Men's Preview
Ben Barton and Jaden Roskelley will represent the Cougars in the decathlon on Wednesday and Thursday. Roskelley enters the 10-event gauntlet as one of four competitors to have scored at least 8,000 points this season joining Nebraska's Till Steinforth, Mississippi State's Peyton Bair and UC Santa Barbara's Brad Thomas. He won the Robison Invitational earlier this season where he set six personal bests en route to scoring 8,000 points. Barton returns to the national meet for the first time since 2023 when he finished eighth with the 7,815 points. The senior is coming off the best decathlon of his career at the Big 12 Championship where he won the title scoring 7,865 points, making him the seventh-best performer in the event in program history.
James Corrigan returns Hayward Field in hopes of bringing home the Cougars fifth 3,000-meter steeplechase national title. The junior finished ninth at last year's edition of the championships at Hayward Field running 8:29.61 in the final after having the fastest time in the prelims. He would return to the same track two weeks later to finish third at the U.S. Olympic Trials and join former teammate Kenneth Rooks as an Olympian.
The native of Los Angeles, Calif. hasn't lost a steeplechase race this season as he won his heat at the NCAA West Preliminary Round in 8:31.79. He also won his second consecutive Big 12 title running a season-best 8:22.20 in Lawrence, Kan.
Danny Bryant earned First Team All-American honors in the shot put at last year's as the senior finished fourth with a throw of 20.02m/65-8.25. He best throw of the season came at the Big 12 Championships where he finished fourth with a toss of 19.84m/65-1.25.
Luke Grundvig had the 39th fastest 5,000-meter time in the west region but races aren't run on paper as the junior ran a personal best time of 13:34.63 to secure the final time qualifier. It will the American Fork natives first appearance at a national championship after previously finishing 41st (5,000m) and 38th (10,000m) at the West preliminary round.
Joey Nokes and Creed Thompson will compete in the 10,000-meters after securing a Top 16 finish in College Station. Nokes, a senior from Riverton, is the eight-fastest Cougar to ever circle the track for 25 laps having run 28:05.38 in 2023. He will make his first appearance at the outdoor championships having never finished higher than 25th at the West Preliminary Round prior to his 10th place finish where he ran 28:21.04.
Thompson will also be competing at outdoor nationals for a first time after earning First Team All-American honors indoors thanks to an eighth-place finish in the 5,000-meters. He is the sixth-fastest 10,000m runner in program history after running 28:04.15 at the 2023 Bryan Clay Invitational just 10 seconds faster than he ran to finish ninth at this seasons Bryan Clay.
Eli Hazlett, Josh Taylor, Trey Jackson and Jonah Heimuli will have more meet to continue rewriting the record books. The quartet are the second-fastest 4x400-meter relay in program history after running 3:03.05 at Mt. SAC Relays in April. They had the eighth-fastest time in Texas after securing a runner-up finish at the Big 12 Championships with the fifth-fastest time in program history, 3:03.62.