Track and field: OTC’s Tyler Mulder making some noise of his own

Published: (Thursday, May 19, 2011 05:00AM) Today

Three years ago, after his junior season at Northern Iowa, Tyler Mulder competed in the 800 meters in the Olympic Trials at Hayward Field. He was fifth in his heat, and didn’t advance.

But he stuck around and was in the West Grandstand the night the place shook, and the noise was deafening, and three local runners — Nick Symmonds and Christian Smith of Oregon Track Club Elite and Oregon sophomore Andrew Wheating — made the team in an 800 that became the defining moment of those Trials and of the resurgence of Track Town USA.

“It was like a magical moment watching it,” Mulder said. “And the whole time I was watching it, I was just envisioning myself being in it. ... I had mixed emotions of wanting to be in it so bad.”