WALNUT, CALIFORNIA, April 17–20 —Traditionally, the Mt. SAC Relays serves as a rust-buster for its elite entrants. For others, they may be in the middle of their season, but with a Diamond League meeting taking place in China and the WA Continental Tour in Nairobi, the lineups may not have been as deep as in years past, but that didn’t matter to those who landed in Walnut to shake out their arms and legs.
The meet got underway with the multis earlier in the week and Ayden Owens-Delerme came in knowing he was in good shape for his first decathlon of the year — and, as it played out, his first at an exalted level since the ’23 Arkansas grad placed 4th at the ’22 World Championships in Eugene.
But, in light of this recent history, the question was just how good was “good”? Owens-Delerme answered the question with an authoritative 8732 that was not only a 200-point PR, it was also a meet record, Puerto Rican record and the world leader.
Things started well for the Razorback alum. He won the 100 (10.31), long jump (25-6) and shot (53-4¼), but the wheels nearly came off in the long jump when he fouled his first two attempts and, in his own words, “Barely got the third one in.”
He would finish with a 6-6 (1.98) high jump and a 47.23 2nd-place finish in the 400, for a 4621 Day 1 total — 152 points ahead of Michigan State’s Heath Baldwin (4469), with Iowa’s Austin West in 3rd (4392).
Day 2 began with Owens-Delerme being edged by American Devon Williams in the 110H, 13.72–13.73. That was followed by 150-11 (46.00) in the discus, a pair of personal bests in the pole vault (16-8¾/5.10) and javelin (194-6/59.28).
In that javelin, a huge 233-0/71.02 PR by Baldwin moved him into 2nd place overall ahead of Williams and placed him in a great position to secure the Olympic standard of 8460 heading into the 1500.
In the 1500, Owens-Delerme, knowing he wasn’t in the best distance shape (even his 400 was off his top form), ran conservatively and finished in 4:45.59 to total 8732, breaking Dave Johnson’s 1992 meet record of 8727. His total also was an Olympic qualifier and, even more impressively, put him at No. 17 performer on the all-time world list.
But the story was with Baldwin, whose metric mile best was 4:38.80 and found himself in need of 4:41.73 to meet the…
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