ALBUQUERQUE — Shattering the American record* and scaring the world record in the women's pentathlon, Anna Hall got the USATF Indoor Track & Field Championships off to a magnificent start Thursday at the Convention Center. Hall, the bronze medalist in the heptathlon at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, put together the greatest pentathlon performance ever by an American and moved to second on the all-time world list with her score of 5,004 points, 199 better than the existing AR and only 10 points away from a WR. The storyline going into the first day of the Championships was whether or not Hall would break the American women's pentathlon record of 4805, or could she possibly challenge the world record of 5013? Albuquerque's 1,512m/5,312ft altitude certainly provides a bit of help in the power and speed events, and the AR was set here by Sharon Day-Monroe in 2014. Running in the final section of the 60m hurdles, Hall rocketed to an early lead and shattered her previous lifetime best of 8.17 with an 8.04, the fastest of all three sections. Erin Marsh set the tone in the second section with an 8.11 that ended up as the second best time, and last year's winner, Chari Hawkins, had the third fastest time overall with an 8.17 behind Hall. As a comparison, the fastest ever 60mH by an American pentathlete was 7.98 by Erica Bougard on the way to her 4760 winning score here in 2018. Hall's most difficult event recently has been the high jump, due to previous issues with a foot injury, but she sailed over her first three heights on the first try. She had her first miss at 1.82m/5-11.5, but cleared on her second attempt before clearing 1.85m/6-0.75 without trouble. She wasn't done, by any means, and promptly made it over 1.88m/6-2 to equal her second-highest jump ever. As the bar went up to 1.91m/6-3.25, Hall was in rare air, two centimeters above her PB. She missed on her first attempt before sneaking over next time to put her record pursuit in high gear with 2,239 points after two events. Stepping into the shot put ring for her second attempt, Hall powered out to 13.80m/45-3.5, just four centimeters off her lifetime best, giving her 3,020 points after three events. Hawkins took over second, switching places with Marsh, both more than 250 points behind Hall. Needing a 6.50m/21-4 long jump and a 2:08.50 800m to beat the world record, Hall started with a 6.32m/20-9 and then fouled on her second attempt. Spanning 6.34m/20-9.75 on her last try, Hall took her score to 3,976 points and needed 830 from the 800m to claim the AR, a score she would need to run 2:19.55 to achieve. Giving it every single ounce of energy she had in the 800m, Hall went through 200m in 30.11 and passed the halfway point in 60.35. Maintaining her composure, she hit 600m in 1:32.14 and covered the final circuit of the 200m banked oval in 33.56 to finish in 2:05.70, two small steps off the 2:05.10 she needed to tally 5,014 and secure the WR. Hope Bender took silver with a lifetime best 4,445 points and Erin Marsh also scored a PB to earn bronze. The day's first final featured many-time USATF champion Nick Christie in the men's 3,000m race walk. Christie won the USATF 35km title in January and was riding a streak of four straight indoor golds. He went straight to the lead ahead of Dan Nehnevaj, who was second at the 35km championships, and was almost three seconds up at the 1km mark in 3:50.25. Christie's lead continued to grow, and he had a seven second margin by the mile, with USATF 1 Mile Race Walk champion Sam Allen in third another 16 seconds back. Passing 2km in 7:46.37, Christie was 14 seconds in front of Nehnevaj, who had added to his lead over Allen, now at just over 20 seconds. In the final kilometer, Christie inched ahead with each stride, and he crossed the finish line in 11:56.67 for his fifth straight victory and sixth all-time. Nehnevaj claimed second in 12:19.23 and Emmanuel Corvera moved past Allen to earn bronze in 12:50.49. Early in the women's 3,000m race walk, 2019 champion Miranda Melville was at the front, but just barely, with 10-time champion Maria Michta-Coffey on her shoulder and Katie Burnett not far behind. Michta-Coffey edged into the lead through 1km in 4:33.47 and over the next lap Janelle Branch moved past Burnett into third. Michta-Coffey, Melville and Branch were closely bunched at the mile mark, less than a half-second separating the trio. Branch took over the lead by 1,800m ahead of Melville and then Michta-Coffey, and at the 2km split in 9:12.31 there was nothing between the three contenders. Melville, the 35km champion last month, took off on the next lap and put a three-second gap on Michta-Coffey, with Branch an additional three seconds behind. Her lead went to almost eight seconds with three circuits remaining and she wasn't to be caught as she stopped the clock at 13:37.69 to win her second career 3,000m title. Michta-Coffey took silver in 13:49.29 and Branch bronze in 14:04.17. Coming in with the highest score of all entrants in the men's heptathlon at 6,018 points, Will Daniels sprinted to the early lead with a 6.83 in section one of the 60m. Last year's runner-up, Sam Black, was second overall at 6.87, with Olympic decathlete Steven Bastien fourth in 6.94. Bastien narrowed Daniels' lead to three points with a 7.55m/24-9.25 long jump and Devon Williams moved to third with a 7.42m/24-4.25. Daniels hit 7.40m/24-3.5 to raise his score to 1854 after two events. Black picked up points with his win in the shot put at 14.06m/46-1.5, but Daniels stayed atop the point standings with 2,571 after a 13.82m/45-4.25 toss. Bastien was still second, 40 points adrift, and Williams remained third. Closing out day one with a 2.06m/6-9 in the high jump, Daniels tallied 3,430 points to lead Bastien by 40 and Black by 141. The final three events will start at 10:30 am Friday with the 60m hurdles. *Pending verification by the USATF Records Committee. A full schedule of events can be found here. Fans can follow along on social media @usatf and can watch live on USATF.TV+ and on NBC from 4 - 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 18. Join the conversation with USATF on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook using the hashtag #JourneyToGold.