Ayden Owens-Delerme, an Arkansas alum, won the Invitational Decathlon at the 64th Mt. SAC Relays on Thursday, surpassing the Paris Olympic Games qualification requirement with a career-best score of 8,732.
Owens-Delerme broke his Puerto Rican national record of 8,532 points, which he set in fourth place at the 2022 World Championships. He also set the world record for 2024, surpassing the 8,708 set by German Leo Neugebauer of Texas at the Texas Relays in March.
Owens-Delerme’s performance exceeded Dave Johnson’s 1992 Mt. SAC Relays meet record of 8,727 points, putting him at No. 20 on the global all-time list ahead of Johnson.
Razorback Jack Turner, who won the 1,500m in 4:30.37 and scored 742 points, finished seventh with 7,873 points. Turner now ranks ninth on the UA’s all-time list. Razorback Yariel Soto finished eighth with a score of 7,834, while alum Daniel Spejcher scored tenth with 7,750 points.
Turner and Soto Torrado are currently ranked fifth and sixth among all collegians this season.
Owens-Delerme began the second day of the decathlon with a 13.73 in the 110m hurdles, earning 1,010 points. Spejcher followed with a 14.42 (921), while Turner ran 14.59 (900).
Owens-Delerme scored 788 points in the discus with a throw of 150-11 (46.00) meters. Owens-Delerme scored 941 points in the pole vault with two career-best heights and a third try clearance of 16-8.75 (5.10).
Another lifetime best came in the javelin, as Owens-Delerme threw 194-6 (59.28) and scored 8,086 points heading into the final event, the 1,500m.
A run of 4:45.59 added 646 points to Owens-Delerme’s PR score, which helped him qualify for his first Olympic Games.
Soto Torrado cleared 16-4.75 (5.00) for 910 points in the pole vault, adding to the Razorbacks’ decathlon total. Spejcher threw the discus 148-6 (45.28) for 773 points, and the javelin 178-3 (54.35) for 653 points.
Alex Gochenour-Brondyke, an Arkansas alum, finished sixth in the heptathlon at the Mt. SAC Relays, scoring 5,920 points. Last season, she finished second in the Drake Relays heptathlon with a score of 5,746. Her career high of 6,129 was set in 2017 when she placed fourth at the USATF Championships.
Gochenour’s second day included a 19-10.75 (6.06) in the long jump (868), a toss of 126-3 (38.49) in the javelin (638), and 2:22.93 in the 800m (784).
