Owens Named Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year for Great Lakes Region
6/4/2021 12:00:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
• Watch: "Ferrari" Mindset Fuels Michigan Decathlete Owens
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- Decathlete Ayden Owens of the University of Michigan men's track and field team has been named the Great Lakes Region Field Athlete of the Year for the 2021 outdoor season, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced Friday (June 4).
Owens, a junior Spanish major with sophomore eligibility from Wexford, Pa., was voted the winner by the region's coaches after a season in which he posted one of the best decathlon scores in Big Ten and NCAA history en route to the conference title in the event.
He is just the second man in school history to earn outdoor Field Athlete of the Year honors, joining Michael Whitehead from the 2007 season.
Only one other man in Big Ten history and 15 others in collegiate history have ever scored higher in a collegiate decathlon than did Owens when he posted an 8,238-point effort to win his first conference title as a Wolverine since transferring from Southern California ahead of the COVID-19 shortened 2020 campaign.
His performance, which also broke the previous meet record by more than 300 points, exceeds the next-best decathlon in the region by more than 500 points. Nationally, he is the No. 2 seed for the NCAA Outdoor Championships decathlon on June 9-10 in Eugene, Ore.
Though his biggest asset in the decathlon is his speed on the track -- his 10.40 for 100 meters, 46.78 for 400 meters and 13.98 in the 110-meter hurdles are among the best ever for collegiate decathletes -- his well-rounded field event skills are what ultimately propelled him to his historic heights.
In a Big Ten decathlon competition that was among the deepest in any conference nationally, Owens was second in the shot put at 14.41m (47-3.5), third in the long jump at 7.47m (24-6.25, +1.4m/s), fourth in the pole vault at 4.70m (15-5) and fifth in the javelin at 55.71m (182-9).
He ranks No. 10 in the world this year in the decathlon and broke his own Puerto Rican national record. Owens is also 112 points shy of the Olympics qualifying standard in the event for the Tokyo Games later this summer.
That standard could come as he competes in Eugene next week for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The decathlon begins Wednesday, June 9, at 1 p.m. PDT and is expected to conclude Thursday, June 10, at just after 6 p.m. PDT.
All events in the decathlon will be streamed live on the ESPN3 platform.
Players Mentioned
