Gibbs junior Waylon Spierdowis (left) and Halls senior Brody Foster won the 2026 TSSAA Class AA and Class AAA decathlons, respectively, May 13-14 at Hardin Valley Academy in Knoxville, Tenn.
BY JESSE SMITHEY
The moment had to be captured by photo Thursday afternoon at Hardin Valley’s track & field facility; it was too good not to snap a shutter or two.
Halls senior Brody Foster and Gibbs junior Waylon Spierdowis — two North Knoxville high school athletes who trained some together the last few months — won the TSSAA Class AAA and Class AA state decathlons, respectively.
So they took a second to pose with one another for a picture.
“It’s nice to see that our efforts paid off,” Foster said.
Both put on dominant showings.
Garza Law is the proud sponsor of 5Star Preps’ 2026 TSSAA Spring Fling state championship coverage.
For Foster, he repeated as state champion. The Virginia signee made headlines in 2025 when his total of 7,229 points won by nearly 1,000 points and rocketed up national leaderboards.
Foster one-upped his performance from his junior season with what he did across Wednesday and Thursday at HVA.
He finished with 7,509 points, clearing second-place Clayton Blanton of Ravenwood by 1,215 points. His concerted effort to improve his high jump and pole vaulting from 2025 were key, he said. He improved his vault by more than 2 feet and, in the high jump, he added six inches to his final mark (6-4).
“Being able to train with some of my coaches and some of my friends really made a big difference for me,” Foster said. “Just doing it, year by year, I get a little more comfortable with it each time — being able to control how I do it and not let my mindset get the best of me. If you don’t do the best in an event, you can regroup and go on to the next one.”
Foster won eight of the 10 events in the Class AAA decathlon. He finished second in the 400-meter and fourth in the 100-meter.
His final event of the 10 proved to be the 1500. Foster won that in 4:54.85. Blanton was second at 4:59.05.
Foster will compete in the decathlon in college but will also compete in some open events in the pole vault and triple jump.
“I definitely think it’s a very positive feeling,” Foster said of going out on top in the decathlon. “It’s nice that I have the ball rolling going into college. I’m really looking to progress from here. It’s nice to know that I’m not at a plateau right now. So going into college, I know I’m really going to progress.”
Spierdowis wasn’t able to compete in the 2025 Class AA decathlon because of injury.
He made up for lost time this week.
The junior posted a winning total of 6,718. He finished first in seven of 10 events and second place in the other three.
He had a big lead coming into the second day but found the mental focus to finish the meet out strong.
“It just feels really good. It’s really satisfying to see these last few months of work pay off,” Spierdowis said. “Just being consistent and just able to put two good days together and stay healthy.”
Gibbs sophomore Graham Atkins (5,286 points) finished second behind Spierdowis. Alcoa senior Jibriel Koko finished third at 5,214.
Spierdowis said Foster has helped serve as a peer and mentor to his decathlon journey of late.
“I can take away a lot of things (from training with Foster), but just his mentality and approach with the decathlon has been really impactful,” Spierdowis said. “We’ve worked with the throws a lot, too. He’s given me a lot of tips with throws.
“He’s been a good older person to talk to, because he’s been through the recruiting process, too. He’s helped me with what to do with recruiting and colleges and how that might work.”
Spierdowis’ familiarity with the track at HVA didn’t hurt matters this week, he said.
But he also had familiar faces nearby, too.
Rebekah Spierdowis, a freshman at Gibbs, finished second in the Girls Class AA state penathlon. She wound up just 310 points off the winning pace of Signal Mountain senior Marlee Burkley.
“She’s pretty new. This was her first year, I think, really doing it,” Waylon Spierdowis said of his sister’s pentathlon attempt. “I was definitely peeking at that and trying to stay in touch with how she was doing (Wednesday) but also focusing on my stuff, though.
“I remember watching her 800 during my pole vault, and I knew she had to run a good time to get second. So, I was definitely cheering for her and proud of her for that, because I know she ran a pretty good time.”
MORE TO KNOW
+ Alexa Gabbard of South Greene won the Class A girls pentathlon with 2,390 points.
+ Khari Webb of Collierville won the Class AAA girls pentathlon with 3,803 points.
+ Adrian Crawford of Union City won the Class A boys decathlon with 6,311 points.