Guttormsen completes unique double with national record
Norwegian clears 6 meters in pole vault while winning second consecutive title in NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
Sondre Guttormsen of Princeton University completed a unique double while joining an elite club on the first day of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday.
The 23-year-old Guttormsen ended the first day of the men’s competition by clearing a Norwegian record of 6.00 meters (19 feet 8¼ inches) in winning the men’s pole vault for the second year in a row.
The victory came five days after he had become the first Norwegian to win the men’s pole vault in the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. In addition, his second personal best of the competition tied the collegiate record set by KC Lightfoot of Baylor in 2021 and made Guttormsen one of only 15 men to have cleared 6 meters indoors.
“Six meters has been a goal ever since I knew what vaulting was,” Guttormsen told John Anderson of ESPN+. “It’s fun to win titles. European champs was absolutely amazing. But I think the result is what really shows your improvement. And it really shows what kind of pole vaulter you are. And to do it here at the finals is freakin’ amazing. Yeah, I’m shocked.”
Guttormsen had cleared 5.75 (18-10½) in the NCAA meet last year and he vaulted 5.80 (19-0½) in the European Championships on Sunday. But he had to go much higher for the victory on Friday as Texas Tech senior Zach Bradford cleared a personal best of 5.91 (19-4¾) to finish second and move into a tie for fifth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
The two of them staged a back-and-forth duel before Guttormsen emerged victorious.
Guttormsen did not get off to an auspicious start when he missed his opening vault of the competition at 5.46 (17-11). But he made 5.51 (18-1) on his first attempt after passing his last two tries at 5.46.
He then passed the next three heights before clearing 5.71 (18-8¾) on his first attempt and passing 5.76 (18-10¾).
Bradford took over the lead at 5.81 (19-0¾) when he cleared the height on his first attempt and Guttormsen missed his initial try. But the Norwegian, after passing his last two attempts at 5.81, regained the lead when he cleared 5.86 (19-2 ¾) on his first try and Bradford missed twice before passing to 5.91 (19-4¾).
Although Guttormsen and Bradford both cleared that height — which was a centimeter higher than the Norwegian record Guttormsen had set earlier this year — on their first attempts, Guttormsen was in first place because he had fewer misses than Bradford.
He then passed at 5.96 (19-6½) and when Bradford missed all three of his attempts at that height, he had the bar raised to 6.00.
His first attempt was not a good one, and he brushed the bar on his way over it on his second try. But when it stayed up, he went understandably wild.
“I’m very glad that I had the competition that we had today because I need competition to push my limits,” he said. “I’m just very happy.”
The men’s long jump was a terrific competition as the top four finishers leaped 8.33 (27-4) or farther, and seven bettered 8 meters (26-3).
Arkansas teammates Carey McLeod and Wayne Pinnock, who had finished second and first in the NCAA meet last year while competing for Tennessee, were sitting in first and second place with bests of 8.22 (26-11¾) and 8.21 (26-11¼) after the second round on Friday, but things heated up after that.
As a result, McLeod found himself in fifth place — with that same 8.22 mark — as he readied for his final attempt of the competition. He then came down the runway, had a good take-off, and unleashed a jump of 8.40 (27-6¾) that just exceeded the 8.39 (27-6½) effort that Cameron Crump of Mississippi State had produced in the fourth round.
The 8.40 jump topped McLeod’s previous best of 8.26 (27-1¼) from 2021. It also moved him to fifth on the all-time collegiate performer list and tied the Jamaican record set by James Beckford in 1996.
Behind second-place Crump, Jeremiah Davis of Florida State finished third at 8.37 (27-5 ½) and Pinnock placed fourth at 8.33 (27-4).
Seven of the top eight finishers set personal bests, with Crump equaling his.
Although McLeod, a senior, had finished third behind Crump and Pinnock in the Southeastern Conference Championships two weeks earlier, he had trouble hitting the take-off board in that meet and fouled on three of his six attempts.
