Barton No. 6 all-time after placing third in decathlon

AUSTIN, Texas – Ben Barton put the finishing touches on one of the top decathlon performances in BYU men's track & field history on Thursday at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, finishing third overall with 7,699 points. 

“Ben had a good day,” BYU track and field associate head coach Mark Robison said. “In his overall score as a freshman, he scored 7,002 points, and today he went for 7,699. That’s almost a 700-point PR, which is an insane number. It was a remarkable performance, and he can and will probably better every mark that he did this season.”

Barton, who now sits sixth on the all-time list, placed first in two events Thursday – the 110-meter hurdles (14.19) and 1,500-meters (4:35.63). Both were good for new personal bests. The sophomore concluded the 10 events having placed first in three, second-place in another three and third in one event to tally seven top-three placements across yesterday and today.

The No. 6 all-time decathlon finish makes him just the fourth Cougar to enter the top-10 board since 1987, joining Chase Dalton (No. 8, 2014), Kevin Nielsen (No. 7, 2018) and teammate Dallin Vorkink (No. 4, 2022).

Vorkink finished 10th with 6,301 points as the senior from Kirksville, Missouri posted a third-place finish in the discus throw with a heave of 43.15m/141-7 while also placing fourth in the pole vault after a clearance of 4.70m/15-5. 

Jace Jensen joined Barton and Vorkink as the lone Cougars to compete on the day, running 53.39 in the 400-meter hurdles. 

BYU men’s track and field is back in action tomorrow, with the 4x100-meter relay at 10:00 a.m. CDT in Texas and the 5,000-meters at 10:50 a.m. PDT at the Stanford Invitational.