Men's Results | Women's Results
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Chukwuebuka Enekwechi led going into the final three throws of the weight throw competition at the NCAA Championships on Friday. He would wind up breaking the NCAA Championships meet record on his final attempt and settle for third on a historic day in the event. Devynne Charlton also competed on the first day of the championships in the 60-meter hurdles.
Enekwechi opened the weight throw with a toss of 23.50m (77-1.25). That distance was the best out of any of the 16 competitors through two rounds. USC's Conor McCullough responded on his third attempt with a throw of 23.59m (77-4.75) to take the lead heading into finals, just three and a half inches ahead of Enekwechi.
The Purdue junior saved his best three throws of the day for last, though.
Throwing second to last, as the finals is redrawn to throw in descending order from ninth place to first, Enekwechi took the lead with his fourth attempt. There, he threw the weight 23.86m (78-3.50). Enekwechi still led heading into his fifth attempt where he again bettered his mark. This time he recorded a distance of 23.87m (78-3.75). That mark was the leader heading into the final round of throws, which was basically down to four competitors.
Virginia's Jordan Young was first to throw among those four, as he was in fourth heading into finals. He threw his biggest mark with a distance of 22.87m (75-0.25), which moved him momentarily into third. Next was Michael Lihrman of Wisconsin. His final attempt broke the NCAA meet record with a distance of 24.64m (80-10.25), which moved him into the lead. Enekwechi followed that up with his biggest attempt of the day, a mark of 24.18m (79-4), which also broke the previous meet record of 24.02m (78-9.75) set by Libor Charfreitag of Southern Methodist in 2001. That throw bumped Enekwechi into second place. The final thrower was McCullough and he saved his best attempt for the final throw of his career, as he recorded a distance of 24.48m (80-3.75) to take second place. McCullough became just the third division I thrower to throw at least 80 feet in the weight, joining Enekwechi and Lihrman who both first accomplished the feat earlier this season.
Enekwechi's finish earned six points for the Purdue men. He has now finished third at the NCAA Championships in the weight throw all three years of his career. As a redshirt freshman in 2013, he recorded a throw of 21.52m (70-7.25) to take bronze. Last year, he improved his NCAA Championships mark to 22.49m (73-9.50) before this year's mark bested all previous weight throws in the history of the meet.
Charlton competed in the 60m hurdles on the women's side. She drew the lane 8 assignment, starting on the end of the first heat. The sophomore school-record holderfinished sixth in her heat with a time of 8.24 seconds. Her time would hold on to finish 12thin the country.
The meet officially wraps up the indoor season for the Boilermakers. The team will now head to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for the team's spring break trip. The week-long trip will be capped with the Shamrock Invitational next weekend.