands Tuesday, May 02, 2017 on the McCallie track.Hakim McMorris was so dominant at last week's Spring Fling decathlon, he has been recognized nationally. The McCallie junior won nine of the 10 events in running away from the Division II competition, and his points total wound up being the highest of any high school competitor in the nation.
"It's pretty amazing really," McCallie track and field coach Mike Wood said Friday. "To be number one in the nation, that's a lot of other athletes to outperform. His numbers were just unbelievable, and the scary thing about it is that Hakim has the potential to be a lot better.
"Usually you have a couple of kids who are really strong in one or two events that make it tough to win, so for Hakim to win that many really says something about his versatility and ability."
McMorris, a boarding student who has returned home to California for the summer, finished fourth in the pole vault but won the other nine events to finish with 6,892 total points. The next five totals were turned in by senior athletes, according to Athletic.net, a national track and field website, with Jake Spotswood of Alabama's McGill-Toolen High School finishing second with 6,853 points.
Walker Valley junior Bryce Nunnelly was 19th on the national list.
McMorris won the state title by scoring 688 more points than his next-closest competition. He was the sixth McCallie athlete to win a state decathlon but had the highest points total in that group that included eventual Olympic sprinter Michael Bingham.
"Michael had world-class speed in the sprints, but he wasn't built to reach that level in the decathlon," Wood said. "Hakim has the build to become an incredible decathlete at the next level or possibly a world-class hurdler.
"He can be a lot better next year because he's still pretty raw in a few events."
McMorris followed a strong start to his two-day competition by winning all five events on the second day: the 110-meter hurdles, shot put, long jump, high jump and the grueling 1500-meter run in the final event of the day. In that race, McMorris was pacing himself in the middle of the pack until the final lap, when with just more than 200 meters to go, he took off and left the field.
"When we were coming around on the final lap I felt like I still had a good amount of energy left, so I said why not win another event," McMorris said after that run. "It was very tiring."
Later in the week, McMorris won another state title in the 300 hurdles and was running second in the 110 hurdles before clipping the last hurdle, falling and finishing sixth. He also finished second in the triple jump and tied for third in the high jump, all just three days after competing in the decathlon.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis