Tyler Mathews

Red Mountain HS, Mesa, AZ, c/o 2024
AthleticNET Bio

Tyler Mathews only began to run track and field in the ninth grade. They didn’t offer track in middle school. They did offer cross country and he did well. He won all his races and  the City of Mesa Junior High Cross Country Championships twice in a row. The first year by ten seconds and the following year by 46 seconds. 

He played club soccer and was on defense most of the time. He was one of the faster guys and could cover a lot of ground. In the end, cross country won out.

“Going into junior high, I was planning on  just playing soccer because that's what I had done for such a long time. I wasn't doing a sport during the cross country season which was the third quarter of school. It was either cross country or  football.  I'm tall and skinny so I'm not really built for getting run into and all that kind of stuff. I tried out cross country with a couple of friends. I've always been a fast runner. so I did it and it turned out I was really good. I think I was the fastest on the team the entire time I was there. And then, after the first season, soccer was getting too expensive and taking up too much of my time so I decided to just stick with cross country because for as good as I was in soccer, I was much better at cross country. I made the full transition during junior high.”

His freshman year, he kept up the cross country running. He was given the opportunity to race at the state cross country meet after another runner was out with an injury. Once there, he finished 49th at the Arizona State Cross Country meet in 16:54.8 and was sixth man for his fifth place Red Mountain team. 

After the season ended, his coach staged a 600m time trial. Runners who placed high would be separated into the 800m runner group. Those who would place lower or not show improvement compared to their cross country ranking position would be placed in the one and two mile group.

Tyler finished third or fourth he recalls so the coach put him into the 800m training group. His first race in the 800m, he ran 2:10 which historically was “pretty decent” for his school. He continued to improve, knocking off more time. In March he ran 2:04.51 in March and by state in May he finished third in the 800m in 1:55.39.

“I just wanted to qualify for state. I went sub 2 for the first time a couple of weeks before state. When state came around, I was seeded fifth or something. Two of my teammates who were seeded ahead of me, ended up having really bad races so that kind of bumped me up to third and that's what I got. It was really cool. I was just a second off from winning.”

With a season behind him, Mathews made the most of his new found event. He was expecting to get a challenge from the previous year’s runner up, Jarron Stevens, but Steven hadn’t had a good season. Tyler lowered his personal best to 1:52.50 at the Nike Chandler Rotary Invite in March only to see an unknown, Brain Fair of South Mountain lower the state’s best time to 1:50.12 a week before  the state finals. It was a surprise to everyone, but at state, Mathews was able to get the win- 1:51.39-1:51.41.

“I didn’t get his state record[1:50.12], but I did beat him. That was really cool.”

This past track season, he added a win in the Arizona D1 championship in the 1600m with a 4:13.45[ a five second personal best] to go along with another 800m win, 1:51.53. He sat out the 4 x 800m qualifying so he could focus on the 4 x 400m qualifying. The races were held over two separate days.

“For most of that weekend, I was just trying to keep my sights on the next weekend because that was much more important need for our school and for us to do well. It was my last shot to break the state record again so I had my eyes focusing in that direction. I wanted to still get lots of points and do well in the divisional meet so it was a fun weekend.”

On top of his game, he entered the inaugural Arizona State Championships looking to win in the new format which would crown the state champion, regardless of class, for the first time in Arizona history. He was a little nervous as he had to run three races in one day and with the smaller fields, there was less time between events.

The first day started off well. His Red Mountain team won in 7:41.40 with Tyler splitting 1:48.  The second day he won the 1,600m in a new personal best of 4:12.11. He lined up for the 800m not knowing what to expect given that he had about a 45 minute rest. He sped to a 53 opening 400m and then finished strong and set the Arizona state record of 1:48.72.

“I think my first lap was really close to 53 flat and I finished with a 55 second lap. It ended up being a perfect race almost. I wasn't expecting that because I had just raced the mile an hour before in the mile. I was just going for  the win and trying to get as many points as possible. A PR in my mind was out of the question, but I went for it. I knew I was capable because the night before in  the four by eight I split a 1:48. It ended up happening and I was super exhausted afterwards. I couldn't appreciate what I had done because the four by four was again only 45 minutes later. Afterwards I was able to celebrate a little bit.”

In the 4 x 4, his team didn’t run as well as he had hoped. He split 47.7 and they finished eighth in 3:20.63 to earn one point of the 45 points scored. Desert Vista was second with 41 points. Mathews accounted for 22.75 of those points.

“It was still a really good night, we got to lift the trophy as a team at the end because we won.”

With his great performances, he was invited to Brooks PR and Nike Outdoor Nationals. Both races didn’t go as well as he had hoped, but he came away 1:49.58 for sixth and a 1:49.60 for second. At Nike Outdoor Nationals he also split 1:50.18 as his team finished fourth the 4 x 800m in 7:41.40.

This past season, Tyler had a better experience at Arcadia Invitational. His sophomore year he fell, wiping out all his adrenaline. This year he finished second in 1:49.32. In the upcoming year he’d like to add more out of state races like Arcadia and Mt. Sac.

“I probably will try to go to Mt SAC, Arcadia and some of those bigger out of state meats to get their competition and the experience. This program[Nike Elite] is obviously making that much easier so that will probably be something that I will do differently this year. As for my training, I don't think it'll be much different. I might stretch it out a little bit because I'm guessing that my senior season will be very long and will probably go pretty deep into the summer. I'll probably modify my training schedule for that, but otherwise, I'm not changing a whole lot.. The methods that I've used so far and worked out really well and if I can keep that up that would be awesome.”