A pair of stellar performances from Jordan Geist and Valarie Sion highlighted a busy weekend on the 2026 USATF Tour, with three World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meets offering opportunities for valuable ranking points and cash prizes across an array of track and field events.
Geist came within a centimeter of his lifetime best in the men's shot put at the Iron Wood Classic in Rathdrum, Idaho, launching the 16-pound ball 22.24/72-11.75 and producing four throws beyond 22 meters in his series. His throw moved him to fourth on the yearly world list. In the women's discus at the same meet, Sion hit 70.29/230-7 in round five to win her sixth straight meet this season. Sion, the reigning Olympic and world champion and American record holder, also had a 70.00/229-8 effort in the third round. Only she and Laulauga Tausaga as Americans have ever thrown beyond 70m.
The Portland Track Festival is annually a hotbed of middle and long distance excellence, and this year it was Christian Jackson who topped the bill. Jackson, who was eighth in the recent NCAA Championships for Virginia Tech, rolled to a PB of 1:44.74 to claim the men's 800 title. Marisa Howard, an Olympian in 2024 and the 2019 Pan American Games silver medalist, had not run a 3000 steeplechase or any other races since the Paris Games, but she returned to the national scene with a bang, clocking 9:38.20 to grab a convincing win.
Gusting winds wreaked havoc with sprint times at the ATX Sprint Classic in Georgetown, Texas, blowing Lance Lang to a 9.86w 100 with a +3.6 aiding breeze, .01 ahead of Marcellus Moore. Lang, part of the winning U.S. men's 4x100 at the World Relays in Botswana in May, doubled back to win the 200 in a wind-legal season best of 20.21. Connor Schulman came away with the men's 110 hurdles victory in a windy 13.25w, turning back USATF Indoor Championships 60H champ Dylan Beard.
Former Texas-Rio Grande Valley star Nayla Harris dipped under 11 seconds in the women's 100 with a windy 10.94, and France's Olympic silver medalist Cyrena Samba-Mayela took the 100 hurdles in 12.50. In field event action, Steffin McCarter won the men's long jump with a barely wind-aided leap of 8.28/27-2 (+2.1 mps).