Bye Becomes An All-American
GENEVA, Ohio (5/24/19)---Junior Matt Bye continued his progression up the national multi-event chart and his third attempt paid off with All-American honors. Bye finished eighth in the decathlon at the NCAA National Outdoor Meet held in Geneva, Ohio to earn his first-ever All-American award.
Bye earned his All-American honor by holding on down the stretch of the 1500 meters, the final event of the decathlon, and nipped the ninth-place finisher by a mere six points.
Bye becomes the first Cobber men's track and field All-American since 2002 when Joe Schmidgall also earned All-American honors in the decathlon at the national outdoor meet. He is also the 10th Concordia men's track and field athlete to earn All-American honors at the NCAA National Outdoor Meet.
Bye finished the 10 events at the national meet with 6,623 points which was six points clear of the ninth-place finisher and 213 points away from a Top 5 finish. Bye's previous best finish at a national meet came in the winter when he finished 11th at the NCAA National Indoor Meet.
Bye earned his All-American honor on the strength of the events on the second day of competition. He had a pair of personal best marks and finished in the Top 5 among the 20 competitors in three of the three events on Friday.
Bye started the second day of the event in 14th place with 3,354 points. He made his way into the Top 10 after the second event (discus) of the day and then climbed into All-American (Top 8) contention after the third event (pole vault).
Bye started Day 2 by placing second in the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 15.13 which earned him 834 points – his top point total of the 10 events. Bye then finished fourth in the discus with a personal distance of 125-07 which earned him 630 points. Bye made it a throwing Top 5 double in the javelin as he unleashed a throw of 168-05 to record 608 points which was fourth best among all decathletes.
Bye's other PR on Friday came in the pole vault where he cleared the bar at 13-01.50. That was the third event of the day and gave him 617 points and pushed him into seventh place.
Bye cemented his All-American honor by placing fourth in the javelin – the ninth event of the competition. Having to only finish the 1500 meters in a time of 4:58.0, Bye hung on and posted a time of 4:56.50 to earn his first0ever All-American honor.
Bye scored at least 600 points in eight of the 10 events of the decathlon. His only other 700 point-plus event came in the opener when he clocked an 11.37 in the 100-meter dash and recorded 780 points. His time was a personal best by 0.31 of a second.
COBBER OUTDOOR ALL-AMERICANS
Matt Bye - Decathlon - 2019
Joe Schmidgall - Decathlon - 2002
Adam Strainer - Decathlon - 2000
Aaron Banks - Shot Put & Discus - 1996, 1995, 1994
Jason Trichler 3000 Meter Steeplechase - 1992
Greg Defor - 800 Meters - 1988
Kurt Waters - Pole Vault - 1985
Dave Swanberg - 400 Meters - 1984
Howard Berglund - Javelin - 1984
Steve Fox - 400-Meter Hurdles -1977, 1978