Feeling good again
Tyson Byers has had a storied pole vaulting career, first at University High School and now at Washington State.
Lately, however, the stories haven’t had the happiest of endings.
Byers was a three-time state Class 4A pole vault champion for the Titans, clearing a meet record 17 feet as a senior in 2002, and clearing a personal best and school record 17-1 to earn prep All-America honors. As a collegian, he placed fifth at the 2005 NCAA track and field championships in Sacramento with personal best 17-81/2 to earn All-America honors.
But instead of being a springboard to higher and higher jumps in 2006, Byers struggled with a string of injuries. You can count the number of jumps Byers made during his junior season on two hands.
“I thought it was (going to be a break-out year),” he said. “It’s just really, really, really frustrating. Last year I was coming off a pretty good season for my sophomore year and at the beginning of the year, once my shoulder healed, I was faster and stronger than I’ve ever been before in my life – a lot faster and stronger than the year before. I thought I was ready for some big heights and something like this happens.
“It’s kind of an every-other-year type deal for me. Last year started off with a shoulder injury, but I got that taken care of. Then, my first meet back, I was kind of going for a short approach, and I tore my hamstring. I got back from that a little bit and tried to come back too fast and tore it again.”
While the best pole vaulters in the country gathered for the NCAA championships this past spring, Byers was packing his bags and heading north to spend the summer working on a commercial Alaskan salmon fishing boat.
“I couldn’t even watch,” he said. “It really sucked – especially this year because there were so many guys there that I’ve competed against and I know I’m better than they are. To watch them do well there was really frustrating.”
Life on a gill-netter is grueling. The hours are long, sleep comes infrequently, and the work is hard. For Byers, it was balm for his frustration and a boon to his student bank account.
And it was good for his injured hamstring.
“It’s one of those things where you have to just let it take hold and get completely off of it and let it heal,” he said. “That’s why I think it was good for me to spend the summer on a fishing boat. There’s no place to run.”
Now back on the Pullman campus, Byers is ready to enjoy the break-out season that has been predicted for him each of his first four years at Washington State.
“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I went to see a doctor after I got back from Alaska. There were a couple things wrong. One of my hips was rotated up, which is causing more stress on my hamstring. My hips aren’t rotating when I run and that puts strain on the hamstring. I’ve been seeing both a chiropractor and a physical therapist, getting my hips in alignment and getting deep tissue massages.”
Byers doesn’t have a huge class load to worry about. Once the indoor track season begins in January, he won’t have a single distraction.
“This is my fifth year,” he said. “My class schedule is so light that I can put all the time I need into training. I don’t even have a class second semester; I get two credits for track and I’ll take those second semester. That will start right at the beginning of the indoor season, and I’ll be a full-time track athlete.”
For inspiration, Byers has only to look at his friend and former U-Hi teammate, Brad Walker.
Walker was a 16-foot vaulter as a senior when Byers was a freshman, and it was Walker’s U-Hi school record that Byers eventually broke.
At the University of Washington, Walker won the NCAA championship as a senior with a vault of 18-6½ and has since gone on to clear 19-1½
“Brad Walker, that’s huge that he stays healthy,” Byers said. “That’s the thing – if you can stay healthy you can continue to train hard and do all the right things.
“I didn’t have a single injury in high school. But once you get stronger and faster – and I’m a lot stronger and faster than I was in high school. And I’m older. Once you turn 20, you have to make sure you take extra time to warm up and stretch.”
Byers sits in third-place on the list of all-time best pole vaulters at Washington State, behind Christos Pallakis, who cleared 18-61/2 to set the school record in 1995, and Patrik Johansson (18-1/2).
Looking ahead, however, he’s not concerned with specific numbers.
“I have big goals this year, and the main one is to stay healthy,” he said. “Right now I’m really trying to strengthen that hamstring and take really good care of it. I’m icing it. I warm up really well and stretch really well. That’s pretty much all you can do.
“This year I’m really going to take it slow as far as pacing myself for getting back on the pole. I just want to make sure I do every single thing right.”
Do that, he figures, and he’s already cleared the bar.