Oregon’s Eaton Stood Alone In The Decathlon

Celebrating A Century of NCAA Track & Field Championships

Oregon’s Eaton Stood Alone In The Decathlon

Domination.

That’s the only way to describe Ashton Eaton’s final decathlon for Oregon.

In 2010, Eaton set a meet record of 8457 points and won by a whopping 656 points to become the first man in meet history to win three consecutive decathlon titles (Tito Steiner of BYU won three career titles, but they weren’t consecutive). The next largest winning margin in meet history is more than 300 points less!

Eaton’s senior year was filled with incredible achievements.

At the Pac-10 Championships, he scored 39¼ points by himself to lead the Ducks to the team title. Eaton won three events (the decathlon, plus the 110 Hurdles and long jump), finished runner-up in the 100 and was a member of the fourth-place 4×100 relay team.

Indoors, the native of Bend, Oregon, smashed the world record in the heptathlon with his winning 6499-point total at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Eaton won that multi by a meet-record 513 points (The next largest winning margin is also more than 300 points fewer).

He won The Bowerman in 2010 and remains the lone combined events winner.

“There’s no words for me to use to describe Ashton Eaton,” then-Oregon head coach Vin Lananna told Gary Horowitz of The Statesmen Journal in Salem, Oregon. “He’s everything you could ever want as a student, as an athlete, as an ambassador for the program.”

Eaton, of course, enjoyed a wonderful post-collegiate career, setting a since-broken decathlon world record of 9045 points and winning two Olympic gold medals.

posted: July 19, 2020
1921-2021
The NCAA's First Championships

The NCAA and collegiate track & field will mark a momentous milestone in the spring of 2021 -- the 100th anniversary of the NCAA Championships and with that, the NCAA Track & Field Championships. In June 1921, the University of Chicago hosted the first track & field championships in NCAA history.

This point can’t be emphasized enough: Not only was the event the first for NCAA track & field, but the first championships for any sport under the sponsorship of the NCAA.

To celebrate, over each of the next 365 days, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) will celebrate moments, student-athletes, and coaches that have made a century’s worth of championships special. From humble beginnings to important historical milestones to the modern-day, collegiate track & field has evolved with the American society.

The 2021 edition of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships begin with preliminary round action on May 27-29 in Jacksonville, Fla., and College Station, Texas. The championships final site and culmination of the celebration is slated for June 9-12, 2021 at the newly rebuilt Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Memorable Moments
NCAA 100 On Spring Break

With the plethora of collegiate track & field and cross country slated to take place over the first-half of March, our daily posts highlighting the best from a century of NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take a “spring break” from March 1-15.

Greene Came Up Clutch In 1989 Long Jump
June 2, 1989

One of Joe Greene’s best days of long jumping started off dismally. It would end with a victory in one of the most memorable competitions in the near 100-year history of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Cal’s Williams Set World Record In 1936
June 20, 1936

Archie Williams set a world record in the 400 of 46.1 in the heats of the 1936 NCAA Outdoor T&F Championships. Williams then won the NCAA title by just 0.1 seconds!