COLLEGIATE RECORD: Baylor's Lightfoot Soars In Lubbock

Collegiate records don’t last as long as they used to.

Nearly one year after Mondo Duplantis of LSU took down Shawn Barber’s four-year-old pole vault standard in 2019, Chris Nilsen of South Dakota bettered Duplantis’ mark exactly one day before it could celebrate its first anniversary.

Fast forward, not 11 months later: KC Lightfoot of Baylor put his name on top of the collegiate record book this afternoon at the Texas Tech Corky Classic.

Lightfoot topped 5.94m (19-5¾) on his first attempt at the height to demote Nilsen’s 5.93m (19-5½) to No. 2 all-time. It almost looked too easy for Lightfoot, as he entered at 5.44m (17-10¼) and cleared the next four bars without a hiccup and took three healthy cracks at 6.00m (19-8¼) before bowing out.

If Lightfoot clears 6.00m (19-8¼) in a meet, which he has already done in practice, he’d become just the 13th man in world history to accomplish that feat. Lightfoot now sits in a tie as the 15th best performer in world history after his record-setting effort on Saturday.