DECATUR, Ill. — In the first three years of his collegiate track and field career, Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) competed in a grand total of three decathlons — once each at three straight Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships.

And with each competition, the Saint Mary's University senior got a little bit better.

This year, Yankowski's decathlon schedule was a bit more hectic. No more of that once-a-year stuff — more like three times in three weeks.

First, there was the MIAC Outdoor Championships, where Yankowski rallied from a first-day deficit, broke the school record, and become SMU's first-ever conference decathlon champion.

Oh yeah, and he provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championships.

A week later, he was back on the track, hoping to improve his provisional-qualifying standard — which he did with another school-record total of 6,131 points.

Friday, Yankowski made his final collegiate decathlon his most memorable. There was no school record or championship point total, but it didn't matter — competing against the nation's best, on the nation's biggest stage, was all the reward he would need.

"It wasn't my best decathlon, but this whole thing has been such a great experience," said Yankowski, who finished 16th in his first-ever national championship appearance. "Obviously, I would have liked to have done a little better (pointswise), but I gave it everything I had."

After kicking off his inaugural first-ever national championship appearance Thursday with a 3,192-point effort through the first five events, Yankowski picked up where he left off, posting a time of 16.20 to place fourth in the 110 hurdles, then adding an 11th in the discus (111-10), a 16th in the pole vault (9-8), a ninth in the javelin (167-9) and a 15th in the 1,500 (4:49.95).

"Todd did a nice job," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman. "He went up again the best decathletes in the country and gave it his best shot — that's all you can ask for."

"I wanted to end my collegiate career on a high note," Yankowski said. "And without a doubt, I did that."

Fortunately for teammate Jenny Folgers (McHenry, Ill.), Friday's appearance in the 100 hurdles wasn't the last of her collegiate career.

Folgers, the third of SMU's three competitors at the national championship, pulled her hamstring in warm-ups and could barely complete her heat, posting a time of 17.08 to place seventh in the seven-person heat.

"It's tough," said a tearful Folgers. "You work so hard all season to get to this point, and then something like this happens. It's pretty disappointing."

Nauman, however, was anything but disappointed in his junior hurdler.

"Jenny had a fantastic season — she should be proud of everything she's accomplished," he said. "Things like this happen all the time, and it's unfortunate. But it's just one race in a season of great races for her."