Shawn Price
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Razorback Ayden Owens was named the SEC Field Athlete of the Week following his victory in the decathlon at the Mt. SAC Relays with a collegiate record score of 8,528 points, which serves as the 2022 world leader.
Among his collegiate record, Owens established a pair of collegiate best marks within the multi-event with a 10.27 in the 100m and a 46.12 in the 400m.
On the second day of the decathlon, Owens started with 1,000 points for a 13.80 in the 110m hurdles. Later, he finished the decathlon with a 10-second PR in the 1,500m as he registered a 4:13.17.
A first day score of 4,483 points was the fifth best collegiate tally. Owens’ second day score of 4,045 is just shy of the collegiate best of 4,174 set by Lindon Victor at the SEC meet in 2017.
“The decathlon is a man’s event,” said Owens. “I’ve had a lot of trials and tribulations, as well as a lot of maturity that came with my last three years in college. This is my third school in four years. So, I finally land at a place where I felt like I could excel. Look at what I’m doing now.
“I’m excelling and hopefully I can improve myself to be one of the best athletes in NCAA history.”
In winning the decathlon by 349 points over Iowa's Austin West (8,179), Owens bettered the collegiate record of 8,484 set by Georgia's Karel Tilga in 2021, broke the Arkansas record of 8,097 set by Markus Ballengee in 2021, improved his Puerto Rican national record (8,238 from 2021), and surpassed the World Athletics standard (8,350) for the 2022 World Championships.
Through nine events, Owens score of 7,669 points already ranked him No. 6 on the Arkansas all-time list among 10-event scores.
In addition to Owens historic performance, Razorback Daniel Spejcher and Noah Swaby were also in the event. Spejcher set a career best of 7,881, which ranks eighth among collegians this season, while Swaby produced a score of 7,317.
Owens talked about the importance of having the pair of teammates in the competition.
“It’s honestly everything,” stated Owens. “Because we goof around. It’s like we are at training, I’m serious. We keep it light, and we motivate each other. We train hard every day with blood, sweat, and tears. We come out here and have a good time. We’re just blessed to be in this kind of situation, training and competing at this level is amazing.”