Men's Recap: USC Standout Rises Up Again After Missing Outdoor Collegiate Season; Geist Wins First Shot Put Title; Nilesen Wins Fourth Title; Tinch Wins Photo Finish; Robinson Rules 400 Hurdles

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

Eliza Smallwood and John Nepolitan Photos

INTERVIEWS

NEW YORK — Garrett Kaalund wasn’t even sure if the USATF Championships were happening this year. 

Kaalund, the NCAA indoor 200 champion for USC, won a surprising victory on Sunday as American record holder and five-time U.S. champ Noah Lyles pulled up on the home stretch with a leg cramp. Kaalund broke the tape in 20.04 seconds, beating Nike’s Brandon Hicklin by a quarter of a second.

“I never expected to become a national champion in my entire career,” Kaalund said. 

Before talking to his coach a few weeks ago about planning his outdoor season post-injury, he wasn’t even aware that the USATF Championships were still happening this year; he thought the absence of the World Championships or Olympics meant no USAs.

When he signed up to race at Icahn Stadium, he expected nothing more than to gain some experience racing against the pros. After missing the NCAA Championships due to injury, he was curious about what kind of shape he was in. A meet like this one seemed like the perfect opportunity for a test run.

Kaalund said after the preliminary round on Saturday that he wasn’t expecting “anything crazy” for himself, including beating Lyles.

“Hopefully, I get to at least get close to Noah,” Kaalund said on Saturday. “I don’t expect the impossible, to be beating him.”

Coming around the bend in the final on Sunday, Kaalund expected to see Lyles surge past him, and sure enough, Lyles put himself in great position starting down the home stretch. Kaalund, obviously, did not expect to see Lyles pull up. As that happened, he realized that he had a shot at winning.

“That’s not how I wanted to win this,” Kaalund told himself. “But it happens in (a lot of) races and I can’t really stop what’s happening, so I just have to stay focused and make my way to the finish line.”

Kaalund said his season is likely over after this weekend, as he does not have enough world rankings points to qualify for the World Ultimate Championships in September.

As for Lyles, he came over to Kaalund after the race and told him simply: “I’m gonna be back.”

Cordell Tinch, Christopher Robinson win hurdles finals

Less than two hours before the final of the men’s 110-meter hurdles, Cordell Tinch didn’t know if he would be running in it. The only reason he ran in the preliminary round was to test out a new model of the Nike Superfly spikes in a “low-pressure” environment — in Tinch’s view, the U.S. Championships in a global off-year didn’t carry much pressure.

The spikes felt good, though, so he lined up for the final and broke the tape in first place, running 13.00 seconds. Samford’s Bradley Franklin also ran 13.00 — an NCAA No. 5 all-dates performance — finishing just four thousandths of a second behind Tinch.

Tinch said his weekend as a whole served mostly as a checkpoint, despite it being his first U.S. title. With a season’s best in the bag, it was an encouraging checkpoint, he said.

“It just shows that everything I’ve been working on in order to be ready for September is going the right way,” Tinch said.

Christopher Robinson, meanwhile, won the 400-meter hurdles in a season’s best 47.61 seconds; he also picked up his first U.S. title.

“It feels like a real blessing,” Robinson said. “I’ve fought hard to get here. I’ve been doing a lot of practicing hard these last couple of weeks, so just getting here and winning a national title means everything to me.”

Field Events; Jordan Geist wins shot put, Chris Nilsen takes pole vault

Jordan Geist says he’s perfected the “bridesmaid” role — never the bride, that is.

After years of close calls, the 28-year-old won his first U.S. title on Sunday in the shot put, dominating the field with four throws over 22 meters, a distance no one else in the field could match. His best throw traveled 73-2.75 (22.32m).

Geist’s 2026 season as a whole has been stellar, something he attributes to having more consistency in training than ever before. He finished second at the U.S. Indoor Championships and again at the World Indoor Championships, earning his first global medal.

He moved back home to Pennsylvania last November and started coaching at Slippery Rock. Having a different support system in place, he said, was one of the most important changes in allowing him to develop more consistency.

Chris Nilsen, meanwhile, won the men’s pole vault over Sam Kendricks on a tiebreaker. Both cleared 19-1 (5.82m), but Kendricks missed once on that height, while Nilsen cleared the bar on his first attempt.

Ironically, Nilsen said the entire meet had been going poorly for him before he pulled out the win. He had had some poor practices in the week leading up to the competition, he said, and came into the weekend with low confidence. He didn’t even find a technique he was comfortable with until his third attempt at 18-9.25 (5.72m), which he made.

“These are the kind of meets I love,” Nilsen said, “because it wasn’t easy. It was a struggle the entire way. Every single jump, I was like, ‘That sucked. That sucked. Do better. Do better.’”

Nilsen enjoyed a big sigh of relief after clearing 5.72 meters. What was the change in technique he made?

“I just figured out, basically, how to not hit it like an idiot,” he said.

He had been going in too focused on making the bar instead of simply making a “normal jump,” he said. On his final attempt, he focused on his technique and let his speed and power take care of the rest. 

Unlike every other male winner on Sunday at the USATF Championships, Nilsen had done it before. This was his fourth U.S. outdoor title.