National honors for Jaydon Hibbert, Travis Geopfert
NEW ORLEANS – Razorback freshman Jaydon Hibbert is the USTFCCCA Co-National Field Athlete of the Year while Arkansas associate head coach Travis Geopfert is the Men’s Outdoor National Assistant Coach of the Year, collecting his fourth national coaching award.
Hibbert produced a rare freshman campaign in sweeping SEC and NCAA triple jump titles while breaking a 41-year-old collegiate record by nearly a foot in the conference meet and defeating the national field by two-plus feet in Austin, the best winning margin ever by a freshman with the previous best being six and a half inches.
It’s the second consecutive year for a Razorback to claim the national field event accolade with Ayden Owens-Delerme being honored in 2022.
Sharing the national field event honor with Hibbert is Texas decathlete Leo Neugebauer, who broke the collegiate record with a winning score of 8,836 points to claim the NCAA title, which also bettered the German national record.
This marks the first time for Geopfert to claim the national coaching honor during the outdoor season. In March, Geopfert collected his third indoor national honor after previously earning the accolade in 2013 and 2014.
Geopfert totaled nine entries into the NCAA Championships, producing 31 of the 53 points as Arkansas finished as team runner-up, four points shy of Florida. During the conference meet, his event group totaled 69 of 149 winning team points.
Of the national entries for Arkansas, Geopfert’s event group had three athletes competing in the triple jump, three in the decathlon, and a pair in the long jump.
Arkansas became just the second school to finish 1-2 in the NCAA Outdoor long jump, with Carey McLeod and Wayne Pinnock, and it’s only the third time in NCAA history for a school to win the long jump and triple jump with different jumpers.
The Razorbacks have achieved the outdoor double jump victory seven of the 14 times it’s been accomplished with Arkansas previously claiming the outdoor double in 1998.
This also marked the seventh time the same school has swept NCAA indoor and outdoor long jump and triple jump victories in the same season, with the Razorbacks accounting for six of those sweeps.
In the SEC conference meet, Razorbacks titles from Geopfert’s event group were claimed in the 400m hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. Arkansas scored 23 points in the triple jump off a 1-2-6-7 finish as well as 21 points in the long jump of a 1-2-7-8 finish. An additional 12 points were added from a 2-5 effort in the decathlon.
The world leader in the triple jump, Hibbert has produced two of the top five wind legal marks in the world for the 2023 season while surpassing the standard for the World Athletics Championships that are being held in Budapest, Hungary, later this summer.
In addition to breaking long standing collegiate records this season, the 18-year-old Hibbert also surpassed the World U20 record that was set in 1985.
Just the third Razorback freshman to score in the NCAA Outdoor triple jump, Hibbert became only the fourth freshman to win the event, and just the second to sweep NCAA titles as a frosh. Hibbert became the seventh Arkansas jumper to win the event, bringing the Razorback total to 13 titles while collecting Arkansas’ 28th All-America honor in the triple jump.
On the all-time collegiate list, Hibbert’s marks rank first (58-7.5 | 17.87) and third (57-7.5 | 17.56), adding to the legacy of four other Razorbacks among the all-time top 20.
