June 8, 2011--Mount St. Mary's senior Tom FitzSimons (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) stands in 23rd place after the first day of the decathlon at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

FitzSimons totaled 3,666 points in the first day.  He opened the meet by running the 100m dash in a time of 11.07 seconds to collect 845 points.  He then had a jump of 6.77m in the long jump for 760 points.  FitzSimons had a mark of 11.39m in the shot put (569 points) and a leap of 1.81m in the high jump (636 points).  He finished the first day with a mark of 49.11 seconds in the 400m dash for 856 points.

Mike Miller of Clemson leads the field of 24 competitors with 4,271 points.  He is followed by Curts Beach of Duke (4,206), Michael Ayers of Georgia (4,169) and Michael Morrison of California (4,138).

The decathlon concludes tomorrow.