‘I couldn’t help but smile’: C-SC’s Mallett qualifies for nationals in first season as decathlete

CANTON, Mo. — Until a year ago, Drew Mallett had no intentions of participating in the decathlon.

“I didn’t even know if colleges had that stuff or not,” Mallett said.

Now, the Culver-Stockton College sophomore and Highland High School graduate is headed to this week’s NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships after winning the Heart of America Athletic Conference title in the decathlon earlier this month, the first conference championship for the Wildcats since 2016.

“You can ask other people, I don’t like to brag on myself,” Mallett said. “But I couldn’t help but smile when I got my medal.”

Mallett and the rest of the decathlon field will be front and center when the 72nd annual NAIA Championships begin Wednesday at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind. The first five decathlon events are scheduled to take place starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The other five events will take place Thursday.

The decathlon piqued Mallett’s interest at the 2023 Heart of America Athletic Conference Championships. He was watching the 1,500-meter run, the final event of the decathlon, with his father, Doug, when he had a revelation.

“I told my dad, ‘I think I can run faster than them in the 1,500,’” Mallett said.

Mallett was a sprinter, so he had never run any race longer than 400 meters.

“This is the most I’ve ever run,” Mallett said. “It hurts when you’re coming around and they say you’ve got three more laps. It just hurts.”

Mallett had never participated in any throwing events either. The decathlon includes the shot put, discus and javelin. Mallett said he had shown interest in throwing the javelin in high school, but football prevented him from pursuing this event. 

“I didn’t want to mess up my arm,” Mallett said.

That arm helped Mallett earn first-team All-Clarence Cannon Conference as the Cougars quarterback in 2021 when Highland registered the most single-season victories in program history with an 8-3 record. He said he briefly considered playing football in college.

“I enjoyed it and I miss it, but I knew it wasn’t going to be the same as it was in high school,” Mallett said. 

Instead, he felt more confident in his track success — he was an eight-time state medalist at Highland —  translating to the next level.

“I knew I could be successful right away in track, and I wasn’t sure about football,” Mallett said.

Mallett had no prior experience in the long jump, high jump or pole vault. The first order of business was to learn the pole vault, which Wildcats coach Hunter Davis said was an adventure for Mallett.

“Honestly, the first week he was a little scared of it,” Davis said.

Through hours and hours of practice — sometimes three or more hours longer than the rest of the team on any given day — that fear has turned into confidence.

“As soon as I’m done with class about 1 or 2 p.m., we get lunch, and then we get to work,” Mallett said. “There are days we’re out here from 1 to 5 p.m. or 1 to 6 p.m. Most days we high jump for about an hour, then we do pole vault for a couple hours, then I’ll do the sprint workout with the sprinters about 4 o’clock. Then if we need to do anything else, we do it after that.”

Participating in so many events also means a need for a half dozen pairs of shoes.

“Seven if you include my tennis shoes,” Mallet said.

Mallett has sprint spikes for the 100-meter dash, 110 hurdles and 400 dash. He has shorter spikes for the 1,500 run and throwing spikes for the shot put and discus. He has another pair for the pole vault and long jump spikes that he also uses for the high jump. Last but not least, he has different javelin spikes that he brings to different venues. If there is a grass runway, he breaks out the old football cleats. Mallett recalled the first time he had to dust them off.

“I asked my mom (Brenda Mallett), ‘Do you know where my football cleats are?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, why?’ I was like, ‘Well, I need them. It’s a grass runway this weekend.’ She thought maybe I was playing a trick on her,” he said.

No matter which shoes he wears, Mallett has worn them well.

“The amount of work and time he’s put into me and this program is unreal,” Davis said. “The fact that he’s gotten to this level so quickly is awesome.”