At the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Tyler Koskenoja '07 wrapped up his college career with a ninth-place finish in the decathlon. Koskenoja was the sole representative of the Dartmouth Track and Field teams at the meet, which was held June 11-14 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Koskenoja finished the two-day event with 7,449 points. The University of Oregon's Ashton Eaton scored 8,055 points for the win. Eaton's winning point total makes him just the 62nd American to ever score over 8,000 points in the decathlon. It was Koskenoja's second time at the NCAA Championships, where he had finished 19th last year. Koskenoja qualified for the national championship meet with his best-ever score of 7,460, a result from the meet that the Big Green Track and Field hosted during its Arizona training trip.
With the decathlon starting on the first day of the scheduled championship meet, Koskenoja had to fly out the day after graduation in order to get ready for the competition on the campus of Drake University.
In preparing for the NCAA Championships, Koskenoja missed out on Senior Week events, but the ninth-place finish is an impressive result to show for his sacrifice, especially for an athlete who first started training for the decathlon when he got to college. As a highly recruited javelin thrower, Koskenoja was interested in trying out the decathlon, but could not find many college coaches that shared his enthusiasm for the experiment.
"It was a big part of why I came to Dartmouth, where there's been a strong javelin and decathlon program, and it felt like a good fit," he said.
The first day's competition began with the 100-meter dash, where Koskenoja finished 23rd of 26 comeptitors, with a time of 11.43 seconds. Stormy weather delayed the next events for a couple days, as the inclement weather that had caused flooding in the Midwest passed through the Des Moines area. The next event in the decathlon was the long jump, in which Koskenoja finished 20th. Eaton, the eventual winner,won both of these events to gain a sizeable lead right out of the gates.
Despite the slow start, Koskenoja was intent on clawing his way back into the mix of things. In the third event, the shot put, Koskenoja finished 13th with a throw of 13.44 meters. This result was immediately followed by another 13th-place high jump, in which Koskenoja cleared 1.90 meters. In the final event of the first day, the 400-meter dash, Koskenoja achieved his best finish with a strong seventh-place showing. At the halfway mark of the decathlon, Koskenoja had clawed his way from an early hole into 14th place with a score of 3,696.
This set the stage for day two of the competition, which Koskenoja viewed as his stronger day. The decathlon resumed Thursday with the 110-meter hurdles, in which Koskenoja raced to an 11th-place finish with a time of 14.93 seconds. A 10th-place finish in the event followed as Koskenoja continued to fight through stiff competition. Tennessee's Jangy Addy took first place in both of the throwing events to take the points lead with three events to go.
Whether Koskenoja could improve his standing depended on his perfromance in his weakest event, the pole vault.
"It's a very technical event, and I usually lose some ground on that, but I can make up for that with the other day-two events."
Despite his worries, Koskenoja jumped to a 15th-place finish in the pole vault. With just two events to go, Koskenoja found himself in 12th place.
However, that would significantly improve with second-place finishes in the last two decathlon events. In the javelin, Koskenoja threw 59.49 meters, beating the third-place hurler by just five centimeters. That was then followed by a particularly strong 1,500-meter run, where Koskenoja clocked in at an even 4:21.00, beating Eaton by over 12 seconds. But Eaton's third place was good enough for him to clinch the championship.
With graduation and his last college meet now finished, Koskenoja reflected on how Dartmouth allowed him to develop both as a student and as an athlete.
"[Dartmouth is] a really nice team to compete on," Koskenoja said. "It's where I've learned a lot about performing under levels of pressure I'd never experienced before and where I've gained a lot of confidence."
Koskenoja also has his sights firmly set on the future. Next up for the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., native is the Canadian Olympic Trials, held from July 3-4, in which he will compete in the decathlon. To prepare for the event, Koskenoja will remain at Dartmouth to train. While the Olympic 'A' standard of 8,000 points remains a touch out of reach for the aspiring Olympian, Koskenoja is aiming for a top-five finish, with a spot in the top three being a distinct possibility.
After the Trials, Koskenoja will continue to train as an amateur athlete, having qualified for support from Track Canada with his score of 7,460. He plans to work with the track program, which is run out of the University of Toronto.
"My goal is to represent my country at whatever level I can achieve," Koskenoja said.
