Mississippi State University junior Peyton Bair won his first national title in outdoor decathlon on Thursday, finishing with a collegiate-leading personal-best total of 8,323 points. University of California, Santa Barbara senior Brad Thomas finished second with 7,888 points, followed by Kansas State University junior Emil Uhlin in third with 7,859 points.
Bair placed first in Wednesday’s first event, the 100-meter race. His winning time of 10.25 (+0.5) seconds put him in the lead with 1,035 points. Bair then maintained that lead across the next nine events, also winning the 400-meter race with a time of 46.00 seconds.
“It feels awesome. It’s something I’ve been working towards for a long time,” Bair said after his win. “Seeing my family, my wife, my coaches and friends here, I’ll just never forget it.”
In addition to his two event wins, Bair also placed fourth in the long jump and javelin, fifth in the 110-meter hurdles, seventh in the shot put and high jump, eighth in the discus, and 10th in the 1500-meter race. Bair’s only finish outside the top ten came in the pole vault, where he finished 11th.
The win marks Blair’s second national title of the year, as he also won the heptathlon at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships in March. The Kimberly, Idaho native finished as the runner-up in last year’s outdoor championships and has earned multiple NCAA first-team All-American honors.
“I think there was a lot of motivation to go off in the offseason and put in some work so that I can come back and be better this season,” said Bair on finishing second in 2024.
Thomas’ second place effort was buoyed by a second-place finish in the javelin, two third-place finishes in the 400-meter and 1,500-meter races, and two fifth-place finishes in the discus and long jump.
“The decathlon is all about consistency,” Thomas said afterwards. “I didn’t have any (personal bests), but I didn’t really have any misses, and I think I learned a lot from that.”
Meanwhile, Uhlin achieved third place via a late surge. Though he finished 10th or higher in five of the first six events, he finished fourth in the discus (seventh event), second in the discus (eighth event) and a narrow first in the 1,500-meter finale (4:22.46) to complete his rally.
The women’s heptathlon will begin Friday with the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200-meter race, and will conclude Saturday with the long jump, javelin and 800-meter race.
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