Man on a Mission

Tigard’s Chase Dalton, the Junior National decathlon champ, eyes a promising future on and off the track

By Dan Brood

The Times, Aug 14, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Not bad traveling habits for someone who hadn’t even been out of the country before.

“My goal was to make it to Poland,” Dalton said. “I did it, so there wasn’t any pressure after that. It was my first international competition, and I wanted to have a lot of fun.”

Dalton struck up a quick friendship with members of the national team from Sweden.

“I hung with them a lot,” Dalton said. “We traded a lot of gear.”

Still, while he was having plenty of fun, Dalton had the competitive juices flowing.

“I didn’t know anything about the competition,” he said. “I knew there were some good athletes out there, but, when I got there, I realized that I could place. I was looking to be in the top six or seven.”

A couple of misfortunes kept him from reaching that goal.

In the first day of the two-day, 10-event competition, Dalton, flustered a bit after having some language miscommunications with the judges, had mark a of 40-4 in the shot put.

In the second day of competition, Dalton ran into some problems in the 110-meter high hurdles, which is usually one of his best events in the decathlon.

He actually got off to a good start to the race.

“I was thinking ‘I’m on my way,’” Dalton said. “Then I tripped up and, on hurdle No. 7, I hit way up on the hurdle. Then I had to come to a dead stop before hurdle No. 8.”

Still, despite having to come to a complete stop before the eighth hurdle, Dalton still turned in a time of 16.83 seconds for the race.

“I still had no regrets,” Dalton said. “After the hurdles, I knew I was out of it, but I wanted to keep going and do the best I could.”

With that in mind, Dalton finished strong.

In the discus, he placed second among all competitors with a mark of 157-9.3. He wrapped things up with a decathlon personal best toss of 212-3 in the javelin, once again placing second in the event.

“That was the most fun I ever had,” Dalton said of the javelin portion of the decathlon. “In Europe, they love the javelin. The whole stadium had the clap going for me when I was throwing.”

All told, Dalton finished in 11th place with a score of 7,174. Jan Felix Knobel of Germany won the decathlon championship with a score of 7,896.

“After the javelin, I was just so happy,” he said. “It was unreal. It was just something to experience — here I was, in Poland, competing at the world championships. Even with the those two events (the shot put and the high hurdles), I still had just 28 fewer points than I did at the Junior National Championships.”

And, with the international experience, Dalton seems even more motivated for the future.

“I love wearing the USA jersey,” he said. “I want to do this for real. No more Tigard, no more BYU — I want to be Chase Dalton from the USA — that would be such an honor.”

By that, he means he’s looking at a possible spot on the USA Olympic track and field team in the future.

“I’m looking at 2012, I want to be able to at least try out then,” he said. “Or at 2016. That’s something I think about a lot. I’m excited for my future, but I think it’s going to be a surprise.”

That, of course, has a lot to do with his upcoming two-year mission. He’ll find out later this month what his destination will be, and then he’ll likely leave in October.

“If I could choose, I’d go to Tonga,” Dalton said. “It could likely be Brazil or Mexico. It could be anywhere in the world. I’ve gone from being just a west-coast guy to becoming a world traveler. I’m ready — I’m looking forward to it.”

Dalton gets the same excitement in his voice talking about his upcoming mission as he does talking about the Junior World Championships. In fact, he’s quick to point out that he’s been working all summer for Comcast as he hopes to raise the $10,000 mission fee.

“I want it to be all me,” he said.

While serving on the mission, Dalton, who has seven brothers and sisters, will be allowed to make only two phone calls a year — one on Christmas and one on Mother’s Day.

“Otherwise, it’s just letters,” he said.

And there certainly won’t be time for training as a world-class track and field athlete.

“There’s going to be no time to train. I’ll exercise when I get the chance,” he said.

Dalton plans on redshirting during his first year back at BYU following the mission. He’s not sure what to expect after that.

“Some athletes come back better after a mission, some come back worse. Some come back not interested in competing any more,” Dalton said. “It’s all in the Lord’s hands. I’m OK with however it turns out for me.”

With that, and with a smile on his face, Dalton was off with Everett and Lauryn, running another lap around the track at Tigard High School.

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