Owens-Delerme sets collegiate decathlon record
Arkansas junior caps 8,528-point effort with 4:13.17 run in 1,500 meters
Ayden Owens-Delerme of the University of Arkansas destroyed a lot of my preconceived notions about decathletes while setting a collegiate record in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on Thursday.
The 1,500-meter run, the final event of the grueling two-day, 10-event endeavor, has been known to literally bring big, powerful, athletic men to their knees after the conclusion of the race.
Yet Owens-Delerme, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior, attacked the event while running under the lights at Hilmer Lodge Stadium.
He clocked 65 seconds for the first 400 meters, 2:15 at 800, and 3:24 at 1,200 before finishing in 4:13.17. He then conducted some animated, high-energy trackside interviews with various sportswriters.
The 859 points he earned for his performance in the 1,500 brought his two-day total to 8,528 points. That bettered the previous collegiate record of 8,484 set by Karel Tilga of Estonia and the University of Georgia last year, and crushed Owens-Delerme’s previous Puerto Rican record of 8,238 which he set in winning the Big 10 Conference title for Michigan last year.
“You try to take it one step at a time,” Owens-Delerme said of the challenges of the decathlon. “And my goal coming in here was to put together a healthy and quality 10 events. On my goal board, I have the collegiate record that I want to break. I came out here to execute what my coach was telling me.”
Sophomore Austin West of Iowa finished second with 8,179 points and senior Hakim McMorris of Cal Berkeley placed third with 7,941 points.
Owens-Delerme, a student in Arkansas’ MBA program, totaled 4,483 points on Wednesday to start Thursday with a 39-point lead on second-place McMorris.
He quickly widened his lead when he posted the best time in the 110-meter high hurdles with a 13.80 clocking. He then threw the discus 43.00 meters (141 feet 1 inch), cleared 4.70 (15-5) in the pole vault, and threw the javelin 53.50 (175-6) to set the stage for his stellar 1,500.
His performance in the high hurdles was worth 1,000 points, and followed monster first first-day efforts of 10.27 in the 100 (1,030 points) and 46.12 in the 400 (1,002), which were collegiate records for a decathlon.
“Yes, completely,” Owens-Delerme said when asked if his time in the 100 got him rolling. “We come out here and run 10.2 in the 100. That’s a big PR. I executed my race plan and then I move to the next event. I go to the long jump and have a season best. So it carries on. It’s one event after another. You lose some here, but you try to take it one step at a time.”
In addition to breaking the collegiate record, Owens-Delerme’s total exceeded the qualifying standard of 8,350 points for the World Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, from July 15-24.
Owens-Delerme, who graduated from North Allegheny Senior High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania, in 2018, did not seem concerned that competing in the decathlon in the NCAA meet on June 8 and 9 might leave him at less than his best when the decathlon starts on July 23 in the World Championships.
“Not at all,” he said about the relatively short turnaround time between those two competitions. “This is what we train for. Last year, I did four decs in a year. This year we will most likely do three . . . . We put in so much work that these decathlons are legitimately the easy part. We’re dying every day in practice.”
Earlier in the day, Ida Eikeng of Washington won the heptathlon with 5,916 points. Fellow senior Allie Jones of Stanford placed second with 5,832 points, followed by junior Avery McMullen of Colorado with 5,663.
Eikeng had second-day performances of 5.65 (18-6½) in the long jump, 50.17 (164-7) in the javelin, and 2:28.53 in the 800.
Owens-Delerme’s 1,500 started minutes after Courtney Rayment of BYU had won the women’s elite division 3,000 steeplechase with a 9:26.88 clocking that moved her to fourth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Rayment, a senior who won the 5,000 in the NCAA Indoor Championships in March, ran just off the shoulder of Olympian Val Costien for most of the race before surging into the lead with about 210 meters to go. Costien finished second in 9:31.20.
In other elite division races, Dylan Jacobs of Notre Dame won the men’s 10,000 in a yearly collegiate-leading time of 28:01.94, Ryoma Aoki of Japan placed first in the men’s steeplechase in 8:33.33, and Andrea Ramirez of Mexico won the women’s 10,000 in 32:37.62.
I agree on your comment about Dan O’Brian. Even for his world record in 1992 he was only able to produce a 4:42 min over 1,500 meters. I always felt he left points on the track at this last of the 10 events, which ultimately was the reason he could not crack the 9,000 points barrier as the first decathlete in history. Most likely it was a mental barrier for him to attack the 1,500 meter. Somebody who is able to run sub 48 second over 400 meters should be able to run a sub 4:30 minutes over 1,500 meters. Then again nobody is perfect, even the Kings of track & field.
John, I am glad Ayden could destroy a lot of your preconceived notions about decathletes...haha. What a first day and plenty of room for improvement on the second day; besides the phenomenal 1,500 m, maybe.