Idaho teen continues golden summer with 2 national track championships in single meet
Landon Helms will begin his collegiate track and field career at Texas A&M this fall.
In the meantime, the Emmett High graduate is finishing off his days as a high school athlete with a summer most teenagers could only dream about.
Helms recently won national titles in the decathlon and pole vault at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, California.
It marked the third national title in the decathlon for Helms this summer following a sweep of the 110-meter hurdles, 300 hurdles, long jump and pole vault at the 4A Idaho state track and field meet in May.
“I’ve been saying this phrase ever since the state meet: This year, I feel beyond blessed,” Helms said. “Because the past couple years I’ve had a stress fracture in each of my feet. I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to come back to track or not. So being able to make a full recovery and still be able to compete and be right there at the top of the nation, I just feel so blessed.”
Helms also won decathlon championships at Nike Outdoor Nationals and the 2022 USATF U20 Outdoor Championships, both of which were held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, earlier this summer.
The fracture in Helms’ left foot required three surgeries and two screws. He then fractured his right foot last summer and had to wear a boot that kept him out of competition until the fall.
But any evidence of Helms’ hardship evaporated over the course of his indoor and outdoor seasons his senior year at Emmett. He dominated the competition in Idaho throughout the outdoor season, winning every race he entered in the 110 hurdles, culminating with the four gold medals at the state meet. His time in the 110 hurdles broke one of the oldest remaining all-class state meet records, originally set in 1985, at 13.69 seconds.
The medal haul left him with eight state titles in his high school career. He won the 110 hurdles and pole vault each of the three seasons with a state track meet. Idaho did not have a state meet in 2020 during the initial outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
He was then named the Gatorade Idaho Track and Field Male Athlete of the Year.
Helms’ latest performance at the USATF National Junior Olympics may have been his best yet.
In winning the decathlon, he set personal bests in four of 10 events. He finished the first day of competition in second place after PRs in both the 400 meters and high jump. He blasted into the lead on Day 2 with more personal bests in the discus and the 1,500 meters. He finished with 6,988 points, well ahead of second-place finisher Will Quintana, who had 6,119.
Helms then competed in both the pole vault and 110 hurdles on July 31.
“The 110 hurdles and the pole vault almost always collide right on time,” Helms said. “I had to warm up for pole vault and then I had to go run the 110 hurdles right before I was set to come in on my opening height in pole vault.
“The finals for the 110 hurdles, that was the first race I have lost all season long.”
While the second-place finish at a national meet was nothing to sneeze at (13.98), Helms got right back to his winning form by clearing 5 meters to claim the pole vault title.
Mountain Home teen wins 2 titles
Helms wasn’t the only Idaho athlete to reach the top of the podium.
Benjamin Hiestand swept the shot put and discus in the 13/14 age group at the USATF Junior Olympics.
The 13-year-old, who will be an eighth-grader at Mountain Home Junior High this fall, set personal bests in both events, winning the shot put with a distance of 47-4.50 and the discus with a throw of 162-9.25.
Borah grad takes fifth at worlds
Borah High graduate Nathan Green placed fifth in the men’s 1,500 meters at the World Athletics U20 Championships on Wednesday in Santiago de Cali, Colombia.
Green clocked a time of 3:39.44. Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot of Kenya won the race in 3:35.83. Only 12 runners made the final out of 39 who qualified for the meet.
