Lincoln's hot streak continues with huge, record-setting win at Drake Relays

DES MOINES, Iowa - Despite setting a triple jump meet record at last weekend's AAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Myles Lincoln wasn't fully satisfied with his performance, admitting his 15.00 meter jump "wasn't as far as I wanted to go."

His belief that he could do better proved justified on Friday.

Competing at one of the biggest track and field events in the country, Lincoln broke his own outdoor triple jump school record and got a huge win leading up to NAIA Nationals with first-place distance of 15.37 meters at the Drake Relays.

Held at Drake University (Iowa), the four-day Drake Relays feature high ranking competitors from the high school, college and even professional ranks. And despite being one of just two NAIA jumpers in the collegiate event, Lincoln made it immediately clear he belonged with a 14.98-meter jump that put him in first place going into the finals.

Surrounding by what he believes was the largest crowd he's ever jumped in front of, Lincoln was completely swept up in the moment.

"It felt so surreal," he said. "Everybody was cheering, everybody was jumping around. It's like a different beast."

He took that energy into the finals, wasting no time by hitting a new school record on his first jump, which eventually secured him a win in a field where six of the 16 competitors were from NCAA Division-I schools.

The accolades don't stop there, as his distance was not only the second best in the nation this year, it is the 17th best in the history of the NAIA. And to make this more impressive, Lincoln says he wasn't even jumping at 100 percent.

"Every time I took a step my calf would cramp," he said. "It was kind of restricting me, but I just pushed threw it and as soon as I heard (I'd jumped) 15.37, I just went crazy."

His coach had a similar reaction.

"When he hit the first phase I thought 'this looks good,'" Bulldog coach Chris Jelks said. "When he hit the second phase I thought 'it's close.' And when he landed, I said 'Holy (cow), he got it.'"

Lincoln surpassed his previous school record of 15.22 meters, which was set during a second-place finish at the 2021 NAIA Outdoor Championships.

And when he returns to the national stage in Marion, Ind. four weeks from now, he says his confidence will be at an all-time high.

"I don't even know how to feel," he said. "I'm so excited."