Heptathlete Skylar Sieben ranked top 20 in NCAA

Cochrane High graduate Skylar Sieben will be competing in her first NCAA national championship after being ranked top 20 in NCAA Division One in the United States.

It has been a banner season for the University of Arizona sophomore in the heptathlon. The track and field event sees athletes compete in seven disciplines--100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin throw, and 800m--to determine their placement.

In the recent Pacific Coast Conference (PAC-12) championship, Sieben posted the fifth-best heptathlon time in the history of the University of Arizona with a personal record of 5,635 points. She finished fourth in the competition. 

"It went great. They were all the marks I wanted a hit, and some even more," says Sieben.

Skylar broke the 14 second mark in hurdles at PAC-12. (Photo/Mike Christy)

In hurdles, she broke the 14-second mark after starting the season around a time of 14.6 seconds.

"That's been my goal all season, and I've been getting closer, and closer each meet. Then in this meet, I finally ran a 13.84, which was huge for me."

She also had PRs in the 200m and 800m. 

"I knew after javelin, that's the sixth event, that I was on a great pace, and I just had to run a normal 800m for me to be able to qualify."

Instead, she dug deep and aimed to blow past a score of 5,600. Not only did that intensity lead to a PR in the 800m, but it also landed her a PR in the heptathlon.

"The feeling after I crossed that line and looking up at the point total up on the scoreboard, was a huge wave of relief because we had put in so much work coming back from COVID."

"We weren't able to train last spring, so definitely coming back this year, I put in a lot of time, effort, and dedication into trying to make it all the way to the championship. When all that work paid off, I was so relieved, and I'm so excited to go."

(Photo/Mike Christy)

While some of her teammates are heading to the nationals early this week, Sieben has opted to stay in Arizona to continue training.

She is striving to set more PRs and wants to once again break the 40m mark in the javelin. She also believes she can top her best time in hurdles.

"I feel like I can go faster in the hurdles even still. With the great competition I'll be seeing in Eugene, I would not be surprised if those girls pull me along to even more PRs."

The season started indoors. Only 16 athletes in each sport advance to the indoor nationals, and she barely missed the cut.

"That was a little disappointing. Even though I had some pretty good marks, I didn't end up putting together a pentathlon score that was a PR, but it was pretty decent coming off a COVID year and getting back into the swing of things. It definitely helped propel me to a great outdoor season."

The pandemic did force the cancellation of the last outdoor season, and it also saw a cautious start to training in the fall. The university's athletes got closer to a typical training regime and season in January.

"It was nice to be back outdoors again. We didn't get that opportunity last year."

Eugene, Oregon is hosting the NCAA championship from June 9 to 12.