CHADRON, Neb. – Chayton Bynes will seek to back up his podium finish at the indoor national championships and earn his fourth career All-American honor in the triple jump when he competes this Saturday at the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Emporia, Kansas.

The entire meet runs from Thursday, May 21 to Saturday, May 23, with Bynes's triple jump competition set to start Saturday at 1:15 p.m. MT (2:15 CT/local). The redshirt junior will compete in the second of two flights.

Meet Info
The 2026 national outdoor meet is being held at Walsh Stadium in Emporia, Kansas. Emporia State University will serve as the host school.

Portions of the meet will be streamed live for free on NCAA.com (direct link here). Saturday's live stream is scheduled to start at 2:10 MT. 

Live updates, featuring team scores, heat sheets and individual event results, can be found at this link.

Tickets are available for purchase online at this link. Saturday day passes are $21.95 for adults and $16.70 for youth and seniors (including taxes and fees). An all-session pass for all three days is $40.75 for adults and $30.25 for student/seniors.

Already All-American
In a change this season for college track and field, Bynes has already clinched his fourth career All-American honors.

The United States Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) will still award First Team All-American honors to the top eight finishers in each individual event, but Second Team All-American honors will now go to places 9-16 in individual events, with a new Honorable Mention All-America being added to athletes placing 17^th-22^nd.

Previously, after the eight First Team finishers, Second Team All-America only went to athletes placing 9^th-12^th. All three of CSC's outdoor qualifiers in 2024-25 finished as Second Team All-Americans – Bynes (10^th, triple jump) and former Eagles Nicquaine Henry (11^th, 400 hurdles) and Trace Hanchett (12^th, javelin).

With the new system, all individual qualifiers to the national championships will receive some form of All-America recognition.

Road to Nationals
Bynes, a Chadron native, has put together another storybook season jumping for his hometown school. 

In the indoor season, Bynes was named the RMAC Field Athlete of the Year after a school-record triple jump of 16.01 meters (52 feet, 6.5 inches), which was tied for the No. 1 mark in Division II entering the national meet. He also earned Field Athlete of the Meet honors at the RMAC Championships by winning the triple jump with a conference-meet record leap of 15.99m (52-5.5). Bynes eventually placed third at NCAA nationals, winning All-American honors.

Bynes didn't miss a beat in his first outdoor competition, the Con Marshall Early Bird hosted by Chadron State, breaking his own school record and setting a new facility record with an outdoor jump of 15.73 meters (51 feet, 7.25 inches), which remains the No. 4 mark in Division II entering nationals.

Bynes has competed sparingly since with the goal of remaining fresh and peaking at the national meet. The junior won the Mines Midweek & Multi competition in early April, but skipped defending his RMAC Outdoor conference title (although he placed second in the long jump on just one attempt).

In last year's national meet, Bynes placed 10^th despite breaking the school record at the time with a leap of 15.60 meters (51-2.25). Bynes missed the final (top nine) by just two inches on a day where 11 of 22 competitors set personal bests, including Bynes.

Scouting the Competition
The 22-jumper field features four of the nine jumpers who finished above Bynes in the 2025 outdoor championships and five of the eight jumpers who accompanied Bynes in the 2026 indoor finals. 

The top qualifier is Washburn's Justin Forde, the 2025 outdoor runner-up and 2026 indoor champion. Forde's season-best of 16.64m (54-7.25) is 18 inches farther than anyone else has jumped this season.

There are two other jumpers with a mark this season better than Bynes's best. Harding senior Yves Bilong is the other jumper to clear 16 meters this season with a best of 16.20m (53-1.75). Bilong placed sixth at last year's outdoor meet and fifth indoors this year. 

In the second of two flights this Saturday, Bynes will jump third of 12 – immediately after Forde, who jumps second, and immediately before Bilong, who jumps fourth.

The No. 3 qualifier is Southern Arkansas senior Keith Smith, whose season-best mark of 15.77m (51-9) is 1.75 inches more than Bynes's mark. Forde, Bilong, Smith and Bynes have all set personal-bests this season. 

There are two other jumpers in the field who have leapt farther than Bynes outdoors in their careers, but not this season – reigning third-place finisher Donte Dockery of Wilmington (Del.), the No. 5 qualifier this season, and reigning fifth-place finisher Collin Joyce of Cal Poly Pomona, the No. 6 qualifier this season.

Further down the field, two freshmen – Harding's Artem Konovalenko and Mississippi College's Schyler Chambers – round out the top eight qualifiers. UCCS's KJ McInnis, the RMAC champion when Bynes did not compete, ranks No. 15 entering the meet while indoor championships fourth-place finisher Malik Drummond of Lincoln looms at No. 11.