INDIANAPOLIS — Defending men's champion Steven Bastien and 2020 women's champion Annie Kunz head strong fields for the USATF Indoor Combined Events Championships that will be held in Indianapolis for the first time this weekend, January 27-28. The new Fall Creek Pavilion facility at the Indiana State Fairgrounds will play host to nine men in the heptathlon and 12 women in the pentathlon as some of the top U.S. multi-event stars vie for national titles and prize money totaling $30,000. Bastien, an Olympian in the decathlon at Tokyo in 2021, was sixth in the heptathlon at the 2022 World Indoor Championships, where he notched a personal best of 6,074 points. He captured the U.S. title at Albuquerque last year with a 6,012 score. His toughest competition will come from last year's NCAA indoor heptathlon champion, Kyle Garland. Garland, a World Championships team member in 2022 and 2023 in the decathlon, scored 6,639 points to take the NCAA title and smash the collegiate record by 140. His score was also the second highest ever, missing the world record by only six points. 2017 NCAA champion Devon Williams was third at last year's USATF Indoor Championships and has a 6,177 PB to go with a pair of trips to the World Championships in the decathlon in 2017 and 2019. The 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials women's heptathlon champion, Kunz placed sixth in that event at the Tokyo Olympics. She won the U.S. indoor pentathlon gold four years ago with 4,610 points and has a PB of 4,614. She was fourth in the heptathlon at the Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships last summer and earned silver at the 2019 Pan American Games. Top contenders also include last year's silver and bronze medalists, Hope Bender and Erin Marsh. Bender scored a big PB of 4,445 to finish as runner-up and went on to place eighth in the heptathlon at the Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships. Marsh was the Pan American Games heptathlon gold medalist last year and set her pentathlon PB at last year's indoor championships, tallying 4,432. She earned NCAA indoor bronze for Duke in 2021 and silver in 2022. Shaina Burns, who was fourth last year, and American women's decathlon record holder Jordan Gray will also be in the hunt for podium spots. Competition gets under way at 10 am ET Saturday with the first four events of the men's heptathlon. Sunday's schedule also starts at 10 am with the women's pentathlon 60 hurdles.