After finishing his leg in Northwest Christian’s 4×400 relay, Javonte Byrd had to wait to return to the cool down area: there was a media huddle around Devon Allen preventing Byrd from going through the gate. After Allen’s interviews were finished, Byrd went up to the Oregon star.
“Hey media star,” Byrd said, shaking Allen’s hand.
“How you feeling?” Allen asked.
“Tired,” Byrd said, “very tired.”
The two athletes share an understanding of how tiring being a two-sport athlete can be.
Allen is the headliner, but Byrd, a senior sprinter and long jumper who starred on the basketball court for Northwest Christian, also competed in the Oregon Relays, finishing ninth in the long jump and running the opening leg for the Beacons’ eighth-place 4×400 team.
Byrd said that he doesn’t have any expectations for this track season. He simply wants to enjoy himself.
“I wasn’t really doing anything after basketball season so I figured, why not?” Byrd said. “I just want to have fun and stay in shape.”
For two years at Northwest Christian, Byrd, a San Diego native, solely focused on basketball. But Beacons track and field coach, George Walcott saw an athlete who could succeed off the court.
“You should probably give it a try,” Byrd remembers Walcott telling him.
“I figured I have nothing to lose so I might as well go out and give it a try. And I did.”
The initial transition for Byrd was rough, he said.
“A basketball court is only 94 feet and I have to come out here and run 400 meters,” Byrd said. “It’s a lot different – you have to get in a different kind of shape.
“I thought I could just go out there and run, but it’s a lot more technical.”
Despite the struggles of learning a new sport, Byrd made an impact immediately, etching his name in the school record book less than a month into the switch. He jumped 22 feet 10 and half inches at the Saints Open on March 14, 2015, a school record.
This basketball season, Byrd led Northwest Christian to a Cascade Conference Championship. He was named the conference’s player of the year. The Beacons made it to the second round of the NAIA Division II Basketball National Championship Tournament, but fell to the eventual champions, Indiana Wesleyan University, 83-79.
The extended season hampered Byrd’s ability to prepare for track. Northwest Christian was already competing in track meets while Byrd finished up his basketball season.
“I took a week off, started training and jumped right into meets,” he said.
On Friday, Byrd struggled in the long jump, fouling on three of his six attempts. He finished with a mark of 20 feet 10 inches, more than two feet below his personal best.
“It didn’t go as I would’ve liked it to,” he said, “but I still got a few more meets.”
