Ja’Kobe Tharp turned the NCAA championships into a record book event on Thursday, running 12.75 seconds to win the men’s 110-meter hurdles and set a new world record for Auburn. His time at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, broke Aries Merritt’s 12.80 mark from 2012 and also wiped out Grant Holloway’s collegiate record of 12.98 from 2019.
The run was more than a fast finish. It was the first men’s world record at the NCAA championships since Dwight Stone went long jump record-setting in 1976, and it arrived while Auburn was already stacking up one of the meet’s loudest days. The Tigers’ 4x100 relay quartet of Azeem Fahmi, Kayinsola Ajayi, Austin Kresley and Tyler Davis had set a collegiate record in the heats, clocking 37.75 seconds in heat two to beat LSU’s 37.90 from 2023. For a program looking to turn speed into points, the timing could hardly have been better.
Tharp’s title also sat inside a broader opening stretch that had already reshaped the championship race. BYU’s Ben Barton opened the decathlon with 4,414 points to lead after Day 1, after winning the 100 meters, high jump and 400 meters and taking third in the long jump. By Day 2, Louisville’s Kenneth Byrd had moved ahead in the decathlon with 6,925 points after clearing 5.41 meters in the pole vault, the best vault among the multi-event field.
One result, though, complicated the team picture Auburn was trying to dominate. Nebraska still led all teams after six events with 28 total points, even with the Tigers’ record-setting sprint work on the board. That gap matters because the championships were still unfolding in Eugene, with 15 events left to be scored and most of the track schedule still to come.
Nebraska added another headline through Dyson Wicker, who won the men’s pole vault with a personal-best 5.85 meters and became the No. 10 all-time collegiate performer. New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel also repeated as the men’s 10,000 meters champion, reclaiming the title after winning it as a freshman. The day’s early titles and records have already made the NCAA track and field championships 2026 results feel decisive in spots, but the team race and the decathlon are still the parts left most open.
For Auburn, Tharp’s record is the kind of performance that can define a championship. For everyone else, the next question is whether one historic sprint and one collegiate relay mark are enough to catch Nebraska before the final events close the book in Eugene.
