Eagle County runners set to continue careers at NCAA DI level

Dylan and Tyler Blair have made side-by-side 1-2 finishes a regular occurrence throughout their high school careers. It could theoretically happen next fall, too, with one distinct difference: The twins will be wearing different uniforms.

“It will be a good rivalry for sure,” Tyler Blair said. “We’re both going to be in the Big Sky Conference.”

The Eagle Valley seniors will continue their running careers at the NCAA DI level. Tyler will head north to Montana State University while Dylan juts south to Northern Arizona University. The brothers are following in the footsteps of their older sisters: Joslin — the 2018 1,600-meter state champion went to Vanderbilt and Samantha — one of the most versatile track, trail and cross-country runners in state history — attended Northern Arizona.

“It’s really indescribable the impact the Blair family has made on running down valley over the last 10 years,” Eagle Valley head coach Melinda Brandt said. “They elevate the competition for everybody around them.”

Dylan and Tyler finished second and third, respectively, at the 4A Region 1 championships last week in Gypsum. At the 2024 state meet, they dashed across the Norris Penrose Event Center finish in fourth and fifth to lead Eagle Valley to its third-straight top-5 team finish. In the spring, they went to work rewriting the school track record board.

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Dylan set records in the sea-level and altitude 3,200-meters, indoor two mile and outdoor 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs, competing at both Nike Indoor and Outdoor Nationals. Tyler knocked on the door step of the 800-meter record and ran the fastest 1,600-meter time in school history in California in April, but an injury prevented him from competing at the state meet in May. This summer, Dylan set the course record at the National High School Trail Championships and won the International U18 Mountain Running Cup in Donovaly, Slovakia; Tyler finished seventh as Team USA earned bronze.

The twins also looked at Butler, the University of Portland and CU. Over fall break, Dylan Blair sat down with Devils assistant coach Charlie Janssen to academically analyze the decision with T-charts and Venn diagrams. In the end, Janssen said he was thrilled about the boys’ choices.

“Totally. I know for Dylan NAU was kind of a dream school,” Janssen said. “Tyler, I knew even before the trip, Bozeman was going to be the place.”

Montana State University head coach Lyle Weese was a three-time Olympic trials competitor in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. His long-standing program record in the event was only recently broken by All-American Duncan Hamilton in 2021. Weese speaks regularly with his old college roommate — Battle Mountain head coach Rob Parish — about Eagle County running talent. Knowing Weese leans into trail running and has a proven track record of developing talented strength and speed runners into steeplechase stars, Parish said he thought Tyler Blair might be a great fit.

“I was like, ‘you got to do what you can to lock this down, man,'” Parish said.

Tyler Blair said he plans to race the mile and steeplechase in college.

“I hope it’s not the 10K — I don’t know if I can do that many laps on the track,” he joked. “I’m so excited. I went up there last week and just loved Bozeman and the team was so sweet. I’m super hyped with my decision. Lots of outdoor stuff to do.”

In 2024, Weese led Montana State to its first outdoor conference title in almost two decades. The men’s cross-country teams have finished in the top three in the increasingly tough Big Sky Conference each of the past five seasons. Since 2016, Northern Arizona has established itself as the best distance running school in the country. The Lumberjacks won three-straight NCAA team titles in cross country between 2016-2018 and 2020-2022 and finished runner-up in 2019 and 2023. Former coach Mike Smith produced multiple USATF national champions and Olympians during that stint, including American record holder Nico Young. Smith passed the reigns to Jarred Cornfield this summer.

“I’m really excited,” Dylan Blair said. “It’s been my dream school and I’m really happy I committed there. Cornfield is a great coach and Coach Reed is really nice — he’s the one who recruited me and he’s a really cool dude.” 

The Blairs might be in different uniforms next year, but they’ll line up together wearing red and black one more time in cross-country at the Colorado state meet this Saturday in Colorado Springs. Eagle Valley is ranked sixth in 4A going into the competition.

“It will definitely be a little weird not having each other,” Dylan Blair said. Gazing into his crystal ball, his brother added: “I could see the photo of me and Dylan racing to the finish in different jerseys.”