EUGENE, Ore. – Michigan State Track and Field graduate student decathlete Ryan Talbot prepares for his third straight NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, this year’s decathlon taking place at the world-famous Hayward field on Wednesday and Thursday, June 5-6.
The ten-event competition will be split up between the first two of four days of the national championship meet while all the action will be streamed live on ESPN2.
Talbot in 2023-24
Talbot qualified for nationals by way of a Big Ten Championship-winning decathlon score of 7535 on May 10-11. The score was compiled with top-five finishes in nine of ten events and three event wins en route to his second career B1G gold.
7535 is far from Talbot’s potential, however. The Alto, Mich. native is one of eleven collegiate athletes to achieve a score of over 8000 in the last three years, his personal best being 8064, achieved in his first Big Ten Championship title in May, 2022.
Talbot will look to improve upon his 15th-place finish at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, Texas where he accumulated a score of 7488. At the 2022 championships at Hayward Field he placed 20th with a score of 6863.
The two-time All-American represented Team USA at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile this past October, earning a bronze medal with a score of 7742. Talbot’s other decathlon attempt this year was a 7488 performance at the competitive 64th Annual Mt. SAC Relays good for 12th in a field that consisted of both professionals and collegiate track’s best.
Spartans Prep for Olympic Trials
While he is the lone Spartan athlete competing at the NCAA Championships, Talbot is not the last of the active Spartans competing this season. Two other active Spartans and two MSU Track and Field alumni will compete at trials at the end of June for a shot at the quad annual summer Olympic games.
Fellow decathlete Heath Baldwin, current U.S. No. 1 and world No. 5 with a high score of 8470, qualified for the NCAA Championships but chose to forgo the meet in preparation for the U.S. Olympic Trials June 21-30. Baldwin was heptathlon runner-up at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in February and holds five school records and two Big Ten records.
Junior Spartan Kate Stewart-Barnett, who redshirted during the 2024 outdoor…
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