“I knew I had to come in and pull something special off if I was trying to get the win,” McLeod said. “I knew I was the underdog coming in from the SECs. Nobody was expecting me to win, and that’s what I think defines a champion when you win when you are not supposed to.”
Arkansas, led by the 15 points that McLeod and Pinnock garnered in the long jump, was in first place with 20 points in the team standings after five finals were held on Friday. Mississippi was in second place with 14 points, followed by BYU with 12, and Northern Arizona and Oklahoma State with 11.
Eleven men’s finals will be contested today, as well as the final three events of the heptathlon.
Defending heptathlon champion Ayden Owens-Delerme of Arkansas was in second place — behind Kyle Garland of Georgia — after the first four events on Friday, and the Razorbacks are also expected to score substantial points in the triple jump, 400, and 1,600 relay tonight.
Arkansas freshman Jaydon Hibbert tops the list of entries in the triple jump with a best of 17.10 (56-1¼) and McLeod is seeded ninth at 16.38 (53-9).
Razorback senior Christopher Bailey finished third in the 400 in a depth-laden SEC meet, but he looked very relaxed in winning his semifinal in 45.33 on Friday to lead all qualifiers in that event.
He is also expected to run the anchor leg on an Arkansas 1,600 relay team that ran 3:01.09 — the second fastest time in collegiate history — earlier this year.
Garland led Owens-Delerme, 3,773 points to 3,618, after the first four events of the heptathlon as each of them performed extremely well on the first day.
Garland ran 6.87 seconds in the 60-meter dash, leaped 7.96 (26-1) in the long jump, put the shot 16.45 (53-11¾), and cleared 2.12 (6-11½) in the high jump.
Owens-Delerme ran 6.77 in the 60, before producing marks of 7.82 (25-8) in the long jump, 15.28 (50-1¾) in the shot put, and 2.03 (6-8) in the high jump.
Garland’s point total after four events was 41 points better that what he had scored in late January when he set a personal best of 6,415 points in the Texas Tech Invitational and Multis meet.
In the other men’s finals contested on Friday, Dylan Jacobs of Tennessee won the 5,000, Oklahoma State took the distance medley relay, and Isaiah Rogers of Kennesaw State won the 35-pound weight throw.
Jacobs, a senior who won the 10,000 meters for Notre Dame during the NCAA outdoor championships last year before transferring to Tennessee, was content to let Drew Bosley and Nico Young of Northern Arizona push the pace for much of the 5,000, but he had taken the lead with 400 meters left in the race and finished it off with a last lap of 26.25.
His final time of 13:37.59 was impressive considering the elevation of nearly 5,000 feet in Albuquerque. Casey Clinger of BYU closed well to finish second in 13:38.12, followed by Bosley in 13:38.62, and Young in 13:40.55.
Jacobs, Clinger, and Bosley are also scheduled to run in the 3,000 tonight.
Oklahoma State had set a collegiate record of 9:16.40 in the distance medley relay while edging Washington (9:16.65) in the Arkansas Qualifier meet on Feb. 17. But the Cowboys had a comfortable margin of victory on Friday as they clocked 9:28.77, followed by Mississippi (9:31.63), Wisconsin (9:31.77) and Washington (9:31.97).
Rogers, a senior, had the three best marks of the competition in the weight throw, with his best of 24.23 (79-6) leaving him nearly three feet in front of runner-up Bobby Colantonio of Alabama at 23.40 (76-9 ¼). Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan of Mississippi placed third at 22.96 (75-4).
The final of the 200 meters will not be contested until tonight, but sophomores Udodi Onwuzurike of Stanford and Tarsis Orogot of Alabama each ran 20.17 in winning their respective heats.
The heptathlon 60-meter hurdles started off the men’s competition today at 10:30 a.m., Mountain time, and the heptathlon pole vault began at 11:30.
The high jump is scheduled to start at 1 p.m., with the heptathlon competition set to conclude with the 1,000-meter run at 3:30.
The remainder of the men’s meet is schedule to start at 6:45 with the triple jump.
The shot put will begin at 7, which is also the start time for the first track event, the mile.
The meet will be broadcast and streamed on ESPN+.