The RoundHouse | 5/14/2022 5:25:00 PM

 
 
On day one of the decathlon, Wichita State's Adria Navajon's left heel ruined his best event. The pain flared up in the long jump, limiting his distance to more than two feet below his best.
 
The injury, which has bothered him since the indoor track season, also damaged his chances to hit the points total of around 7,500 likely needed to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
 
The rest of the event became a test of mental strength for Navajon, a redshirt freshman from Barcelona, Spain. The heel made the jumping events difficult because it robbed him of the power supplied by his plant leg. Coach Steve Rainbolt, after watching him in the long jump, wasn't sure if Navajon could continue.
 
"Extremely tough mental test," Rainbolt said. "He never says anything but 'I will win. I am going to win the event.' And it isn't just that he's some sort of unrealistic optimism. He can outline for you why he's going to win."
 
Navajon got the "why" right on Saturday to win the decathlon at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships at Cessna Stadium with 7,071 points to finish ahead of Cincinnati's Damien Berthenet (6,993) and 2021 champion Cannon Riddle (6,944) of Cincinnati. Wichita State's Chonnor Ludolph placed fourth with 6,497 points and teammate Kolby Caster took fifth with 6,131.
 
"It will be a lot of ups and downs; I just need to be strong mentally," Navajon said. "Keep going. There is 10 events. You need to keep going."
 
In February, Navajon won the heptathlon title at the American indoor. He has completed two multi-events as a Shocker and won both for conference championships.
 
"His performances as a freshman absolutely put him right in the mix with the best decathletes we've had," Rainbolt said.
 
The bruised heel hurt Navajon in some of his strong events. However, to protect the heel during practice, he worked more on running in recent weeks. That paid off in the 1,500 meters, previously one of his weaker events. He needed to finish about eight seconds ahead of Riddle and finished with a personal-record time of 4 minutes, 35.97 seconds to hold off Riddle and his time of 4:47.60.
 
"When I came here, (Rainbolt) always said 'You need to work on that,'" Navajon said. "I was really bad mentally in that event. We worked a lot."
 
He also finished first in the 100 meters (10.84 seconds), 110 hurdles (14.41) and the pole vault (14-7 1/4). He placed second in the 400 (50.49) and threw a personal-record of 155-9 to place fifth in the javelin.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.