Ayden Owens named South Central Field Athlete of the Year

NEW ORLEANS – Razorback Ayden Owens was selected as the USTFCCCA South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year, as voted upon by coaches.

An epic finish to the NCAA Indoor heptathlon had Owens moving from fourth to first place in the final event (1,000m) as he made up a 152-point deficit for the gold medal position and won the title by 11 points.

Producing a score of 6,211 points for the victory was the third-best winning score in NCAA history and the eighth best performance on the collegiate all-time list.

In fifth place after day one of the heptathlon, Owens had career best marks in all three events on day two. His 7.80 in the 60m hurdles led the field and moved him equal No. 7 on the UA all-time list. Then a PR clearance of 15-11.75 (4.86) followed in the pole vault.

Going into the 1,000m to complete the heptathlon, Owens trailed the bronze medal position by 30 points, silver by 119 and gold by 152.

Charging to the lead from the start, Owens had splits of 28.08, 29.30 [57.38], 31.02 [1:28.40], 31.49 [1:58.89], and 31.66 to improve his previous best of 2:35.93 in the 1,000m by over four seconds with a 2:31.55 for 970 points.

That effort is the best time by anyone who has scored over 6,200 points on a banked track in the heptathlon. The previous best was Ashton Eaton’s 2:32.67 from the 2010 NCAA Indoor.

Earlier in the season, Owens won the Razorback Invitational with a score of 6,272 points, the No. 2 performer and performance on the all-time collegiate list. It also broke the Arkansas school record of 6,175 points set by Kevin Lazas in 2013. The score by Owens currently ranks third on the 2022 world list.

Owens, who has been on the past two Bowerman watch lists this season, also improved his Puerto Rican national record from a previous best of 5,995 set in 2021.