Michigan
NCAA Outdoor Championships
One Second Separates Bastien as All-American
6/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
June 9, 2016
» In the final race of the 10-event competition, just about one second separated him from first and second team All-America honors in what could be considered the deepest field in NCAA history.
» In breaking the 7,900-point marker, Bastien has qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials next month (July 1-10), right back at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
» Bastien set lifetime bests in the 400-meter run, 1,500-meter run and 110-meter hurdles and neared PRs in several other events to aid his score.
• Complete Results 
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Site: Eugene, Ore. (Hayward Field)
Event: NCAA Outdoor Championships (Day 2)
U-M Team Result: Tie-39th Place (1 point) after Day 2
Next U-M Event: Friday, June 10 -- at NCAA Outdoor Championships - Day 3 (Eugene, Ore.), 5:54 p.m. PDT
EUGENE, Ore. -- One second. In track and field, that is often a critical difference, and senior/junior Steven Bastien of the University of Michigan men's track and field team exemplified that perfectly on Thursday (June 9) as he closed out competition in the decathlon on day two of the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Bastien totaled 7,917 points to break his own program record by nearly 300 points and claim All-America honors with an eighth-place finish at the University of Oregon's Historic Hayward Field. Bastien earned the distinction by virtue of a 1,500-meter PR on the final event of the competition and also hit the U.S. Olympic Trials standard in the process (7,900 points). Positioned ninth heading into the final event, Bastien's time of 4:29.82 earned him a five-point edge over Georgia's Devon Williams, equivalent to about one second's difference in the race. Williams, who ran 4:41.08, finished with 7,912 points, and the 10th-place finisher, Atsyu Nyamadi out of Middle Tennessee State, totaled 7,709 points.
"What Steven accomplished here is pretty amazing," said head coach Jerry Clayton. "Athletes don't normally improve their PRs by two or three hundred points. This was not normal, and to do it in what is the deepest field I've seen is pretty incredible."
Clayton has been coaching track and field for more 30 years, so that claim is a noteworthy one and not unfounded. This year's competition marks the first time in meet history that four athletes have been above the 8,100-point plateau, and it is also the first time that two athletes have both scored more than 8,300 points at the NCAA meet. Wisconsin's Zack Ziemek, the runner-up at 8,300 points even, had the highest score ever for a runner-up finish. In fact, finishers two, three, four and five each had the highest point total for their respective placings in meet history. With five total competitors with more than 8,000 points, only once has there ever been more at that total (2013; six athletes).
Knowing how slim the race for a top-eight finish was, Bastien just focused in and ran his race in the 1,500.
"I was trying to concentrate on a couple of other competitors and just run with them," he said. "It was hard to know where my splits were exactly, so I tried to look at the clock on the track. I came through the first lap pretty good and just tried to race from there on out, staying relaxed and trying to run as fast as I could."
Focus on race strategy has been a point of emphasis for Bastien, who has worked with the full gamut of the U-M staff in his preparation. In addition to Clayton's direction in field events and the decathlon as a whole, he has benefited from learning race tactics from assistant coaches Kevin Sullivan and Steven Rajewsky.
"Execution of races has been a big focus for me," he said, "I've been trying to push myself more in the first half of the 400 and in the 1500 just run the times I know I'm capable of running."
That certainly paid off this week, as Bastien was seeded 11th headed into the competition, and his PR over the last two days marks a near-300-point improvement over his previous best (7,636 pts.). A cool head and a more loose approach to the meet also helped bring about his lifetime-best performance.
"I went into the meet trying to stay more relaxed than I usually do and just be really elastic," said Bastien. "I tried to keep my cool the whole meet, and I think that really helped me get the marks that I needed to get. I was really happy with how close I was able to get to a lot of my personal bests and with the new ones I set."
On the whole, Clayton praised Bastien's consistency and focus over all 10 events.
"He put it together very well over the last couple of days," said Clayton, "He performed well in his stronger events and took advantage of a couple of areas where we knew he had left points on the board in the past. He maxed out almost every area, but you're not going to have a dec with 10 marks near the top."
For the Saline, Michigan, native, this week's events close a spectacular year of competition. After accomplishing the feat indoors twice already, Bastien now has the distinction of being the program's first All-American in both the heptathlon (indoors) and decathlon (outdoors).
He owns both program records and collected gold and silver-medal finishes at the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor championships, respectively, in 2016. The significance of this season is not lost on Bastien, who is grateful for every member of the support system around him and their role in his success.
"It's such a blessing," he said. "I would never be here if it weren't for my family and coaches. Coach Clayton has made such a big impact on my career to this point. All the glory goes to God. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't blessed with the ability to do what I do or even have a sport to compete in."
Bastien has proven his mettle on the national level, and with another full year of eligibility remaining, this year was just a taste of what he's capable of accomplishing. In each multi-events performance this season, Bastien set a new PR and improved on his Michigan records in the process.
This week was no different. Bastien set a day-one PR on Wednesday (June 8) with 4,162 points, aided by a personal best in the 400-meter run (48.89), the 100-meter dash (10.68) and long jump (7.48 meters; 24-6.5 ft.), and neared PRs in several other events. Bastien picked up right where he left off this morning, and began with a lifetime-best 14.86 in the 110-meter hurdles, and picked up 867 points in the process.
In the discus, his best throw measured 38.80 meters (127-03 ft.) to leave him in eighth place before the pole vault began. There, he performed cleanly, easily clearing bars at 4.50, 4.60 and 4.70 meters before approaching his PR on the next height. Bastien came in over at 4.80 meters (15-9 ft.), just .03 meters shy of his lifetime best and racked up another 849 points in the event, placing seventh overall.
In the javelin, Bastien threw his best mark of the season by more than three meters when he launched his final attempt at 54.36 meters (178-4 ft.). It is the best javelin throw he has recorded in a Michigan uniform and brought him 653 more points heading into the final event of the weekend. He closed things out with the 1,500-meter run and put forth a gutsy effort to set his PR and push himself into All-America position.
The Maize and Blue continues action on Friday (June 10), beginning with fifth-year senior Mason Ferlic in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 5:54 p.m. PDT. Freshman Taylor McLaughlin (400-meter hurdles; 6:57 p.m. PDT) and senior/junior Tony Smoragiewicz (5,000 meters; 7:25 p.m. PDT) will also run finals tomorrow.
COLLEGIATE PERSONAL BESTS
Decathlon
Steven Bastien -- 7,917 points
Track Events
110-meter hurdles
Steven Bastien -- 14.86
1,500-meter run
Steven Bastien -- 4:29.82
TWEET OF THE DAY
Let's hear it for our first scoring All-American of the week: @Steven_Bastien, 8th place, decathlon! #MGoClete pic.twitter.com/qZ47Cocy25
-- Michigan Track&Field (@umichtrack) June 10, 2016
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
