Tyler Day - From average to Great
Updated: May 3, 2020
“Those were things that were rare for people from my city”
By Evan Smith
In 2020 Tyler Day is known as a 3-time NCAA Champion, and the fastest American Collegiate runner over 5000 metres. But before rising to fame for the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona University (NAU) he came from a city in Arizona called Gilbert, where success in running was not the normal.
In his earlier career Day would not break 9:25 over 3200 metres, in fact, he ran 9:28.02 which ranked him 668th in the nation for the event. But for the Gilbert Arizona native, his senior year would be just enough to set him up for success later in his career. Tyler Day recalls his senior season, he says, “…the moments that help define me were qualifying for NXN and becoming a state champion.” Being from Gilbert Arizona Tyler Day says, “Those were things that were rare for people from my city to do and to be able to do those things meaned a lot to me and made me realize that I can compete at the next level.” Becoming a top runner in his home state of Arizona, Day was just beginning a transcendent career. After rising to the top of Arizona running, Tyler Day would choose one of the best long-distance running programs with NAU. Starting his long tenured career at Northern Arizona, Day says, “Moments that stood out to me in college was signing my NLI to NAU and becoming a Lumberjack….” By signing to Northern Arizona University, Day would start his career in the fall of 2015 with the fourth best team in the Nation at the time.
Coming into university Tyler Day started off his career where he left off high school by coming 3rd at the Conference Championship and 14th at NCAA Regionals. After having success under coach Eric Heins, Day would find out that the following year in 2016 would be Heins’ last with the program. With this news affecting his career at NAU Tyler Day reminisces about the transition, saying that, “Transitioning between coaches was actually not bad at all. During Coach Eric Heins last semester with me, Coach Smith was with the staff to see how things were done. After that ’16 xc season Smith was at the lead and we all knew him and got use to him so it was painless.” As he seamlessly transitioned during his sophomore season between coaches, Day would become vital to what the Lumberjacks would accomplish over thenext three years. With Tyler Day and his teammate Matt Baxter at the helm, their would be another memorable moment for him when NAU would “three peat in xc … [while] being able to compete with a great group of guys and gals on the xc and track teams.” This success though did not come without ridicule and struggles for Tyler Day and his teammates
During Day’s successful and memorable career at Northern Arizona the noise from media, teams, and fans were very present. This Noise would sometimes find its way into the head of Day and others, as he says; “Struggles for being with a team like NAU during that time was to fight what people were telling us. It was hard going into races because if we would have won the title people would have expected that from us but if we lose people would say that they knew we couldn’t hold that streak.” This mental aspect for Day, like many runners, is a big proponent of the sport, especially at this level of the competition. Fortunate enough for Tyler Day, he had a great support staff around him at Northern Arizona University as “…the coaches and the team dealt with those outside forces and … [kept] focused for the next race.” The success that Day as accomplished with the help of the Lumberjacks staff would continue in Day’s final indoor track season where he would run 13:16 over the 5000 metres distance, which was a mere three seconds shy of the Olympic standard.
The story of Tyler Day is one of passion, pride, and persistence by him to become apart of something that was special at Northern Arizona University. Even though his collegiate career is coming to an end, Day says, “[his] Plans post college is to keep training and keep running and see what my future is in running.” With no plans set in stone for the Arizona native for the future, people know he will still be working harder then ever to continue his success.
Direct quotes per Tyler Day, Direct Message Instagram to Evan Smith. (April 2020)
Photo @nautrackfieldxc https://www.instagram.com/p/B_id7_WHgm0/
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