 His 1977 score of 8,397, set in the dual meet against the Soviet Union in Bloomington, Indiana gave him, at the time, the sixth best decathlon score in history behind Olympic champions Jenner, Mykola Avilov and Bill Toomey, plus Guido Kratschmer and Aleksandr Grebenyuk.He was ranked in the world top 10 four years in a row, 1974-7, achieving #2 in 1975 behind Jenner and in 1977 behind Grebenyuk.He finished in third place at the 1980 US Olympic Trials, which would have qualified him to another Olympics, except for the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott.