Barton, Corrigan win individual titles on day two of Big 12 Championships

BYU leads heading into the final day of competition with 58.66 points.

Author Tyson Jex
Barton, Corrigan win individual titles on day two of Big 12 ChampionshipsBarton, Corrigan win individual titles on day two of Big 12 Championships

LAWRENCE, Kan. — BYU’s Ben Barton and James Corrigan won individual titles on Friday as the Cougars continue to lead the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kan.

The Cougars scored 36.66 points on Friday to bring their total to 58.66 points, 12.66 points ahead of Texas Tech through eight events.

FULL RESULTS

Leading after the opening five events of the decathlon, Barton opened the final day of competition running 14.39 in the 110-meter hurdles for 925 points. He continued to lead with 642 points in the discus (38.88m/127-7) and 734 in the pole vault (4.41m/14-5.5). The junior would see Houston’s Grant Levesque take the lead in the javelin as the Barton scored 582 points with a toss of 49.56m/162-7.

Trailing by 27 points heading into the final event of the competition, 1,500-meters, Barton needed to beat Levesque by more than three seconds to secure the Cougars first conference decathlon title since 2006. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich. native ran 4:39.51, seven seconds ahead of Levesque, to finish with a personal best score of 7,865 to win BYU’s first individual title of the championships. Jaden Roskelley finished ninth with 7,153 points with Kaden Passey in 12th scoring 6,829 points.

With his win in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, James Corrigan became the 48th different men’s track & field athlete to win back-to-back conference titles outdoors. The 2024 Olympian waited patiently behind Iowa State’s Joash Ruto until making a move on the final back stretch to secure the victory in a seasonal best time of 8:22.20.

Isaac Hedengren finished third behind Corrigan and Ruto as the sophomore moved up to fifth on BYU’s all-time performer list running 8:30.01. Landon Heemeyer picked up five more points for the Cougars finishing fourth running just under his previous personal best, 8:33.50.

Danny Bryant found himself on the podium in the shot put for a second straight year as the senior finished fourth in a competition the featured four of the Top 20 throwers in the nation. He threw a seasonal best mark of 19.84m/65-2.75 on his third and sixth attempt of the competition.

Connor Saunders and Hayden Gribble shared the spoils in the high jump in a three-way tie for eighth with Cincinnati’s Joel Addo. The trio all cleared 2.01m/6-7 on their first attempt but failed to clear 2.06m/6-9.

In the first running event of the day, Riley Hunt finished sixth in his heat and 15th overall in the 110-meter hurdles running 14.10. A day after running a personal best in the 400-meter hurdles, Logan Hubler ran 14.20 in the high hurdles to finish 17th.

Tyler Mathews and Sebastian Fernandez advanced to Saturday’s 800-meter final as both runners went under 1:48 in their respective heats. Mathews passed Iowa State’s Darius Kipyego down the home stretch to clock the fastest time of the prelims, 1:47.40. Fernandez pushed the pace from the gun before finishing with the sixth-fastest time of the prelims, 1:47.95.

Trey Jackson and Eli Hazlett won their heats in the 400-meter punching their ticket to the final. Jackson ran the sixth-fastest time of the day in 46.02 while Hazlett won his heat crossing the finish line in 46.52. Josh Taylor and Jonah Heimuli finished 19th and 24th running 47.03 and 47.24.

Dallin Draper finished sixth in his heat and 21st overall in the 100-meter dash running 10.71.

Up Next
The final day of the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships gets underway at 2 p.m. CT with the men’s discus. Running events begin at 5:05 p.m. CT with the 4x100-meter relay.