Pre weekend hype was focused on international competitions in New York and Germany, but collegians competing in the Texas A&M Challenge laid down some impressive marks of their own.

Oregon’s Ashton Eaton started things off nicely with a collegiate record 6256 points in the Heptathlon – making him the #14 performer ever in the event. Eaton was over 700 points ahead of the competition and looks primed for good things later this season. The long sprinters were also impressive with world leading marks by Tabarie Henry (TxAM, 45.81) and Curtis Mitchell (TxAM, 20.69). The men’s 4×4 was also a hot affair as TxAM (3:04.86), Baylor (3:05.52) and Florida (3:06.72) gave what should be a preview of three of the best squads in the country.

The pros put on a show this weekend too, however. In Millrose we got world leaders from Terrence Trammell (7.49, 60H) and Christian Cantwell (72′ 0.50″, shot). Cantwell was quite impressive with a series of marks in excess of 70 feet.

On the other side of the Atlantic there was a lot of hot action in Karlsruhe Germany. Laverne Ferrette lowered her world lead in the 60 with a 7.09 dash down the track. Also performing world leading efforts were Lolo Jones (7.90, 60H), Saif Shaheen (7:43.44, 3000), Silvia Kibet (8:41.24, 3000), Gelete Burka (4.03.92, 1500), Gideon Gathimba (3:37.0a, 1500), and Yuriy Borzakovskiy (1:45.94, 800). And though her 2.00m clearance was not a world lead, Arianne Friedrich’s winning jump was only a centimeter off rival Blank Vlasic’s yearly leader from last weekend.

This week will be VERY busy with meets in Goteborg (Tuesday), Dusseldorf (Wednesday), Stuttgart & Boston (Saturday), and Moscow (Sunday).