TEMPE, Ariz. – Ashton Eaton fought off Rickey Moody of Washington State to win the 2008 Pac-10 decathlon Saturday night at Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium. Eaton won with 7,604 points to Moody’s 7,395.

More importantly, Eaton and teammates Alexey Shkuratov and Marshall Ackley gave the Ducks a 1-4-5 finish and earned 19 important points toward the Pac-10 team race, which continues at ASU next weekend.

"It feels pretty good," said Eaton, who becomes the seventh Duck to win the Pac-10 decathlon and first since Tommy Skipper in 2004. "I wasn’t thinking about winning so much as getting 10 points for the team. Everything went pretty well tonight, but what really brought me up was seeing how well Marshall and Alexey were doing.

"That was so fantastic because (earning 19 points) will really bring energy to the entire team and catapult us into next week."

Eaton and Moody waged a battle for first throughout Saturday evening. Eaton had a slim 39-point lead going into the second day and increased that to 78 points with a win in the 110 hurdles in a hand-timed 14.14. But Moody roared back in the discus with a throw of 134-01 to win the event and surge into the lead by 48 points. Eaton was fifth in the discus with a throw of 113-07.

Then Eaton took the lead for good in the pole vault as he won the event in a decathlon PR clearance of 15-11. Moody’s best vault was 12-7.5, to give Eaton a 241 point edge with two events remaining.

Moody nearly made up those points by winning the javelin with a throw of 185-0, compared to Eaton’s 145-04, as the Cougar sliced all but 62 points off Eaton’s advantage.