NEW ORLEANS – A pair of Razorbacks have been named to The Bowerman 2023 men’s preseason watch list. 2022 award finalist Ayden Owens-Delerme and Wayne Pinnock represent Arkansas on the 10-person watch list.
Additionally, Razorback Carey McLeod is among eight athletes receiving votes for the watchlist.
As the 2023 season kicks off Friday with the Arkansas Invitational, Owens-Delerme will compete in the pole vault and shot put while McLeod will contest the 60m.
Both Owens-Delerme and Pinnock were two-time national champions in 2022, winning titles in NCAA indoor and outdoor meets.
Owens-Delerme produced a scintillating rally to win NCAA indoor heptathlon gold, then completed the sweep with an outdoor NCAA decathlon title, becoming the fifth decathlete to win both titles. during the same season.
During his 2022 campaign, Owens-Delerme set four Arkansas school records – heptathlon, decathlon (twice) and ran on the 4 x 400 indoor relay – as well as four Puerto Rican national records – heptathlon, decathlon ( twice) and 400m.
Owens-Delerme set the national record for the 400m in 45.07 at the World Championships, leading the opening day with a career-best 4,606 points. He finished fourth on the world stage with a career-best 8,532 points.
One of only two decathletes to produce a pair of scores over 8,500 points, Owens-Delerme generated the ninth and 10th best scores on the 2022 World List. Owens-Delerme’s 45.07 was tied for 37th on the list World 400m 2002.
Owens-Delerme ranked No. 6 in the world rankings produced by Athletics News and was ranked #5 in the global rankings generated by International Athletics.
In winning the USTFCCCCA National Indoor and Outdoor Athlete of the Year, Owens-Delerme became the second multi-event athlete to win both honors in the same year after Ashton Eaton (2009, 2010). He also became the second Razorback to win both honors in the same year, joining Erick Walder (1994).
Pinnock swept the SEC and NCAA long jump titles competing for Tennessee in 2022, as he produced 26-foot marks in each competition. His best mark of the season, a jump of 26-8.5 (8.14), won the Jamaican Championship. Then Pinnock finished ninth at the World Championships in Athletics, missing the final three rounds of the final by two inches with his mark of 25-10.25 (7.88).
McLeod, who competed in the long jump and triple jump at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, also transferred to Arkansas from Tennessee.
A 2022 NCAA indoor long jump silver medalist, McLeod won two NCAA bronze medals in the long jump in 2021 and added a bronze medal in the triple jump at the NCAA Indoor Meet in 2021.
In SEC competition, McLeod won three gold medals, twice in the triple jump and once in the long jump.
Half of the 10 athletes on the men’s watch list are from SEC schools with a pair from Georgia in Matthew Boling and Kyle Garland, as well as LSU’s Sean Burrell.
Also on the watch list are Mykola Alekna (California), Sondre Guttormsen (Princeton), Charles Hicks (Stanford), 2021 finalist Turner Washington (Arizona State) and Nico Young (Northern Arizona).
