Four Steps Closer

BOSTON, Mass. (3/09/19)---Junior Matt Bye took four steps up the ladder towards becoming an All-American as he finished 11th in the heptathlon at the NCAA National Indoor Meet held at the Reggie Lewis Trak and Athletic Center in Boston.

Bye was competing in his second consecutive NCAA national multi-event competition. Last year he finished 15th in the decathlon at the NCAA National Outdoor Meet held in La Crosse, Wis.

Bye finished the heptathlon at this year's national indoor meet with 4,783 points which was 24 away from a Top 10 finish and 160 points behind All-American honors which are given to the Top 8 finishers.

Bye's final total was shy of his personal best total of 4,876 points which he scored on his way to becoming the MIAC champion in the heptathlon at the conference indoor meet on Feb. 21.

Bye scored at least 700 points in three of the seven events in Boston with his top point total coming in the 60-meter hurdles when he clocked a time of 8.64 and earned 827 points. 

Bye started the national heptathlon by posting a time of 7.47 in the 60-meter dash. That time gave him 723 points to start the 7-event competition. His finishing time was .01 of a second off his season best time which he had at the MIAC Meet when he clocked a 7.46.
   
Bye then recorded a mark of 20-09.25 in the long jump which was good for 659 points. He posted his best distance on his third, and final, attempt of the competition. Bye's mark was No.14 out of the 20 competitors in the field.

The third event of the heptathlon was the shot put and Bye was able to break into the Top 10 among the athletes with a throw of 37-09.25 which came on his second attempt. The distance earned him 577 points and pushed his 3-event total to 1,959 points.

Bye ended the first day of the heptathlon by competing in the high jump. He once again finished in the Top 10 of the athletes in the event with a height of 6-01.25. That mark gave him an additional 679 points and put him in 15th place heading into Day 2 of the event.

Bye started Saturday with his best event – the 60-meter hurdles. He ran the fourth fastest time among all athletes and earned 827 points which pushed him into ninth place in the standings.

The penultimate event of the heptathlon was the pole vault and Bye survived a bit of drama and ended up recording a height of 12-11.50 which added 603 points to his total. The pole vault event took four hours to complete and Bye ended up making 16 vaults in the competition. His most dramatic moment of the entire meet came on his opening height at 11-07.75 where he started his final attempt and got to the top of his vault but came backwards towards the runway. Since he didn't break the plane of the plant box he was allowed to go back to the start of the runway and make one more attempt. He completed this all in the 30-second time limit and went on to clear the bar and avoid disaster in the event.

Bye's only PR of the seven events came in the final event. He crossed the line in the grueling 1000 meters in a time of 2:54.92 which earned him 715 points. His time was .55 of a second faster than his finishing time at the MIAC heptathlon.

Matt Bye NCAA Heptathlon Individual Event Results

NCAA Heptathlon Final Standings
1. Will Daniels – Central – 5,418 pts.
2. Cody Faust – Wis.-Platteville – 5,239 pts.
3. Leif Van Grinsven – Wheaton (Ill.) – 5,072 pts.
4. Ryan Rogers – Loras – 5,049 pts.
5. Charles Moody – Southern Maine – 5,004 pts.
6. Zachary Haskin – Cobleskill – 4,991 pts.
7. Justin Canedy – Johns Hopkins – 4,956 pts.
8. Jeremy Lee – Wis.-Stevens Pt. – 4,943 pts.
9. Nicholas McGill – Whitworth – 4,900 pts.
10. Jon Sheryak – Hanover – 4,807 pts.
11. Matt Bye – Concordia – 4,783 pts.
12. Troy Colleran – Amherst – 4,750 pts.
13. Noah Meeteer – Wis.-La Crosse – 4,739 pts.
14. Kyle Swiecki – Utica – 4,712 pts.
15. Isaiah Brooks – Cortland State – 4,602 pts.
16. Zachary Kashmer – Cortland State – 4,218 pts.
17. Ritchie Case – Stevenson – 4,143 pts.
18. Dominic Oddo – Case Western – 4,106 pts.
19. Ben Jones – Wis.-La Crosse – 4,024 pts.
20. Dylan Cooper – Wis.-Eau Claire - DNF