Male Athlete of the Year: Sprinter Zye Boey

Dan Cusack / Sports Reporter

Eastern red-shirt freshman Zye Boey competed at the NCAA Indoor National Championships and helped the men's indoor track team to a conference title. (Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)

When red-shirt freshman Zye Boey entered Lantz Fieldhouse Jan. 21, he was another talented runner with a lot of potential.

When he walked out, he was already one of the fastest college sprinters in the entire country.

It was the Illinois Intercollegiate Invitational. Boey was entering only his third college track meet of his career with solid results at Eastern's previous two meets.

But no one could have expected what he would do that day.

His first race was the 60-meter dash. Boey lined up, the gun went off and 6.66 seconds later he was across the finish line.

Sophomore sprinter Preston Smith said his jaw dropped when he saw that number, but Eastern track and field coach Tom Akers said Boey was not familiar with the 60-meter, and was asking people if 6.66 was a good time.

Little did he know it was the fourth fastest time ran in the country at that point in the season, and the best time in Eastern indoor track history.

Later at the same meet, Boey would run a personal best 21.52 seconds in the 200-meter dash, which was third in school history.

"He was more excited about running the 21.52 in the 200 (meter dash)," Akers said. "We had talked before about him running in the (1,600-meter) relay. I told him it would make us better and he wasn't opposed. He ran a great leg of it later in the meet, and it made him a believer."

Boey qualified for nationals in indoor track and continued his solid performance in both the indoor and outdoor track seasons.

Boey was one of many athletes who led Eastern to the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track Championship and his continued excellence on the track is why he was named the 2008-2009 Daily Eastern News Male Athlete of the Year.

Despite his success this season, last year did not go as well.

Boey could not practice with the team, and it was tough for him to train by himself.

"I came down here and had to train alone and got a little down on myself," Boey said. "But I talked to coaches and teammates, and they kept my head in it and my mind on being successful."

Jumps coach JaRod Tobler said it is always hard to train alone, but the difference with Boey is that he always kept his eyes on his goals.

He said instead of keeping it to himself, he came to talk to coaches about his concerns.

"It is always difficult to train by yourself, but luckily he had a good supporting cast to help him through," Tobler said. "I am glad he came in and talked to us, because it is so easy to be lackadaisical when you are by yourself again."

Smith, Boey's roommate, said he tried to help him as much as possible last season.

"I always wanted to make sure he was practicing and everything," Smith said. "Although he was practicing every day, if he could, he would be right there beside us."

But Boey kept improving. When he finally got his chance to compete for Eastern the next season, he excelled.

Boey qualified for the 200-meter dash at the NCAA National Indoor Championships and shattered personal bests, propelling his way up the Eastern school record books with each and every meet.

At his first nationals, Boey was disqualified for a lane violation. For only the second time all season, Boey raced on a bank course which has a different turn than he is used to.

Akers said although his time even without the violation would not have been good enough to qualify for finals, his performance was a great experience for him, which will help him in the future.

Boey did not stray away from the fact, but took it head on.

"It was a bad race," he said. "No excuses."

He did not let it bring him down.

When he was on the big stage again last weekend, he excelled. Eastern competed in the Drake Relays, one of the top outdoor track meets in the country.

In front of a sold-out crowd against and the best runners throughout the country, Boey again showed why he is so good. Boey finished second in the 100-meter dash in 10.38 seconds, .08 slower than Baylor's Trey Harts.

Harts was the 2009 indoor champion in the 200-meter dash.

"It was great," Boey said. "There were thousands of people there watching you, including top pros. I just wanted to go out there and perform."

For all of his personal accomplishments, Boey will always put his team first. He said his proudest accomplishment so far in his running career has not been his records or his trip to nationals, but his team's indoor championship title.

"Winning a conference title as a team was always my goal," Boey said. "My accomplishments did not mean anything to me unless we got a conference title ring. The best part of this year has been being a part of EIU track and field, running for Coach Akers."

With the outdoor season still undecided and Boey's three years of eligibility still remaining, the ceiling for his career is endless.

"We always say you are limited only what we think we can do," Akers said. "He can still make some gains and strength and explosiveness. There is no lid you can place on how good he can be."

Tobler said with Boey's work ethic it is hard to say how good he can be.

"The one thing he can keep on doing is getting faster," Tolber said. "He will start to plateau, which means he'll start getting the same times. But once he gets higher training with age, the more he runs, the more trains, the more of a technician he'll become."


Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.