With 8,478 Points, Neugebauer Secures World Standard And Shows He's Right There With Garland and Owens-Delerme; Angelo State's Oussama El Bouchayby Runs World-Leading 800

By David Woods for DyeStat

AUSTIN, Texas – Before the openly pro era of track and field, the NCAA Championships were a preview of the only global championship, an Olympic Games.

Could not happen any more, right?

Oh, it’s happening – in the decathlon anyway.

PHOTOS by Bert Richardson

Until the medals are awarded Aug. 26 at the World Championships, the world’s best decathlon competition will be back here at Mike Myers Stadium on June 7-8 for NCAAs:

Kyle Garland vs. Ayden Owens-Delerme vs. Leo Neugebauer.

After what Neugebauer did Wednesday and Thursday at the Texas Relays, his college counterparts are on notice. He scored 8,478 points to:

>> Climb to No. 5 on the all-time collegiate list, behind Georgia’s Garland, first at 8,720, and Arkansas’ Owens-Delerme, third at 8,528.

>> Break the Texas school record of 8,465 held since 2006 by Trey Hardee, an Olympic silver medalist and two-time world champion.

>> Become the 2023 world leader and meet the 8,460 standard for worlds.

Neugebauer said he could “feel the energy” from the home track. He said he is “hyped” for NCAAs, even if the showdown is 10 weeks away.

“Those guys really push me so hard,” he said. “I push them so hard. We’re one group that’s evolving together almost. The rest of the world has to really watch out for us.”

In the 2022 worlds at Eugene, Ore., Owens-Delerme, Puerto Rico, was fourth (8,532); Neugebauer, Germany, 10th (8,182), and Garland, USA,  11th (8,132). In the NCAA heptathlon this month, Garland came within six points of Ashton Eaton’s world record, followed by Owens-Delerme and Neugebauer.

Neugebauer’s Texas Relays marks included four PBs: 100 meters, 10.75; shot put, 54-8/16.66m, nearly breaking the decathlon collegiate record of 54-8.25/16.67m held by George Mason’s Rob Muzzio since 1984; 110 hurdles, 14.33; pole vault, 16-8.75/5.10m.

In the pole vault, he said, “I finally did in competition what I knew I could do from practice. I used the crowd to hype me up. I went on stiffer poles, and they just carried me over the bar.”

Neugebauer conceded the NCAA heptathlon “took a toll,” but the un-Austin-like weather was refreshing – daylong mist and temperatures hovering around 70. He said he feared a long delay would be disruptive, but that never happened.

“A little bit of rain is not going to hurt me, you know what I mean?” Neugebauer said. “I’m thriving in the rain.”

Mississippi State’s Peyton Bair, a 21-year-old freshman from Kimberly, Idaho, scored 7,819 points for second. BYU sophomore Ben Barton was third with 7,699.

Moroccan from Div. II upsets Bryce Hoppel

A year ago, it was all Oussama El Bouchayby could do to stay in this sport. Maybe he would not have quit . . . but he said he thought about it.

He left his native Morocco to enroll at Angelo State, in West Texas, but was not eligible to represent the Rams. So all he did was train. Boring!

His 2022 results on World Athletics profile? Doesn’t have any.

“You know, competing is the thing that makes you want to run faster, want to do more,” El Bouchayby said. “But we just had to deal with it. It was hard mentally.”

Now he is making it hard on the Moroccan federation – or anyone else – to ignore him.

El Bouchayby came from behind to beat Bryce Hoppel in the invitational 800 meters, clocking 1:45.39. It was a Texas Relays record – previous mark was 1:45.86 by UTEP’s Michael Saruni in 2017 – and 2023 world leader.

His time was No. 2 ever in NCAA Division II – the record is 1:45.24 by Savieri Ngidhi of Abilene Christian in 1995 – and close to the World Championships standard of 1:44.70.

The Moroccan set a Division II indoor record of 1:46.78 at nationals March 12.

Texas’ Brian Herron served as pacesetter with a 50.04 first lap. Next came Texas’ Jonathan Jones, 51.34; Hoppel, 51.44; Texas’ Yusuf Bizimana, 51.51; El Bouchayby, 51.81.

El Bouchaby thought he would be boxed in with 200 meters to go, so he went.

“It’s either you go out now,” he said, “or never.”

He overtook Hoppel, who was also under the Texas Relays record in 1:45.59. Tiarnan Crorken of Mississippi was third in 1:46.82, NCAA indoor champ Bizimana fourth in 1:46.83 and Jones fifth in 1:47.28.

Hoppel, a native Texan from Midland,  might have a longer resume – NCAA champion, four U.S. titles, World Championships fourth place, world indoor bronze. Yet he is actually only a year older than El Bouchayby, 24. The Moroccan said he watched video of Hoppel in preparation for this 800.

Hoppel said he went through a hard workout Tuesday, as designed, to see how he would respond Thursday night. It was his fastest outdoor opener.

“I think we’re exactly where we want to be at  this time of year,” he said.

Two Division II women’s runners, both of West Texas A&M, were also winners: Eleonora Curtabbi, 3,000 steeplechase in 10:02.60, or 10th on the all-time Div. II list, and Florance Uwajeneza, 5,000 in 16:07.13.

Ethan Katzberg, a 20-year-old Canadian, set a Texas Relays record of 253-0/77.12m in the hammer. He is a Commonwrslth Games silver medalist.

ND’s Jadin O’Brien tops NCAA in heptathlon

The women’s combined event also produced an NCAA leader. Notre Dame’s Jadin O’Brien, in her first heptathlon in 21 months. She scored a PB of 5,942 points.

More impressively, the NCAA indoor pentathlon champ caught a flight to Chicago immediately afterward so she could be seated for a 9:25 theology class Friday morning at Geddes Hall.

“Student-athlete,” she said.

Hard to study for the javelin when there is snow on the ground in South Bend. O’Brien made do with a rubber-tipped javelin thrown into the turf of Notre Dame’s indoor facility. Weather has been such that this was essentially her first activity on an outdoor track since October.

“I know I can do better in every event,” O’Brien said. “There’s so much growing I can do.”

She redshirted outdoors in 2022, so this was her first heptathlon since the 2021 Olympic Trials.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.