DARLINGTON — Tyson Miehe, a 2013 Darlington graduate, was inducted into the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame Jan. 10 in Brookfield. The Darlington High School graduate was recognized for his efforts at the Jan. 21 boys basketball game against Mineral Point.

While his place in state running lore was based on his accomplishments in high school, the former Badger has sights set on something bigger — the Olympic trials for the marathon.

“I’m going into it with the mentality of having fun,” Miehe said.

During his four years in high school, Miehe won three individual WIAA Division 3 state cross country titles, and three team titles. He ran at the state meet all four years, and he was a 4-time champion in both the SWAL conference and at sectionals.

“My goal entering high school was to win state,” Miehe said. “All of those accomplishments are not just about me — they include my family, my supports and teammates, too.”

Tyson was coached by his father, Arnie Miehe, which he said could be both good and bad at times.

“It was an interesting dynamic. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it wasn’t so fun. There was definitely a complexity involved from certain aspects,” Tyson said. “Ultimately, he is trying to support me and do the right things to motivate me. You can see by his success over the years that he’s a great motivator.”

He entered college as a preferred walk-on at Wisconsin and redshirted his first season in 2014, and after struggling to find a place in the lineup in 2015 he debated transferring.

“The first couple of years were really rough. To be honest, I wanted to transfer. I was not competing as much as I wanted, and school was hard,” Tyson said. “I ultimately decided to stick it out and work through my personal adversity.”

In his third season, he started to see a change in his results. Eventually he helped the Badgers to Big Ten titles in 2016 and 2018 and a second-team All-Big Ten designation as a senior. He also saw success in the spring track season.

“I’m glad I stuck it out. It’s something I can be proud of,” Tyson said. “Those bonds with my teammates, experiences; those things are invaluable and I’ll carry with me.

Miehe graduated from Wisconsin Jan. 17 with a Physical Education degree and a minor in Health Education, as well as an adapted physical fitness certificate. He needed to complete his student teaching in order to graduate. Rather than jump into the job hunt right away, he said he’ll spend the next few months toiling in unemployment while he continues training — his sights are set on the Olympics Trials.

After not giving competitive running much thought after using up the last of his collegiate eligibility, Miehe decided to run in the Madison Marathon, or rather, the half marathon. 

“After using up my eligibility May 1, I decided to take two weeks off. I was not sure what I wanted to do next, whether I wanted to jump to a marathon or something shorter,” Tyson said. Leading up to the race, he pulled out old training lessons and ran with some former teammates while still doing his student teaching, which took up much of his time. “Thirteen miles is not new for me; sometimes I’d do that in a day when training.”

Unsure of how he would fair at the race, which was held Nov. 10, Miehe let loose and took first place overall by more than three minutes at 1 hour, 5 minutes and 38 seconds. 

“It set the course record by a couple of minutes,” he said. “I thought maybe a full marathon wasn’t out of my realm. It’s an Olympic year coming up, and if you do the math, there was a chance I could qualify for the trials.”

Less than a month later, Miehe wanted to run in the California International Marathon to get a better gauge at where he stood overall. The California race, held in Sacramento Dec. 8, is the last chance for runners to qualify for Olympic trials.

“I went to sign up for the California race, but it was completely full,” said Miehe.

His roommate, Morgan McDonald, is a former Badger and now runs professionally with Under Armor. Getting McDonald’s agent involved, the California race was able to find a spot for him. Also running was former Darlington runner Connor Roche, who ran with Tyson’s brother Kent in high school before moving on to West Point after graduation.

In his first-ever full marathon, Miehe was fifth overall with a time of 2:16:17, nearly three full minutes under the time required to qualify for the Olympic trials.

“When I got halfway through, I was feeling good and started separating myself from my pack. I kept catching runners each mile down the stretch,” Miehe said.

The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials will be held Feb. 29 — Leap Day — in Atlanta. Miehe said that he’s hoping he’ll be able to handle the humidity, but he’s going into the race as a realist.

“It’ll be hard (to qualify). The top performers run a sub-2:10. That’s a tall order,” Miehe said. “They only take the top three out of over 300 that qualify.”

The Olympics will be held in Tokyo from July 24 to Aug. 9 this year.