NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Todd Yankowski (Chicago, Ill.) headed into the final five events of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference decathlon 32 points behind St. John's Matt Damlo.

He exited ahead by 231 points – and the conference decathlon champion.

Yankowski, who won three of the first five events during Day 1 of the 10-event competition, picked up two more first-place finishes on Friday — but more importantly, he picked up a two-day total of 6,033 points, good enough to provisionally qualify him for the NCAA Division III national championships.

"This was an awesome performance," said SMU coach Kirk Nauman. "Going in we figured he had a very good chance to finish in the top three, and an outside shot at (the conference championship) and a provisional mark.

"I guess he exceeded our expectations a bit."

You guess?

Yankowski, who shattered the SMU school decathlon record by nearly 400 points, opened the second day with a second-place showing in the 110 hurdles, breaking the school record with a time of 16.49. He then won the discus (117-8), placed eighth in the pole vault with a personal-best vault of 10-4 1/4, won the javelin (161.6) and clinched the title with a sixth-place time of 4:57.41 in the 1,500.

"I always dreamed of this — it's always been a goal — but I never in a million years thought it would come true," said Yankowski, who placed fourth in the decathlon a year ago. "There were a lot of ups (in the last two days), and not many downs — everything just kind of fell into place."

Damlo — fueled by a huge performance in the high jump, one of two events that the St. John's senior won on Day 1 — grabbed the first-day lead, boasting 3,257 points, just 32 points more than Yankowski.

"Todd had a strong first day and really put himself in a solid position after the first day," said Nauman. "He had an awesome first day and an even better second day."

Thanks to first-place finishes in all five events, Damlo and Yankowski turned the 13-person field into a two-person race early, as the duo were the only ones to crack the 3,000-point barrier after the opening five events.

Yankowski opened with firsts in the 100 (11.47), 400 (52.53) and the shot put (38-6), while adding a second in the lone jump (19-11 1/2) and a fourth in the high jump (5-8). Damlo, meanwhile, was first in the high jump (6-4 1/4) and long jump (20-9), second in the 100 (11.71) and 400 (53.28) and seventh in the shot put (32-1).

"It really hasn't sunk in yet," said Yankowski. "I can't even begin to put into words the way I'm feeling — it feels great."