BYU sophomore Olivia Hoj’s First Steeplechase Ends in Victory

By Alex Castle 

With a mixture of rain and sweat running down her face, BYU sophomore Olivia Hoj overcame walls of wind for a victory in her first career 3,000-meter steeplechase at Saturday’s Pepsi Team Invitational.

Hoj’s time of 10 minutes, 35.93 seconds was nearly three seconds ahead of Washington’s Emily Hamlin’s second-place time of 10:38.59 seconds. And though Hoj has run the 3,000-meter distance previously, the weather proved to be as much an obstacle as any that could be placed around Hayward Field.

“We’re wet anyways, so I guess the water jump wasn’t too bad,” said Washington State’s Devon Bortfeld, who finished third, laughing.

The race, which featured five participants, remained close for the first 2,000 meters with Hoj and her teammate Madelyn Brooks leading the way. But entering the final third of the race, another first-time steeplechase runner, Hamlin, made her move.

“She was brave and busted it open,” Bortfeld said. “I think that’s when we all knew we had to get it going.”

Hamlin held the lead for the next few laps, challenging her competitors to keep pace in the midst of a “torrential downpour and vortex of wind,” as Bortfeld described it. With wind and rain battering each runner’s face entering the track’s final curve, finding ways to forget about the conditions around them was all they could do.

“I like to just keep my eyes up on the girl in front of me and focus on my form,” Bortfeld said. “I try and ignore the emotional turmoil that’s going on. Keep it nice and simple.”

As Hamlin tried to build separation, Hoj and Bortfeld gave chase as the race grew more and more difficult.

“It got pretty mentally tough at the end,” Bortfeld said. “That lap counter helped. We kind of partitioned the race into ‘How many of those 100-meter blistering stretches do we have to do?’”

Approaching the counter with just one lap to go, Hoj grabbed the lead from Hamlin and didn’t relinquish it, fighting through the remaining “blistering stretch.” Crossing five seconds later was Bortfeld, with Oregon’s Judy Pendergast finishing fourth and Brooks in last.

Alex Castle

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