Anatomy of Ayden Owens’ All-Time Decathlon

Ayden Owens was on stage at the Mt. SAC Relays!

Here’s a recap of his two-day barrage on the collegiate record book, which resulted in a non-wind assisted, collegiate-best score of 8528 points in the decathlon. Owens began his pursuit on Wednesday in California and it culminated on Thursday, following an amazing string of events.

Event 1 – 100 Meters

10.27 (+1.2) – Wow! Not just a PR, but the fastest ever for a collegian in a decathlon. The old best was a wind-aided 10.34.

Event 2 – Long Jump

7.51m/24-7¾ (+1.7) – his second-best ever, just short of his PR 7.53m/24-8½ in 2019.

Event 3 – Shot Put

An outdoor PR of 14.89m (48-10¼). At this point, he’s 71 points ahead of pace on his 8238 and projecting to a score of 8309.

Event 4 – High Jump

A clearance of 1.92m (6-3½) is a fourth-straight improvement on what he scored in his 8238 PR. Deca purists see additional point potential, as he jumped 2.04m (6-8¼) indoors earlier this year.

Event 5 – 400 Meters

Double-Wow! Fast times were everywhere, but none better than the 46.12 lap by Owens. It was his second all-time decathlon event best (old 46.28 by Ashton Eaton in 2010). Owens had accumulated a score of 4483 at this point, oh-so-close to the 4500 Day 1 collegiate best set by Ashton Eaton in 2010. Owens also was 165 points ahead of PR pace, projecting to 8403 at this point.

Event 6 – 110-Meter Hurdles

Day 2 started well with a 13.80 (-0.3) clocking, his second-fastest ever – just off his 13.76 PR but well under the 13.98 he recorded in his PR score. Projection now at 8426.

Event 7 – Discus

A seventh-straight improvement on his PR total with a throw of 43.00m (141-1). Projection heating up to 8489.

Event 8 – Discus

After seven improvements on his PR score, this one ended in a tie – but easily acceptable at 4.70m (15-5).

Event 9 – Javelin

A second-best ever 53.50m (175-6) projects him to 8456.

Event 10 – 1500 Meters

Needing to run 4:19.42 or faster to break the non-wind assisted CR, Owens started with a PR of 4:23.57. He attacked the race, leading every step to finish with a 10-second PR in 4:13.17.

Take A Bow, Ayden

The point calculator stopped at 8528, surpassing the 8484 score set in 2019 by Georgia’s Karel Tilga and recognized as the best wind-legal mark as a collegian. It was just shy of the 8537 (technically wind-aided) total set by Lindon Victor of Texas A&M in 2017 as the best-ever recorded by a collegian.