ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Teenage track and field prodigy Curtis Beach fell short Friday of breaking the national high school decathlon record he set in April, but he did break another record at the Great Southwest Track & Field Classic.

Beach scored 7,466 points using international implements in Thursday and Friday's events, beating the 37-year-old record of 7,359 points. Using high school implements, he scored 7,719 points, just short of the record 7,909 points he set at April's meet in Arcadia, Calif.

Beach, who turns 19 next month, was aiming for the high school international implements record as well as 8,000 points using the regular high school standards.

"They were both goals," he said Friday. "But I really wanted to show everybody that I could do it with the other implements."

Rather than the usual 10 events, the Duke University-bound Beach had to compete in 13 events. He ran the 110-meter hurdles twice and competed in the shot put and discus events two times each to account for the different standards.

Beach set personal bests in the 400 with a time of 47.96 and went 7.19 meters in the long jump.

Beach said his motivation was an article in Track & Field News that said Craig Brigham's 1972 record using a heavier shot put and javelin and clearing higher hurdles was "marginally superior" to Beach's Arcadia score.

"I didn't think it was a very legitimate thing to say and I wanted to go out and show I did deserve the national record," Beach said.

Concern over the record and reaching 8,000 points took it's toll on Beach.

"I didn't just let it come to me," he said. "I wanted to just enjoy each event today, but I was thinking about the record and the 8,000 points so I wasn't really able to do that."

Still, his feat becomes another milestone in what has been an outstanding high school career. Beach also has hopes of someday holding the world decathlon record and competing in the Olympics.