WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. – Brian Lashway’s hopes of a fourth straight Southern Vermont Decathlon championship went out the window as soon as a couple of recent Bates College graduates arrived. While competing for Bates, Liam Evans was the decathlon champion at the 2022 New England Division 3 Championships. However, it was his former teammate Evan Koch who overtook Evans on the final two events, to win the 13th annual Southern Vermont Decathlon.
Koch, who became the youngest Southern Vermont Decathlon champion in 2017 at 16 years old, won all six of the running and jumping events, and set the total score record of 8,805 points. He broke the old scoring mark of 8,755 points set by former University of Vermont decathlete D.J. Snide in 2019.
Evans nearly broke Snide’s scoring record as well, by finishing with 8,705 points. He set an event record in discus, with a throw of 149 feet, 5 inches, and also won shot put and the vortex football throw.
Lashway, a resident of Charlestown, N.H., joined Evans and Koch on the podium by finishing in third overall. Lashway, a 2022 Southern Vermont Decathlon Hall of Fame inductee, finished in the top three for the twelfth time.
On the women’s side, Jess Curtis of Springfield, Vt., went unopposed on her way to winning her third championship. She also broke her own record in discus with a throw of 89 feet, 9 inches.