by Rob Moseley

Editor, GoDucks.com

Dakotah Keys has a chance to achieve something even greats like Ashton Eaton did not.

This weekend in Los Angeles, Keys and three teammates will be in Los Angeles to kick off the Pac-12 Championships in the combined events. Keys and teammates Mitch Modin and Joe Delgado will represent Oregon in the decathlon, and Ashlee Moore will compete in the heptathlon.

A three-time champion at the conference meet, Keys has the chance to be the first athlete in Pac-12 history to win four titles in the decathlon. Fourteen athletes have won four titles in other events, including javelin thrower Rachel Yurkovich and three-mile runner Steve Prefontaine from Oregon.

"So for him to be able to do that is definitely a feather in his cap, along with the greats that's come before him," UO coach Robert Johnson said.

Though he managed to win the conference title as a freshman in 2012, Keys said it was only after his third, last spring, that the idea of winning four in four years began to enter his mind.

"Last year I wasn't even thinking about this year; I was thinking about going and competing event by event," Keys said. "I think decathletes, that's what we do good — we can break things apart, so the picture's really small. Instead of making it really big, it's broken down into a bunch of small categories."

Winning the last three titles may make Keys the favorite this weekend, but he expects another dogfight for the title. He's learned that through experience.

As a freshman, Keys was in a duel with Marcus Nilsson of UCLA before making a big push in the eighth of 10 events, the pole vault. The past two years, Keys used a huge effort in the ninth event — javelin — to surpass his primary competition, first Jeremy Taiwo of Washington and then last year Viktor Fajoyomi of USC.

"This one's going to be the same way," Keys said. "It's just, who can compete better that day. I've put in a lot of work toward it, so if it happens, it happens. It's definitely on my mind."

Keys will be aided this weekend by a big cheering section, led by his wife, Justine, and twin brother, Casey, who will watch Keys at the conference meet for the first time since leaving the U.S. Marine Corps last summer.

The four competitors from Oregon will be backing each other, as well.

"Now that we have three guys and one girl again, it's going to feel like a big meet," Keys said. "We're all going to pump each other up."



