CHADRON, Neb. – Reigning All-American
Chayton Bynes will be Chadron State's only competitor at this weekend's NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but the Chadron High School graduate will enter with legitimate contending aspirations.
Bynes will enter the national meet in a two-way tie for the longest mark of the season in NCAA Division II for the triple jump, making him among the favorites in a competition that will begin at 10 a.m. MT (noon local/ET) on Saturday.
The NCAA will have a live stream of the indoor meet available for free at NCAA.com and live results will be available online at
this link.
Bynes is seeking to repeat his indoor All-American honor from last season, when he finished fifth at last year's showdown in Indianapolis with a jump of 15.32 meters (50 feet, 3.25 inches), which was 2.25 inches shy of first place. Bynes would go on to pick up a Second Team All-American honor in the outdoor version of the event later that spring, finishing 10th at outdoor nationals.
This season, Bynes vaulted into the Division II lead by jumping 16.01 meters, or 52 feet, 6.5 inches, at the Wildcat Invite at Wayne State on February 6. Aside from pacing the national field, Bynes's mark was a Chadron State record, breaking the old mark of 51-8.5 that had been set by Isaac Grimes in 2019, when the Californian was the silver medalist at tthat year's National Meet while also earning the gold medal in the long jump.
Bynes's February leap was at the top of the Division II leader board by itself for the next three weeks before Justin Forde, a senior at Washburn in Kansas, went that exact distance at the MIAA
conference meet on the final day of February. Forde is the reigning national runner-up in the outdoor triple jump.
After not triple jumping at the previous two meets to prevent possibilities of wear and tear, Bynes also excelled at the RMAC Indoor Championships on February 28. On his first attempt he jumped 15.99 meters, or 52-5.5, just an inch shy of his all-time best, while winning the conference triple jump title by more than three feet and taking possession of the
conference meet record.
The competition at nationals will be stiff. While Bynes and Forde have gone about 15 inches longer than any of the other competitors making up the 18-jumper field, eight qualifiers besides Bynes and Forde have gone 15.26 meters, or at least 50 feet.
Third place on the pre-meet list belongs to junior Antonio Caito of Embry-Riddle in Florida (15.64 meters) while two seniors, Yves Bilong of Harding and Keith Smith of Southern Arkansas, are tied for fourth among competing athletes with season-long marks of 15.55 meters.
Another RMAC competitor, sophomore Drew Lehman of Black Hills State, is ranked ninth entering the tournament. Lehman posted his best of 15.26 meters at Chadron State's Don Holst Meet on Jan. 31, when Bynes did not jump.
A potential sleeper with nationals experience is Isaiah Webster. Competing for Central Washington last season, Webster placed fourth at 2025 indoor nationals and is the only athlete who placed higher than Bynes in Indianapolis returning to this season's national meet. Webster matched Bynes's mark of 15.32 meters, but his second-best jump was 0.2 meters farther than the Eagle athlete's, putting Webster fourth and relegating Bynes to fifth.
Webster has since transferred to Pittsburg State for 2025-26. His season-best is only 15.11 meters, so he will enter the competition as the No. 16 seed, but is clearly capable of bigger results this time of year.
Bynes will compete in the second of two flights, each with nine jumpers, during Saturday's competition. He is scheduled to jump ninth and last in the second flight. All athletes will have three jumps to record a mark, then the top nine competitors after three rounds will advance to the finals and receive three additional jumps. Each jumper's farthest leap out of the six jumps counts as their mark.
