The Westmont Track became the site of the newest track and field world record during the Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational. Derek Drouin, competing under NIKE sponsorship, recorded a height of 7-5.75 in the high jump, exceeding the previous record by 0.01 meters.
Drouin was the gold medal winner in the high jump at the Rio Olympic Games while competing as a Canadian athlete. This year, he is competing as a decathlete and has been training at Westmont for the last few weeks.
The previous world record was held by two German athletes – Rolf Beilschmidt who jumped 2.27 meters in Jena, East Germany on October 1 of 1977 and Christian Schenk who matched that mark on September 28 of 1988 in Seoul.
In order for the new record to be established, Drouin needed not only to exceed the previous mark in the high jump, but also complete all 10 events and score more than 7,000 points. Drouin tallied 7,150 points, finishing fourth.
The jump exceeded the previous stadium record of 2.26 meters which was set by Jesse Williams of NIKE on April 4, 2014. Williams competed only in the high jump during the 2014 Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational.
First place in the 2017 version of the Sam Adams went to Hunter Veith of Wichita State who tallied 7,610 points.
Also competing in this year’s Sam Adams was Westmont’s Pieter Top who recorded 6,086 points in a seventh-place finish. Top’s point total is the second most by an NAIA athlete this year. If Top finishes the season in the first sixteen, he will qualify for a place in the NAIA National Championships in Gulf Shore, Alabama beginning May 25.
Top’s best finish in the decathlon events was in the 1500 meter run. Top finished first in a time of 4:22.98.
The women’s heptathlon was won by Lindsay Schwartz of the Santa Barbara Track Club with 5,773 points. Schwartz edged out her teammate Chari Hawkins who tallied 5,685 points.
Westmont’s Becky Collier finished seventh with 4,742 points. The point total is the second best this year by an NAIA athlete – second only to her own score of 4,839 points that she scored at the Jim Klein Combined Events in March. Collier is the defending NAIA National Outdoor Women’s Heptathlon National Champion.