Romain Martin
Track and Field
Summer 2011 · Comment ·
He’s a freshman at UT Arlington, a sophomore athlete according to the NCAA, and a newcomer to this country. Yet already he has claimed third in the heptathlon at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and 11th in the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. It’s been quite a year for Romain Martin, a 6-foot-7 native of France who helped the men’s track team reach a No. 24 national ranking. “I’m just trying to do my best,” he says. So far, Martin’s best has been historically good. He captured Southland Conference men’s indoor track Athlete of the Year honors after a breakthrough rookie season in which he set the UT Arlington heptathlon record. Early in the outdoor season, he shattered the school’s decathlon mark with 7,867 points. He won the decathlon at the conference meet and was named Newcomer of the Year. Though in his first year of college in the United States, NCAA regulations tab Martin a sophomore because of his age (he attended two years of college in France). Assistant coach Brandon Berger calls Martin’s improvement “amazing.” During the NCAA Indoor Championships, he equaled or bettered each of his personal records. That gives the track program hope that the best is yet to come.
