Ja’Kobe Tharp Runs 12.75 To Set Ncaa Track And Field Championships 2026 Results Mark
Ja’Kobe Tharp made the ncaa track and field championships 2026 results headline with a 12.75-second run in the 110-meter hurdles at Hayward Field. The Auburn hurdler broke the world record, the collegiate record and the meet’s long gap between men’s world-record performances in one race.
Tharp Beats Merritt And Holloway
Tharp’s 12.75 seconds lowered the standard set by Aries Merritt, who ran 12.80 in 2012, and it also moved past Grant Holloway’s 12.98-second collegiate record from 2019. That put Auburn on top of the day’s most important individual result and gave the meet its sharpest performance marker.
The run was the first men’s world record at the NCAA championships since Dwight Stone did it in the long jump in 1976. For a championship meet that was still unfolding in Eugene, the mark became the performance everyone else had to measure against.
Auburn Adds A Relay Record
Auburn backed up Tharp with another record in the heats, as Azeem Fahmi, Kayinsola Ajayi, Austin Kresley and Tyler Davis ran 37.75 seconds in heat two of the semifinal round. That time erased LSU’s previous collegiate record of 37.90 from 2023.
The relay record mattered because it showed Auburn’s speed was not limited to one hurdle race. The same program that produced Tharp also sent four runners through a 37.75-second sprint relay, a strong second marker on a day built around short bursts of precision.
Ben Barton Leads Decathlon
BYU’s Ben Barton sat atop the decathlon after Day 1 with 4,414 points, built on first-place finishes in the 100 meters in 10.65 seconds, the high jump at 2.13 meters and the 400 meters in 47.25 seconds. He also placed third in the long jump at 7.40 meters.
The decathlon was still in progress, and Barton’s cushion had come from a clean first day rather than one big event. Louisville’s Kenneth Byrd later moved into the lead after three events on Day 2 with 6,925 points, while Nebraska had 28 total points after six events as the team race kept shifting.
Nebraska’s Dyson Wicker added another national-title result on Day 2, winning the men’s pole vault with a personal-best 5.85-meter clearance that made him the No. 10 all-time collegiate performer. New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel also won the 10,000 meters and returned as champion after having won the event as a freshman.
