Girls track and field: Prairie Ridge grad Rylee Lydon repeats at heptathlon national champion

Rylee Lydon needed no dramatic comeback in the final event this time, she already had taken care of business.

The 2023 Prairie Ridge graduate scored 5,208 points to win the 17-18 women’s heptathlon at the U.S. National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships on July 25 at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in Eugene.

A year ago in Sacramento, Lydon, running for TNT Track and Field Academy, needed a big win in the 800 meters, the last event, to overcome her competitors and take the title. Lydon had a comfortable lead heading into the last race and finished well ahead of North Texas Jackrabbits’ Falyn Lot with 4,842.

“It was a lot less stressful going into that,” said Lydon, who will compete in heptathlon at Texas A&M. “I went out little slow the first lap, but the stress was low and I was trying to soak it all in one last time.”

Lydon won the 800 (2:17.85) and the high jump (5-8 3/4), was second in the shot put (35-3 1/4), long jump (18-0 1/4) and 200 (24.99), fifth in the 100 high hurdles (15.05) and 16th in javelin (92-1 1/2). The heptathlon awards points for performances, not places.

Lydon is the 33rd female to pass the 5,200-point mark in U.S. high school history and the first from Illinois to do so.

“It was really fun. Obviously being at Hayward was a really cool experience,” Lydon said. “That track is insane, the facilities are incredible, so that was really cool. The two days were really good. That was my best heptathlon I’ve put together so far. It was really good.”

Lydon competed at Hayward Field for the Nike Outdoor Nationals in June and scored 5,152. The IHSA does not have heptathlon in its competitions, so Lydon is limited to competing in the summer to prepare for her college career. She won the same Junior Olympic title last year with 4,677 points.

Brandon Stryganek, Lydon’s coach with TNT, marvels at how she has grown in the multi-event competition since last year. At the IHSA Girls Track and Field State Meet in May, Lydon scord 32 points with a first in the Class 3A high jump, seconds in the long jump and 400, and fourth in the high hurdles.

“It’s the perfect on the cake for one of the most historic careers in IHSA history,” Stryganek said. “You don’t often see an athlete like Rylee in Illinois with what she’s done in the multi events. She scored over 5,000 three times, we’ve had zero of those across IHSA history ever.

“She’s really rewritten the record books. We talked before and the biggest thing was getting through a whole heptathlon pretty clean, not taking safety jumps and being able to run a really clean two days. Her work ethic and her ability to conceptualize some of the more difficult things about multi events. It is an event-by-event thing. If you fall in the hurdles, you still have all of your events left to go.”

Lydon, who will leave for College Station, Texas to start school on Aug. 11, felt more comfortable dealing with all seven events this summer. She worked on the high hurdles this spring as part of her heptathlon preparation.

“After starting the heptathlon last year I was able to form an idea of what would help me make that much of a progression,” she said. “Adding in those off events, like the hurdles and throws, into my high school training and competing in those in high school events helped a lot, just getting that exposure more often. Last year I started those off events in the summer and had a week or two to practice.”

Lydon really liked her high jump as she tied her career-best jump and narrowly missed at 5-10 3/4, clipping the bar with a heel.

Lydon excels in the 800 – she ran cross country at Prairie Ridge as a sophomore – so she knew last year she could still win with that as the final event. This time she just padded her lead.

“I knew what my plan was for next year, so I wasn’t stressed for anything,” Lydon said. “I was just kind of having fun and enjoying it.”

Stryganek sees big things in Lydon’s future.

“It’s just her consistency. Being able to move through and figure out what we need to work on and put it all together was pretty important for her,” he said. “She’s done that. We’re kind of just scratching the surface with what she’s done.

“From a point total perspective, she can score 5,700 points. She has that type of ceiling to her. She can be an NCAA All-American and have a historic collegiate career. The consistency has been there the last year as she’s figured out how to move through event by event, and what to work on.”