KIRSCH AND CLARK: TWO ARE ATHLETES SCORE HIGH HONORS: HARD WORK, 10 EVENTS, AND A STORMY WEEKEND

Another hardworking scholar-athlete in the news this week is Cape Girardeau native Travis Clark. A junior at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., Clark won the Pacific 10 Conference decathlon championship this year, one of the most grueling sporting events in one of the most difficult conferences in the country.

Athletic success is no stranger to Clark, who garnered three consecutive Missouri state championships in the high jump while a student at Cape Girardeau Central High School. However, after two seasons and scant progress in that event in college, Clark asked his Stanford coach if he could try the decathlon. The result: he was the top finisher among collegians at his first meet out, and most recently, tops in the conference.

Not that it was easy. The decathlon is a two-day long competition that consists of 10 events: the 100-meter dash, high jump, long jump, shot put, 400-meter dash, 110-meter high hurdles, discuss, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run. Clark, who had competed almost exclusively in the high jump and short sprints previously, had to learn and develop several new skills.

Clark is the first to point out that a little luck came into play in his winning the PAC 10 title, an acknowledgement that is refreshing in an era where trash talk and self-aggrandizement is revered as an art form by too many young people. Thanks to good weather on the day of his best events and rain and sleet storms during his weakest, Clark says that he gained an advantage over some of his competitors whose relative strengths -- in the pole vault and discus -- were diminished.

A biology major at arguably one of the top five universities in the United States, Clark plans to attend medical school after graduating next year. But first, he hopes to take his new passion for the decathlon and work for a shot at the NCAA Division I nationals. We expect all in this area -- those he competed alongside and against when he was at Cape Central High School -- are proud of his most recent accomplishment. We wish him continued success.