Wayne Pinnock wins the NCAA indoor long jump title in Boston (© Kirby Lee)
Wayne Pinnock entered Friday (8) holding a share of the world’s longest jump this year, only to leave it with an NCAA title and the world lead, all to himself.
At the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston, the Jamaican star representing Arkansas won his second NCAA indoor title, and the third long jump crown of his collegiate career, with a leap of 8.40m. It improved on the mark of 8.34m Pinnock posted in February that had stood tied with Italy’s Mattia Furlani for the world lead until Friday.
The winning jump by Pinnock, who is coming off earning a silver medal at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, also equalled the Jamaican indoor record, matching the 8.40m achieved by James Beckford and Carey McLeod.
Pinnock wasn’t alone in re-establishing himself as an NCAA champion on Friday.
Parker Valby of Florida won the women’s 5000m in 14:52.79 to add an indoor title to her NCAA cross country title and outdoor 5000m win, and did so with dominance. She lapped multiple racers in her field on her way to a time that broke Valby’s own collegiate record from December by more than three seconds, and was 22 seconds ahead of second place.
Northern Arizona’s Nico Young won the men’s 5000m to claim the individual title that had long eluded one of the country’s best young runners. Young ran 13:25.29, including the final 400m in 54.3, to edge North Carolina’s Parker Wolfe and Stanford’s Ky Robinson by two seconds and cap an indoor season that saw Young lower the NCAA record in January to 12:57.14, which remains the world’s third-fastest this year.
Notre Dame’s Jadin O’Brien won the pentathlon with a score of 4497 points after her 2:13.30 in the closing 800m moved her from third to first in the standings. After the first day of the heptathlon, Texas’s Leo Neugebauer, the German record-holder in the decathlon, leads with 3664 points.
In the field, the women’s pole vault title was claimed by another athlete who had held their own against more experienced competitors at last year’s World Athletics Championships. Washington’s Hana Moll, the youngest athlete to make the US team in Budapest, ended her first collegiate indoor season with a victory at 4.60m.
In other finals, Oklahoma State won the men’s distance medley relay in 9:25.24, while BYU won the women’s crown in 10:51.42. Kentucky’s Keaton Daniel won the men’s pole vault at 5.70m and Iowa State’s Sydney Willits won the long jump on her last jump with a personal best of 6.74m.
In the only finals contested on Thursday, a pair of facility records were broken when Kenneth Ikeji of Harvard won the men's weight throw at 24.32m, and Jalani Davis of Mississippi won the women's weight throw at 24.80m.
Andrew Greif for World Athletics
