Rhea County’s Chase Stoll, center, is in third place in the decathlon with 3,080 points after Monday’s five events at the TSSAA state competition in Murfreesboro.Chase Sholl’s flair for dramatic finishes seems to know no end.
One year after winning the Class AAA decathlon state championship by limping through the final three events to narrowly keep his lead, the Rhea County senior rallied from a seemingly insurmountable first-day deficit to defend his title with a blistering performance in the final five events in Murfreesboro.
Sholl finished first in three events Tuesday, was third in one and fourth in another to total 6,568 points in bettering Bearden’s Jacob Sobota’s 6,468.
Sholl, a University of Tennessee signee, becomes only the second area athlete to win consecutive decathlons, joining former McCallie star and Olympian Michael Bingham, who won Division II titles in 2003 and ’04.
“It feels awesome. I wish I could do it the normal way and just lead all the way, but it’s good to keep people on the edge of their seat, I guess,” Sholl said. “I’m so happy, and with it being my senior year I’m very satisfied with what I was able to do.”