Up to the challenge

"Remind Brody to take off his shorts," it said.

Bizarre advise from a mom, maybe, unless you consider the circumstances.

The text arrived while DeLoria was competing in the shot put, an event he had competed in only once before -- and on that occasion, his unfamiliarity with shot put rules earned him a disqualification because he wore a pair of baggy shorts over his uniform.

DeLoria, a sophomore, recently expanded his repertoire in order to compete this week in the pentathlon, a special feature at the Big C Relays. The by-invitation-only pentathlon consists of the shot put, high jump, 300-meter hurdles, 100 meters and 800 meters, a disparate array of events that requires most kids to compete in at least one thing they aren't well acquainted with.

DeLoria is new to both the shot put and high jump, but Auer said he's a natural athlete who is both coachable and willing to venture out of his comfort zone. And so he was more than willing to take on the pentathlon.

"I always like to try new things. I'm not afraid to put myself out there," DeLoria said. "I know I'm not the best at anything, but I'm good at everything."

That sentiment would please Dave Johnson, a bronze medalist for the United States in the 10-event decathlon at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Johnson is a guest speaker at the Big C Relays, the only meet of Alaska's high school season that features the multi-sport pentathlon.

"At this age, kids don't really know what their best event, so you should have kids do multiple events," Johnson said. "I love this kind of stuff. It's great for the development of the athlete."

Plus, he believes it provides a combination of camaraderie and competition seldom seen in other track and field events.

"At the Olympic level, if you're just a 100-meter guy, you don't like each other. You don't look at each other out on the track," Johnson said.

But in the decathlon, there's plenty of conversation, plenty of give and take. "If you're a good shot putter, you're waiting. You get through the high jump and you tell (your competitors), 'Just wait till we get to the shot put. My best event's still coming.' "

Deven Inch, a sophomore at East who is a first-timer in the pentathlon, said she and everyone else picked up on that aspect right away.

"Definitely that's what competitors are talking about," she said. "Someone says, 'I don't know how to hurdle,' and you think, OK, I can do good in hurdles."

Karsten Schick of Kodiak, the winner of last year's boys pentathlon, said the scoring system for a multisport competition -- which rewards performance rather than placement, meaning that it doesn't matter what place you finish as much as it does how far ahead or close behind you finish to various opponents -- creates a stress unique in track and field.

"Last year it was very nerve-wracking going into the 800 meters," he said, because three guys were within 100 points of each other going into the final event.

"We were all warming up and some of us were vomiting from nerves," he said.

Schick said he knew he couldn't win the race, because the field featured Dimond's Ryan Hanley, last season's 800 state champion, and Grace Christian's Leif Karlberg, one of the state's top distance and mid-distance runners. But he knew he could win the pentathlon title if he stayed close behind them.

"My goal was to shadow them, because I had a span of three seconds," he said. In other words, because of how the points system works, as long as Schick finished no more than three seconds behind the 800 winner, he'd claim the pentathlon title. He managed to do that, and today he'll try to repeat as champion.

Schick has the advantage of being from Kodiak, where the pentathlon is an annual event ever since coach Marcus Dunbar started staging intrasquad pentathlons 10 years ago.

"I was always looking for what we could do on weekends when we couldn't fly anywhere because of money," Dunbar said. "You have to be creative in Kodiak."

Dunbar started posting his team's pentathlon results on a track and field Web site, and Grace Christian coach Shane Metcalf started noticing them. He learned what Dunbar was doing and teamed up with Anchorage Christian for a dual-meet pentathlon.

Last season, the two schools made it a special event at the Big C Relays they co-host.

"It was such a hit, we decided this is going to be our permanent special event," Metcalf said. "Once a kid gets a taste of it, he thinks 'This is a lot of fun.' And over the two days they really become friends, because they're traveling around together (from event to event) the whole weekend."

The size of the field is limited by the Dome's six-lane track, so coaches nominate athletes and then a committee picks which six boys and six girls get to compete for the title of best all-around athlete -- a term that, at the Big C Relays, goes beyond athletic skill. The committee considers grade-point averages, community service, extracurricular activities as well as athletic ability when picking the 12 pentathletes.

And so Auer, the East coach, wasn't surprised when Inch -- a member of the Anchorage Youth Symphony -- came to her with a request early in the afternoon after the high jump and shot put had concluded. Was there enough time before that evening's 100-meter race for Inch to go to a late afternoon music lesson?

Auer said yes, and so Inch turned her pentathlon into a hexathlon.

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Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4335.

Big C Relays

Pentathlon Results

(after 3 of 5 events)

Boys -- 1) Karsten Schick, Kodiak, 1,844; 2) Clarence Summers, Eagle River, 1,659; 3) Brody DeLoria, East, 1,649; 4) Pete Hanks, Heritage Christian, 1,566; 5) Alex Kauffman, Soldotna, 1,424; 6) Chase Markel, South, 1,415.

Girls -- 1) Morgan Kueter, Bartlett, 1,679; 2) Sarah Cresap, Grace Christian, 1,390; 3) Deven Inch, East, 1,319; 4) Mariah Ulen, Soldotna, 1,276; 5) Anitra Winkler, Cantwell, 1,258; 6) Cara Wilcox, Dimond, 1,036.