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If variety truly is the spice of life, Hubbardston's Dan Conti is in track and field heaven.
The Holy Cross sophomore has made the expression Jack-of-all- trades, master of none, his mantra, competing in the decathlon for the Crusaders. Conti's specialty is the hurdles, but he enjoys the other nine events as well.
"To do just one thing is incredibly boring to me," Conti said. "I work on different events every day."
Last week, Conti won the Holy Cross Decathlon for the second straight year, rolling up 6,221 points. The point total qualified him for the IC4A Decathlon Championship May 19-20 in Princeton, N.J.
Conti said he competes in two decathlons a year.
"It's kind of like a marathon deal," he explained. "It totally wipes you out. It's hard to do more than two, especially in New England, which doesn't thaw out until the end of April."
A two-day event, the decathlon consists of six field events -- the javelin, shot put, discus, pole vault, high jump and long jump -- and four running events -- the 100- and 400-meter dashes, the 110-meter hurdles, and the 1,500-meter run.
When he's not competing in decathlons, Conti's training for them. During Holy Cross' dual and tri-meets throughout the season, Conti usually competes in five events.
A typical meet would find Conti running the lead leg of the 400- and 1,600-meter relays, participating in the 110-meter hurdles, shot put, discus or javelin, perhaps even the long jump.
Conti enjoys competing in the pole vault, which he considers a strength, along with hurdling. He doesn't vault regularly, however, because it's too time-consuming and would prevent him from competing in as many events as he does.
"Meets are like a mini-decathlon, which is what I'm training for," Conti said. "But it gives me experience in meet situations for each event."
Conti became interested in decathlons in high school. As a sophomore at Quabbin Regional, he heard an announcement for the Central Mass. Decathlon at a track meet and asked his coach to take him.
Conti finished fifth that year, but won the event as a junior and finished third as a senior. He was hooked.
Earlier this month, Conti posted the fastest 110-meter high hurdles time in HC history,...