The magic number for former Oak Park athlete Nick Adcock will be 8,000 this season. That is the number of points Adcock is aiming for this season in the decathlon. Only three athletes among Big 12 Conference schools since 1920 have surpassed 8,000 points in the decathlon.

“We’ve talked about getting 8,000 points, but in the end we are just trying to stay focused on what he is doing,” said Dan Lefever, Missouri’s decathlon coach. “We want to take one event at a time so he can get better at things. We aren’t taking any shortcuts. We are trying to get him to be as great as he can be.”

Former Tiger Hans Uldal is the only athlete in school history to top the 8,000-point mark, racking up 8,018 at a meet in December 2006.

“It is not going to get you to a high level internationally, but it is like the four-minute mile,” Lefever said. “Eight thousand points in the decathlon is the real deal. We are fortunate to have Hans do that a couple of years ago, and it really looks like Nick is going to be every bit of that.”

Adcock said learning from competitors like Uldal and another former Tiger decathlete Bjorn Sommerfeldt has been key to his progression.

“Last year I tried to soak up as much as I could from them because they had been doing the decathlon since they were 14 or 15,” Adcock said. “They have been around it a lot longer than I have. They knew a lot about the sport and the events. I tried to learn as much as I could from them and take that with me.”

Lefever thinks Adcock has every chance to surpass what Uldal and Sommerfeldt were able to do, including a chance to break Uldal’s school-record in the decathlon.

“He is right in the group,” Lefever said. “The decathlon has been one of the prides of our program traditionally. Him being in that to start with is a big thing for him. Even as a freshman at the end of last year, he was in with those guys. He is moving rapidly to be one of the best. He already has our indoor record. He is moving at a pace to be better than those guys, not to diminish those guys at all. He is really an exceptional talent, a great person and a great student. He is really a coach’s dream.”

Adcock also has a future at the international level if things work out right. He said it is something that he, Lefever and McGuire have discussed, but he is focused on competing for the Tigers right now.

“(Missouri head coach Rick) McGuire is great thinking about the big picture but not letting the big picture get in the way of how (Adcock) is training,” Lefever said. “How he is trained in the decathlon up to this point has worked pretty well. In the end, wherever the decathlon is, even if it is in the Olympic games, it is still 10 events. You just take one event at a time.”

For having no experience in the heptathlon or decathlon when he came to Missouri in 2006, Adcock has been a quick learner, but he is no stranger to success.

As a senior at Oak Park, Adcock earned state medals in both the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles and last summer Adcock won the decathlon at the USATF Junior Championships in Indianapolis.

Adcock recently added the title of Big 12 champion in the heptathlon to his resume and also finished in fourth place at the NCAA Indoor National Championships.

He said competing at the national level was as much of a learning experience as anything.

“I wasn’t really sure how the atmosphere was going to be,” Adcock said. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I knew it was going to be really good competition. I knew I needed to put together another really good two days.”

After finishing the first day in third place, Adcock rallied on the second day to finish fourth overall. He was in fifth place with the 1,000-meter run still to go. Adcock finished with a personal record in the event and overtook the fourth place competitor.

Still fourth place was not enough for Adcock.

“Even though the top three people coming into nationals finished fifth, sixth and seventh there were still three people that finished in front of me,” Adcock said.

With the outdoor season starting this weekend at the ninth annual Missouri Relays, Adcock thinks his strong performance during the indoor season will have people on the lookout for him this spring.

“I don’t think many people knew who I was going into nationals, but I think I put a pretty good statement out there letting people know I was here to play,” Adcock said. “I don’t really know if winning junior nationals really got attention from everyone in the nation.

“It is a pretty big step from junior nationals to the big boy level. I think the indoor result will help quite a bit on getting my name out there. I think I opened up a few coach’s eyes quite a bit this year. I am sure they will be expecting stuff this spring.”

Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or billknust@npgco.com.