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DyeStat.com – News – Leo Neugebauer Logs Fifth-Best Collegiate Decathlon At Texas Relays

DyeStat.com - News - Leo Neugebauer Logs Fifth-Best Collegiate Decathlon At Texas Relays

With 8,478 Points, Neugebauer Secures World Standard And Shows He’s Right There With Garland and Owens-Delerme

By David Woods for DyeStat

AUSTIN, Texas – Before the openly pro era of track and field, the NCAA Championships were a preview of the only global championship, an Olympic Games.

Could not happen any more, right?

Oh, it’s happening – in the decathlon anyway.

Until the medals are awarded Aug. 26 at the World Championships, the world’s best decathlon competition will be back here at Mike Myers Stadium on June 7-8 for NCAAs:

Kyle Garland vs. Ayden Owens-Delerme vs. Leo Neugebauer.

After what Neugebauer did Wednesday and Thursday at the Texas Relays, his college counterparts are on notice. He scored 8,478 points to:

>> Climb to No. 5 on the all-time collegiate list, behind Georgia’s Garland, first at 8,720, and Arkansas’ Owens-Delerme, third at 8,528.

>> Break the Texas school record of 8,465 held since 2006 by Trey Hardee, an Olympic silver medalist and two-time world champion.

>> Become the 2023 world leader and meet the 8,460 standard for worlds.

Neugebauer said he could “feel the energy” from the home track. He said he is “hyped” for NCAAs, even if the showdown is 10 weeks away.

“Those guys really push me so hard,” he said. “I push them so hard. We’re one group that’s evolving together almost. The rest of the world has to really watch out for us.”

In the 2022 worlds at Eugene, Ore., Owens-Delerme, Puerto Rico, was fourth (8,532); Neugebauer, Germany, 10th (8,182), and Garland, USA,  11th (8,132). In the NCAA heptathlon this month, Garland came within six points of Ashton Eaton’s world record, followed by Owens-Delerme and Neugebauer.

Neugebauer’s Texas Relays marks included four PBs: 100 meters, 10.75; shot put, 54-8/16.66m, nearly breaking the decathlon collegiate record of 54-8.25/16.67m held by George Mason’s Rob Muzzio since 1984; 110 hurdles, 14.33; pole vault, 16-8.75/5.10m.

In the pole vault, he said, “I finally did in competition what I knew I could do from practice. I used the crowd to hype me up. I went on stiffer poles, and they just carried me over the bar.”

Neugebauer conceded the NCAA heptathlon “took a toll,” but the un-Austin-like weather was refreshing – daylong mist and temperatures hovering around 70. He said he feared a long delay would be disruptive, but that never happened.

“A little bit of rain is not going to hurt me, you know what I mean?” Neugebauer said. “I’m thriving…

CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at RunnerSpace News…