FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas — Collegians have the lead through day one of the USATF Combined Events Championships as Georgia’s Kyle Garland topped the decathlon scoring after five events and Florida’s Anna Hall led the heptathlon through four events. The top three finishers at these Championships who meet the World Athletics Outdoor Championships qualifying standard will earn a berth on Team USATF for the first edition of the global championships to ever be held on U.S. soil. Hall (Gainesville, Florida/USATF Florida) bookended the day’s four events with lifetime bests in the 100m hurdles and 200m. Hall, who holds the 2022 world lead at 6,412 points, opened the day with a big PR of 13.21, taking .2 seconds off her previous best in the 100H, and then finished up with a 23.14 in the 200m to chop .67 off the lifetime best she set at the Texas Relays in March. Though Hall’s performances in the high jump (1.76m/5-9.25) and shot put (12.51m/41-0.5) weren’t near her lifetime bests, she ended the day atop the point standings with 3,781. USATF Indoors pentathlon champion Chari Hawkins (San Diego, California/USATF San Diego-Imperial)) is only 31 points adrift of Hall after notching a lifetime best in the 100H at 13.12 and adding solid efforts in the other three events. Michelle Atherley (Coral Gables, Florida/USATF Florida) won the 100H in 12.96 and sits third with 3,673, while Arkansas graduate Taliyah Brooks(Fayetteville, Arkansas/USATF Arkansas) is fourth with 3,662. Last year’s World Athletics Combined Events Tour champion, Kendell Williams (Kennesaw, Georgia/USATF Georgia), has a bye into the World Championships and is fifth with 3,659. In the men’s decathon, the sixth-place finisher at last summer’s Olympic Trials and runner-up in this year’s NCAA indoor heptathlon, Garland (Athens, Georgia/USATF Georgia) racked up a very impressive 4,660 points to lead Trials champion and Olympic fourth-place finisher Garrett Scantling (Jacksonville, Florida/USATF Florida) by 157 points. Personal bests in the 100m (10.63) and long jump (7.86m/25-9.5) set the 21-year-old up well for the rest of the day, and he added his second-best shot put performance ever with a 16.44m/53-11.25 before clearing 2.16m/7-1 in the high jump and clocking 49.04 in the 400m. Scantling spanned a lifetime best of 7.68m/25-2.5 in the long jump and was near his bests in the 100m, shot put and 400m to tally 4,503 points. Tokyo teammates Zach Ziemek (Sun Prairie, Wisconsin/USATF Wisconsin) and Steven Bastien (Ann Arbor, Michigan/USATF Michigan) ended the day in third and fourth, with Ziemek winning the 100m in 10.56 and Bastien the 400m in 47.44. Saturday’s final day begins at 2:00 p.m. CT with the men’s 110m Hurdles. The women start their day with the long jump at 3:00 p.m. CT. The 2022 USATF Combined Events Championships will be webcast on USATF.TV+. Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on May 6 and 7. Fans can stay on top of the action by following live results here. Join the conversation with USATF on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook using the hashtag #USATF.