NEW ORLEANS – Texas A&M senior Lindon Victor earned National Field Athlete of the Year honors for a season that included breaking the collegiate record in the decathlon twice along with defending his titles at the SEC and NCAA Championships. It’s the second consecutive year for Victor to win the award.
National Athletes of the Year for the 2017 NCAA Division I Outdoor track and field season were announced on Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The men’s National Track Athlete of the Year honor went to Tennessee sprinter Christian Coleman while the women’s award went to Oregon’s Raevyn Rogers. Earning the women’s National Field Athlete of the Year award was Arizona State’s Maggie Ewen.
Victor first broke the 11-year-old collegiate record in the decathlon with a score of 8,472 points to become Texas A&M’s first Texas Relays decathlon champion. Victor bettered the previous collegiate and meet record of 8,465 set by Trey Hardee in 2006.
In the process of breaking the collegiate record, Victor also produced the best first day score in the decathlon by a collegian. His first day tally of 4,516 bettered the previous score of 4,500 set by Oregon’s Ashton Eaton in the 2010 NCAA Championships.
During the SEC Championships, Victor improved his collegiate record to a score of 8,539 points and generated the best ever second day score by a collegian with his total of 4,174 points, which topped the previous best of 4,174 by Arizona’s Jake Arnold at the 2007 NCAA meet. Victor also improved his collegiate best in the decathlon discus to 181-2 (55.22).
With a pair of collegiate records and a successful SEC title defense, Victor defended his NCAA title with a score of 8,390 points, the seventh best performance on the collegiate all-time list.
In third place after the first day with a score of 4,339 points, Victor claimed the lead following a NCAA meet best of 174-11 (53.31) in the discus. Through nine events of the NCAA competition, following a 220-7 (67.24) javelin effort, Victor bettered the meet record score he set in 2016 with a tally of 7,805 points to top the 7,723 score he had in 2016.
Finishing with the 1,500m, Victor just fell short of the NCAA meet record of 8,457 points established by Eaton in 2010.
Victor became just the fifth individual to successfully defend a NCAA decathlon title and on the all-time collegiate list his performances rank No. 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8. His average score among the three decathlons he has contested as a senior in 2017 is 8,467 points.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics