WINONA LAKE, Ind. --- The first day of the 2018 National Christian College Athletic Association Outdoor Track & Field Championships began with a morning full of multi-event competition. A Biola student-athlete won three of the five decathlon events and there's an Eagle atop the overall leaderboard halfway through.

The day began with a bang as Nathaniel Belden earned a win in a tight 100m race. The sophomore completed the heat in :11.43 to edge out the second-place runner by 16-hundredths of a second and get out to an early lead. Corry Williams earned 675 points in the opening event to sit tied for fifth.

Beginning with the long jump, Williams began his ascent to the top of the individual standings. He finished second in the LJ, which was one of three top-2 finishes for the Illinois-based sophomore. His 5.94m jump is his second-best ever.

The long jump was a challenging event for Belden, who suffered a leg injury on his first attempt. That attempt was clean, coming in at 5.30m, but the injury would ultimately force Belden to retire from the decathlon.

He reached down deep to attempt one more event before retiring, giving a try at the shot put. Belden's leg injury impacted his lead-up to the throw, causing two shorter than typical throws in his first two attempts. In his final go he turned around and tried a full attempt with his off hand, but it didn't result in an improved mark.

Nothing was shorter than typical for Williams in his shot put attempts. He set a new career-best with his third toss, a 12.04m heave, and won the event by a full meter. That win is what moved him into first place through three events, with a 53-point advantage.

Williams made it back-to-back wins in the next event as he set a new personal-best in the high jump and cleared one more height than any other competitor. He cleared four of his six heights on his first attempt, including the event-winning height of 1.86m. His previous career-best was 1.85m. Feeling strong, Williams gave it three attempts at the next height (1.89m), but he was not able to get more points by clearing that.

Those points could prove to be important as Williams saw a 102-point lead shrink to just three points with the results of the day's final event, the 400m. He finished third in the five-man race with a :54.35. The first-place and second-place runners both came from Greenville, and they are the second- and third-place competitors in the decathlon standings following day one.

Williams' day one tally of 3,158 points is just 53 points shy of his all-time day one best. Day two of decathlon competition begins on Friday at 5:30 a.m. with the 110m hurdles. Williams has the top time coming into that event.