The RoundHouse | 5/12/2022 5:37:00 PM

 


 Listen to Wichita State's Paula Garcia and Maria Romero discuss this weekend's conference championship meet
 
Wichita State coaches recognized Adria Navajon's talent when they entered him in the heptathlon at the American Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in February.
 
However, coach Steve Rainbolt admits, they could not know how Navajon would handle the two-day event. Navajon had not completed a heptathlon in his year-plus at Wichita State.
 
"We knew he was good," Rainbolt said. "We had not seen him make his way through a multi-event competition. Putting it together is a challenge. We stacked it on that guy, and he handled it unbelievably."
 
It worked in February, when Navajon scored 5,616 points to win the conference title, and Rainbolt is confident it can work again. Navajon, a redshirt freshman from Barcelona, Spain, will compete in his first decathlon this spring in the conference outdoor championships that begin Friday at Cessna Stadium.
 
"I went to (indoor) conference knowing that I was going do well, maybe not as much as I did," Navajon said. "I knew that I could do it, so I went and tried my best and everything turned out perfect."
 
Coaches limited Navajon this spring to keep him healthy. A balky hamstring bothered him in the indoor season. He is recovering from a bruised heel more recently and spent the spring in individual events to prepare for the decathlon.
 
Despite his inexperience, Rainbolt expects Navajon to help the Shockers in the decathlon, the 110-meter hurdles and the long jump. In the decathlon, he joins a strong group that will be expected to perform for the Shockers to challenge six-time men's champion Houston. Wichita State finished as runner-up the past two outdoor meets.
 
Tanner Brown, who finished second in the conference heptathlon with 5,512 points in February, enters the outdoor meet ranked first in the decathlon with 7,178 points. Kolby Caster (6,257) is fourth. Cincinnati's Cannon Riddle, the 2021 champion, enters weekend ranked second with 6,656 points.
 
Wichita State's tradition in the multi-events helped bring Navajon from Spain. Ben Johnson won the AAC decathlon in 2019 and the Shockers grabbed places second through sixth last season. When Navajon evaluated schools, he looked at former Shockers such as Hunter Veith, who finished second in the 2018 NCAA heptathlon, and decided to join that success. The presence of several Spainards on the roster in recent years also helped.
 
"They know how to train the multis," Navajon said. "Since I started at 8 years old, doing track, I was going there, touching every single event. When I was 15, a new coach came to my track club in Spain, and she told me 'You could be really good as a multi.'"
 
He also came to the United States to face top competition.
 
"Better meets against the best people in the world," he said. "I just love competing at the highest level."
 
This weekend, his goal is to help the Shockers win the conference title and score around the 7,500 points likely needed to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
 
"That's a big score, but I think that I'm ready," he said.
 
Rainbolt, who has coached five men's NCAA All-Americans and two women's NCAA All-Americans in the multi-events, sees high-level traits in Navajon. He is open to coaching and welcomes challenges against top competition. In Europe, track athletes train more and compete less than their American counterparts, which prepares him for jumping into the decathlon this weekend.
 
"He's a gamer," Rainbolt said. "He shows up ready to compete at a significantly high level. That conference indoor championship left an impression on all of us coaches. That guy came and took care of business."
 
Navajon's top events are jumps and hurdles. He ranks fifth in the 110-meter hurdles in the conference with a time of 14.19 seconds and seventh in the long jump at 23 feet, 5 ½ inches. His weakest events are the throws. Navajon's work in those events, Brown says, is part of his success.
 
"He came in with a lot of talent in specific events and his work ethic at developing the ones he was lacking in is really phenomenal," Brown said. "He will be the first one here and the last one to leave. And it's what you see outside of practice. He'll be in the team room stretching, doing yoga, focusing on nutrition, all aspects of what it takes to be a good athlete and take care of your body like you should."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.