Injuries had prevented Soldotna's Allie Ostrander from racing since the U.S. Olympic Trials in July, and the young distance star tackled a new event, the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Friday at the Stanford Invitational in California.
Despite roughly eight months between races and status as a neophyte in the event that requires runners to hurdles barriers and negotiate a water jump each lap, Ostrander did what she often does — delivered a great performance.
Ostrander's time of 9 minutes, 55.61 seconds is the fastest women's steeplechase in the country this season and — granted, it's very early in the outdoor track and field season — third-fastest in the world this season, according to the International Association of Athletics Federations, the world's sanctioning body.
Ostrander last spring as a freshman at Boise State missed her freshman outdoor season with a knee injury, but shined at the Olympic Trials even though her pre-Trials running training was limited to about one month. Ostrander at 19 nonetheless finished eighth in the 5,000 meters at the Trials while running against a field in which the other 15 competitors were an average of 26 years old.
Ostrander, who was national runner-up at the Division I cross-country running championships as a freshman in 2015, missed last cross-country season and the recent indoor track season with injury. Also, the steeplechase is often considered an event suited to relatively tall athletes and Ostrander is about 5-foot or 5-1.
But the steeplechase requires athleticism and Ostrander owns that. She was a high school basketball player and a six-time junior champion at Mount Marathon. She finished second, and was one of two athletes to break a long-standing record, in her senior women's debut up and down Mount Marathon, the steep, tortuous 3,022-foot peak overlooking Seward, in 2015. Prize performances on Mount Marathon require not just elite fitness, but also exceptional balance and agility, the ability to change direction laterally at high speed, and the spatial awareness to adjust on the fly, particularly on uneven terrain — in short, athleticism suited to the steeplechase.
Seawolves shine
Senior Dominik Notz turned in a personal-best in the 5,000 meters and the women's 4×400-meter relay team racked a Great Northwest Athletic Conference record Friday to lead UAA at the San Francisco Distance Carnival in California.
The Seawolves generated seven performances that served as provisional qualifiers to the NCAA Division II outdoor nationals and raised their total qualifiers early in the season to one automatic qualifier — senior heptathlete Karolin Anders — and 11 provisional qualifiers.
Notz, a seven-time All-America in track and cross country, finished ninth in a field of mostly Division I runners in a personal-record 14:02.37 that provisionally qualifies him for nationals. UAA junior Edwin Kangogo also provisionally qualified with his 14:24.08.
The women's 4×400 team of Danielle McCormick, Mary-Kathleen Cross, Hayley Bezanson and Vanessa Aniteye won in a GNAC- and school-record 3:41.93 to provisionally qualify. The men's 4×400 team of Nicholas Taylor, Liam Lindsay, Darrion Gray and Adam Commandeur won in 3:12.59, another provisional qualifier.
The Seawolves also received provisional qualifiers from sophomore Zennah Jepchumba in the women's 10,000 (a PR 36:11.04); junior Mariah Burroughs in the steeplechase (a PR 10:39.44); and freshman Christoph Sander in the men's steeplechase (9:09.94).