Top Senior Male Athlete of the Spring: Tyler Udland

No name has been more synonymous with Millburn sports over the last four years than Tyler Udland.

He finished his stellar high school career with wins in the conference, county and section in the 3,200 meter event, and with a sectional championship in the 1,600. He was fifth in the state in the two-mile, second in all of Group 3, ran the first sub nine-minute 3,200 in the state this season and placed fifth at the Penn Relays in the 3,000.

Even through an injury plagued junior spring where his running was compromised, Udland graduated two weeks ago with two Meet of Champions titles, five individual county championships, seven sectional titles and two Group 3 crowns.

“Spring was great. Some of the times I was able to run I was thrilled with,” Udland said. “I was able to get under nine, I ran a 4:13. I was really happy with that. Meet of Champions didn’t end the way I wanted it to, but it was still a great season.”

Tyler is part of a two-name discussion for the best distance runners in school history and appears to have edge.

“He’s certainly up there with the best if he isn’t the best in Millburn history,” said Millburn head track coach, and Udland's head coach for the last 12 seasons, Jeff Kaye. “He was lightning in a bottle and we caught it somehow.”

Steve O’Connell holds the school record in the 1,600 with a 4:09.2 in 1976 (Tyler’s best is 4:13.83), while Udland holds the school mark in the 3,200 of 8:59.8 compared to 9:24 for O’Connell in the two-mile. Udland is also the school’s best ever cross country runner, holding the school marks at every track the Millers race on.

“I really love it. Obviously, competition is the part that I love most,” he said of running. “There’s nothing I love more than getting out in a race and being competitive. Obviously it’s painful and it kind of stings. But I love just getting past that. It’s like nothing else.”

But it hasn’t been all wins for the Princeton-bound Miller. Udland hadn’t even been a runner and actually was a football, baseball and basketball player prior to his freshman year. He worried about being a quarterback on a traditionally bad Miller football team and getting hurt. He followed his older brother Myles to winter track and cross-country and then played baseball for a week during the spring before committing fully to track and field.

“He started running when he was a freshman and he did well and it made me want to do it,” Udland said of his older brother. “When I started running, he was so supportive and helped in creating our training, especially when I was a sophomore. That was my big growing year. Having him as a senior with his experience and being able to run along side him everyday, it was huge. I don’t think I would’ve gotten where I was.”

In fact before his freshman year, the state’s athletic board was discussing moving golf season to the fall. Had that happened, Tyler said he would’ve surely skipped cross country in the fall in favor of golf and maybe he’s not a household name.

“I love baseball. There are still times when I think it would be nice to be playing baseball. But I never once second guessed my choice,” Udland said.

As a freshman, Tyler finished 53rd in the county and section during cross country season, 12th in the 3,200 during indoor and in fifth place during outdoor season. He improved greatly as a sophomore, vaulting from 53rd to fourth in the conference and section. During indoor season, Tyler was second in the 3,200 in the section, third in the county and things began to roll.

“He had some good performances in the winter,” Kaye said. “But in the spring he just kept getting better and better every week.”

Udland won the county, section and group in the 3,200 as a sophomore during spring season, with his times improving each week heading into the Meet of Champions. Earlier in the season at the county championships, Tyler ran a 9:22.64. By the time he won Group 3, he had shaved nearly 11 seconds.

Despite Udland becoming a well-known name throughout the state, entering the the expectation at the Meet of Champions was everyone was racing for second place. Doug Smith was the overwhelming favorite.

“The favorite was a shoe-in to win. I don’t think it was on anybody’s mind that Doug Smith would lose,” Kaye said.

Apparently Udland had it on his mind.

“He came from way behind and had a monster last lap to win it at the finish line,” Kaye said. “He just has that ability to get himself back into it and realize that it’s not over yet.”

After the win that spring, Udland was vaulted into the upper echelon of distance runners in the state. He followed up the spring with a Meet of Champions title in the fall and looked poise to dominate the field for the next two years. But just as he was improving, the rest of the state was catching up and quickly.

“It’s not that I was getting any worse, the state just got so much better and so much deeper,” Udland said. “I think as a sophomore I took that huge step and caught the state at the right time. Not at a weak time, but there wasn’t anybody who was head and shoulders above everyone else. It was basically wide-open.”

During the ensuing indoor season, he claimed the section in the one and two-mile races and won the section in the one-mile during the spring, taking second in the 3,200. Udland was forced to miss the MOC with a lower-back injury and went into the fall cross country season with high hopes not only for himself but for the entire team that appeared to be poised for many championships.

Perhaps a sign of the rest of the state catching up to and passing Udland was first apparent at this past fall’s county championship when he was caught from behind at Brookdale Park and saw his record time fall to his good friend Dave Oster of Verona. The Millers, however, had five runners place in the top nine. Even if Udland wasn’t going to win, it looked like the team was unstoppable.

“That was the great thing about him,” Kaye said. “None of his success ever got to his head. He was always one of the guys.”

Maybe no team would’ve been able to catch them, but the flu and strep throat flew through the team heading into championship season and sabotaged their chances at an overall team title in the section or the group. Udland, battling sickness, was still able to win another sectional championship in cross country.

“It was really tough cause the kids had worked really hard... We all know what we could’ve done,” Kaye said. “It was just the dumb luck of the flu and strep throat going through the team.”

This spring Udland had gone from the hunted, back to the hunter and dominated the two-mile in the county, conference and section. After taking second in the group, Tyler admitted his final run at the Meet of Champions a month ago was not his best. But he also said he would’ve had trouble keeping up with the two leaders on any day.

Tyler moves on to the next stage of his life now. He will take his work ethic and sturdy legs with approximately 7,500 miles already on them and try to make another significant impact. Just like at Millburn, he will participating in all three track seasons, which, barring any injuries, would give him 24 consecutive athletic seasons through eight years of high school and college.

“It’s going to be a really good cross country team. They could make nationals,” Udland said. “I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to make the top seven in cross country because they’re deep. That’s definitely going to be one of my goals to crack the top seven.”