WICHITA – Adria Navajon and
Clayton Duchatschek won American Athletic Conference titles to increase the Shocker men's team lead on the second day of the AAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships Saturday at Cessna Stadium.
Navajon came from behind in the decathlon, gutting out two personal-best performances in the final two events to overtake the Cincinnati men and win his second multi-event title of the year with 7,071 points.
Battling through heel pain throughout the two-day competition, he didn't achieve the marks he wanted in the long jump, shot put or discus, but he knew he could come back with good performances in the other events.
"In the dec, there will be a lot of ups and downs, and you need to be strong mentally," Navajon said.
He threw a personal-best mark of 47.48m/155'9" in the javelin to move from third place to second and was aware going into the final event, the 1500 meters, that he needed to beat Damien Berthenet of Cincinnati by at least seven seconds to secure the win.
"I just took it and I ran as fast as I could and I did it," Navajon said.
He built a large enough lead that he comfortably finished 12 seconds ahead of Berthenet and the rest of the field to take the title.
Three other Shockers scored points in the decathlon with
Chonnor Ludolph and
Kolby Caster placing fourth and fifth and long jumper
Morgan Conner working his way through his first multi to finish seventh.
In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, the Shockers placed four runners in the scoring between the men and women.
Clayton Duchatschek came into the race with the second-fastest seed time but ultimately ran away with it, beating Tulsa's Christian Baker by five seconds to become a conference champion.
"It feels awesome," Duchatschek said. "It's what I've been thinking about all day. It's been making me super anxious, but it paid off. I feel more relaxed than ever now. A big weight's off my shoulders, and I'm just happy to do it here in front of the home crowd."
Teammate
Britte Magnuson joined Duchatschek (9:03.52) on the podium after moving up three spots on the form chart, running a personal-best 9:09.76 to take third.
"What a way to end the night," distance coach
Kirk Hunter said. "Our distance guys today really brought it, and I was proud of both the guys and the girls today. I thought they came out and competed really well. For those guys to end the night like that just gives us a big spark hopefully for the entire team tomorrow to hit on all cylinders."
For the women,
Jenna Muma scored four points for the women's team in her first steeplechase of her career, and
Miranda Dick ran an 18-second personal best to slide into the scoring in eighth place.
Also on the women's side,
Brianna Utecht and
Maria Romero wrapped up the heptathlon by placing sixth and seventh overall to score five points for the Shockers.
In the long jump, the Shocker men used their secret weapon,
Yuben Goncalves, to help lead the jumpers to swing the points in their favor, as the group scored three more points than projected while the Houston jumpers scored six less than projected. Goncalves placed fourth with a huge personal-best jump of 7.33m/24'0.75" in his first meet back on the runway since the 2021 AAC Outdoor Championships.
Morgan Conner (7.09m/23'3.75; 7
th; PB) and
Dowdy Elazarig (7.08m/23'2.75"; 8th) joined him in the scoring with a total of three points.
The men's team sent six more athletes to Sunday's finals, led by
Adam Moore's top mark in the 800-meter prelims.
Josh Cable and
Riley Vandaveer will join him in that event final, and Navajon (110-meter hurdles),
JD Prinsloo (400 meters) and
Jaleel Montgomery (100 meters) will also race for team points tomorrow.
Faith Turner narrowly missed the 100-meter final on the women's side, placing ninth with a personal best of 11.57 to move up to fifth all-time in Shocker history.
The men's team has started to close the gap on Houston in the projected team scores, cutting the Cougars' 31-point lead to 15. In the current standings, Wichita State leads the field with 89 points.
TEAM STANDINGS
Men
1. Wichita State – 89
2. Cincinnati – 51
3. Memphis – 43
4. Tulsa – 40
5. South Florida – 20
6. Houston – 14
7. East Carolina – 12
8. Tulane – 4
Women
1. Memphis – 64
2. East Carolina – 47.5
3. Tulsa – 34
4. SMU – 33
5. Houston – 31.5
6. Cincinnati – 29
7. UCF – 27
8. Wichita State – 19.5
9. Tulane – 14.5
10 .South Florida – 9
11. Temple – 3
