GENEVA, Ohio – Senior Stephen Peper of the St. Olaf College men's track and field team recorded three second-place finishes to sit in third place after the opening day of the decathlon at the 2022 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday at SPIRE Institute.

Peper recorded second-place finishes in the long jump, high jump, and 400-meter dash to rack up 3,848 points over the first half of the 10-event competition. The senior trails Maguire Petersen of Saint John's by four points and Marcus Weaver of UW-Eau Claire by 85 points after logging personal-best results in the 100-meter dash, long jump, and 400-meter dash on the opening day of the national meet.

To start the day, Peper posted a personal-best time of 11.17 seconds in the 100-meter dash to tie for eighth in the event with Petersen, breaking his previous PR by nearly two-tenths of a second. He moved all the way up to third with a second-place finish in the long jump by improving his mark in each of his three attempts, culminating in a jump of 6.86 meters (22' 6 ¼") on his final jump. The mark ranks tied for 10th on St. Olaf's all-time list in the event.

In the shot put, Peper placed 10th with a throw of 11.64 meters (38' 2 ¼") – seven centimeters shy of his PR – leaving him in fifth place through three events. The senior finished the day with back-to-back runner-up finishes in the final two events to close out the opening day.

Peper cleared his first four heights in the high jump on his first attempt before missing his first two tries at 2.03 meters, but 2021 All-American in the event got over the bar on his third attempt before going out on 2.06 meters. To close out the day, Peper closed the gap on Weaver and Petersen with a PR of 49.70 seconds in the 400-meter dash.

The total of 3,848 points has Peper 199 points ahead of his pace from the Minnesota intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships, where he posted a school-record score of 6,623 points.

Day two of the decathlon starts with the 110-meter hurdles at 9 a.m. CDT on Friday, May 27, followed by the discus throw (~9:45 a.m.), pole vault (~11 a.m.), javelin throw (~1:45 p.m.), and 1,500-meter run (~3:30 p.m.). Peper also competes in the high jump at 1 p.m. on a busy second day of the meet, while junior Lucas Kramarczuk runs in the prelims of the 110-meter hurdles at 1:30 p.m.