June 1, 2002

BATON ROUGE, La. - Utah State's Joel Johnson was unable to finish the decathlon competition at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championship meet Saturday. Johnson sprained his ankle in Friday's long jump, the second event of the 10-event competition, and did not compete in the javelin or 1500-meter run, Saturday's final two events.

After eight events, Johnson, a junior from Brigham City, Utah, had moved into 12th place among the 18 competitors with 6,146 points. Saturday, he tied for second in the pole vault with a height of 16-6.75 feet (5.05 meters) and took third in the discus with a throw of 147 feet (44.81 meters) before chosing not to compete in the javelin or the 1500-meter run.

Claston Bernard of LSU won the decathlon with 8,094 points. Michigan State's Paul Terek was second (8,041) and David Lemen of Georgia, who was eighth entering Saturday's competition, finished third (7,972).

Johnson entered the meet with a season-high score of 7,586, the seventh-best in the country. He finished 16th in the decathlon at last year's NCAA championships.