It's been a statement year on the track for Tyler Cox-Yestrau. In his second season of eligibility, the JH Bruns grad is ranked first in Canada West and second in the country in the 300, with a time of 33.76 seconds. He's also a key part of the 4x400 and 4x200 relay teams that are ranked third and fourth in the nation, respectively. 
 
From the outside looking in, some would say Cox-Yestrau's results this season are a surprise. Coming into this year, his fastest 300 at the university level was 35.09 seconds. That was a top 20 time in the country, however it wasn't enough to qualify him for nationals. 
 
Plus, there were other, bigger names out there. The likes of Austin Cole from Alberta and Karson Lehner from Saskatchewan had commanded the scene for years, running 33.2 and 33.6 seconds respectively at the conference championships a year ago at UM. 
 
But this season, Cole has gone pro and Lehner is also out of the mix. Additionally, Manitoba's fastest runner in the distance from a year ago, Luc Deleau, is in law school, which set the stage for a spectacular year for Cox-Yestrau.  
 
But when you ask him about this season, he spits facts. He's known all along that the potential was there, but factors out of his control got in the way. 
 
"Things just happened back-to-back to back for me. I always knew the stuff was there," he says with his trademark confidence. "Finally having a season where things are starting to go my way, other people are starting to see what me and [coach Gee-ef Nkwonta] have always known was possible. It's definitely been a wild ride."
 
In 2020, COVID derailed his rookie season, where he was coming off a big high school year and also ran sub-50 for the first time indoors. Then, when things started to get rolling again in 2021, his lung collapsed. 
 
This summer, he also pulled his hamstring while training for the Canada Summer Games trials. 
 
Add all that together, and you get a series of unfortunate events that don't truly tell the story of how good of a runner Cox-Yestrau is. 
 
And the fact of the matter, is that when he's on, he's one of the best in the nation at what he does. 
 
He proved it a few weekends ago at the SDSU Classic, when he ran sub 34 for the first time as a Bison (as part of a 400-metre race). That would've been third at nationals in the 300 a year ago, as well as CanWest, just behind Cole and Lehner. 
 
On top of that, he was just off the program record in the 400 (47.5), having finished at 47.74. Also in the race was Park Kiewiet from Northern Iowa, who broke the facility and meet record. 
 
"I had to chalk it up to the athletes I was with. I'm not the greatest starter, especially with my new hamstring problem. I'm a little afraid to push. Getting out of the blocks, I wasn't out of the race. I got on to the back straight, and I just start flying."
 
'It was inevitable'
It's certainly been a memorable last few years for Cox-Yestrau, who started track in 2016 without a coach. 
 
Originally a soccer player, he gave the sport a shot, where he was eventually noticed by legendary track and field coach Alex Gardiner, and Nkwonta, now one of the of lead coaches for the Bisons.
 
"[Nkwonta] taught me how to run essentially. He fixed my entire form. When I first started I had no block start, so we gave myself a block start and fixed my form. I used to run hunch-backed, so that's why I'm so tall when I run now. That was a big thing to fix too. Already having that natural speed, and then learning how to run, it was inevitable. You didn't need much speed or endurance work, because soccer gave me that."
 
With an athletic background from soccer and proper coaching, things "snowballed." Cox-Yestrau went to nationals in 2019 in his first year, ran sub-50 in the 400 and was penned as an athlete to watch at the university level.
 
Then adversity hit. The collapsed lung was the biggest concern, ruled a spontaneous pneumothorax by his doctor," which basically means that it was sudden onset with no apparent cause. 
 
"I heard a clicking in my chest. It didn't hurt or anything. Breathing was fine, so I was practicing. My doctor said it was a slow burn thing, so it was collapsing for six months. One day I woke up with a really bad pain in my chest. It kind of went away throughout the day. I went to a walk-in and they were like oh it's probably just anxiety or stress. I was like you know what fine, whatever. It was a Friday so I go and hang out with my friends," recalls the star athlete. 
 
"I woke up the next day, and it hurt. It felt like something was moving. I went to Victoria Hospital, they took my blood oxygen and the machine started beeping. The same day, I got my cavity cut open and a chest tube put in. That didn't fix the problem. That was two weeks so they said okay, you need surgery. I went to HSC, they did the surgery. That was another three weeks that I was off. I was in the hospital for two weeks, a week at home."
 
Undeterred, he got back on the track ahead of schedule, setting the stage for a season where he's been nationally ranked in the 300 all year. He'll look for his first individual medal this weekend in the event.  
 
"He's always been very talented," said head coach Claude Berube.
 
"He's always been strong in the 200, and now it's started to translate to the 200 and the 300. He's going to have to go [into CanWest championships this weekend] with that same attitude, of you never know. Just because I'm the number one seed doesn't mean I'm just going to walk through this. He's going to be in a good lane. Because of his seed time he'll be in one of the outside lanes, which is good."
 
The training environment has been a major factor in not only Cox-Yestrau, but the rest of the team's success. The men are ranked third in the nation, and first in CanWest, 30 points ahead of Alberta as they look to defend their conference banner this weekend. 
 
"Lots of people are home grown. It's because the level keeps raising here. Everyone keeps running faster. You go back a couple of years, and there was no one running 47 [seconds in the 400]. Now that I've run 47, that was because I had Tristan [Allen] and Dawson [Mann] to worry about, who were running 49s. Two years ago it was me, Luc [Deleau] and Miguel [Morrison] who were running 48 for them, 49 for me and a couple 50s," he says. 
 
"Obviously I wanted to put down a statement. Okay, there's a 47. There's no doubt in my mind Tristan and Dawson will run 48 something this year. It'll just keep getting faster, and that's in every single event."