UT & the amount of great Steeple Chasers that are produced?

all of you forgot UTEP!!! they are the greatest steeple program for the past 40 years!

And don't use the argument that they are all 26 year old europeans or africans. I mean, yeah..it's true, bc no american runner would ever consider El Paso for running ground, but still.. every incoming foreign steepler improved in their program. Ereng is doing a great job, Bodgan dropped his steeple PR' by 15 sec.

Earlier in the 90's they had a german guy i think who later ran 8:09 (!!!!) in europe.

Looked it up Pittman 8:27 as a freshmaaaaaannnn!

Take an extra second and ponder that. In one the toughest distance event there is. Straight out of Highschool.

Don't think any other collegian has ever come close to that as a freshman. Including Marsh, Croghan, Diemer ...anyone.

Badass. UT

the real UT wrote:

Straight out of Highschool.T

A 19 1/2 year old freshman. Lot of good it did for him. 4 seconds improvement? Ponder that!

I ponder that you never have or ever will run anywhere close to that time no matter how young/old you are.

So keep supporting the d3 schools you walk onto.

Good points regarding schools that have to coach steeplers (always wondered why Stanford doesn't throw more guys in there, especially some high school studs that need a kick start to their college careers). As a Buckeye follower, I don't believe Croghan ran much faster than 9:10 in high school and didn't try the even until his 3rd year at Ohio State when a new coach came in. Gary was struggling to run what he did in high school (9:06+?) and tried it his 3rd year. Conner ran it his freshamn year under Gary (ended up placing 2nd at NCAA's one year and winning NCAA's at the last water jump before crashing his last year. The newest Olinger ran 9:25 and 4:25 in high school, but you're right about coaches sticking with kids in the event, because Gary kept saying that he was going to be great at it when he couldn't even break 9.

My best steeple moment was 1996 trials when Gary ran sub-60 last lep to fly by Mark Davis, make the team, and give OSU a 1-2 there.

Admittedly, it looks like UT has a bit more impressive resume of American steeplechasers and Weber has had some great steeplers over the years. Recently however, Ohio State is moving up there.

Another UT is the University of Toledo that developed American Record Holder Briana Shook. Her 9:29 is in the top-10 all-time in the World and at least 10-seconds faster than the next-best American woman ever.

All of these schools have produced great steeplers, but Arkansas has won 5 of the last 8 NCAA championships in the steeplechace,and they had a guy run 8:29 and get second last year who was third in the 10k the night before(that's a steeple prelim, 10k final and steeple final on three consecutive days). Jonny Mac ran the steeplechace himself when he was a wee lad.

Tyrone Shoelaces wrote:

This is a very good topic. There a defintitely schools that have a tradition of great steeplers. I think its by design. And they put their top talents into the event.

Other programs could do the same but don't have the drive at the top or desire to put the extra work in one event.

This is a good point--and it's very true that only a minority of coaches really commit to treating the event as the technical event it is. It's a big coaching failure. I'm always surprised how unschooled many decent NCAA steeplechasers are--they have not been well taught, and/or they have not done the reps needed to be proficient at the technical aspect (hurdling) of the event.

A lot of distance coaches are uncomfortable with the event and tell themselves that the hurdling isn't that important. A couple of 1000m repeats over hurdles and off you go. Weber is good because Hislop knows and likes the event and has those guys do one million drills and reps over hurdles and he corrects their mistakes. In other words, he coaches the event.

What has happened to Aaron Fisher- still competing?. Last year was cool with Gary, Olinger, and Fisher all running exactly together in the qualifying for USATF steeplechase (that is a good recruiting picture of OSU).

Also, why did Conner leave the steeple and Gary coaching him(runs for Zap now)?

watch out wrote:

What has happened to Aaron Fisher- still competing?. Last year was cool with Gary, Olinger, and Fisher all running exactly together in the qualifying for USATF steeplechase (that is a good recruiting picture of OSU).

Also, why did Conner leave the steeple and Gary coaching him(runs for Zap now)?

I no longer have an "in" to information that I used to have, but to my knowledge, Fisher is no longer competing. I don't think Conner has run a steeple since breaking his foot in the NCAA final. He was pulling away for the win, but broke his foot on the last water jump and was beaten. Just recently, I heard he is looking to return to the Columbus area. This is information I heard from those around the program, but not from the sources themselves.

oregon? not recently, but still...

is there a better top 10 list out there?

Steeplechase

1. Ken Martin 8:20.97 1980

2. Knut Kvalheim 8:25.6 1973

3. Don Clary 8:26.9 1979

4. Danny Lopez 8:28.44 1990

5. Steve Savage 8:29.6 1971

6. Matt McGuirk 8:33.03 1984

7. Dan Nelson 8:34.19 1987

8. Harold Kuphaldt 8:34.19 1984

9. Todd Lathers 8:35.0 1973

10. Mike Friton 8:35.0 1981

Washington State had some pretty good guys beyond the Rono, Koech guys. I'm not sure if the list is better than Oregon's though. Anyone?

Son, learn a lesson.

UTEP

3000-Meter Steeplechase

8:21.48 Jim Svenoy 1995

8:21.6 James Munyala 1977

8:27.29 Mircea Bogdan 2005

8:27.49 Carlos Suarez Gonzalez 2000

8:31.71 Bashar Ibrahim 2003

8:31.93 Patrick Mutai 2005

8:33.19 Sam Ngatia 1983

8:34.99 Marcel Laros 1993

8:35.49 Sammy Sitonik 1980

8:37.35 Damian Kallabis 1997

8:37.55 Cesar Perez Segovia 1999

old miner fan wrote:

UTEP

3000-Meter Steeplechase

8:21.48 Jim Svenoy 1995

8:21.6 James Munyala 1977

8:27.29 Mircea Bogdan 2005

8:27.49 Carlos Suarez Gonzalez 2000

8:31.71 Bashar Ibrahim 2003

8:31.93 Patrick Mutai 2005

8:33.19 Sam Ngatia 1983

8:34.99 Marcel Laros 1993

8:35.49 Sammy Sitonik 1980

8:37.35 Damian Kallabis 1997

8:37.55 Cesar Perez Segovia 1999

How many of these runners are American? Ohio State steeplers are all home grown!

Any more information about Pittman's development past his freshman year in college? I recall his name in T&F news as a high shcooler and then it was there later in the steeple rankings, but I don't recall anything else. What was his story?

I can't remember the guys name, but Weber State's coach did produce a number of good steeplers. Not mostly 8:30 types, but a lot of 8:50-9:00 guys. That tells me there was some good coaching going on there.

Four Olympians (Kvalheim, Clary, Lopez and Savage) and One World Champs Qualifier (Nelson). I would say that is excellent quality from the Quackers.

Ricky Pittman is from a very rough Cleveland East Tech HS who had a T&F alum even better than him. Pittman was one of the greatest Ohio HS runners & possibly nationally to never win a state title thanks primarily to George Nicholas (XC), and John Zishka (Track). Ricky had some solid XC seasons at UT including an SEC title I think, but the steeple was his event and injuries among other things slowed his progression after that great freshman year. Ricky is a good guy who did some coaching at his high school alma mater and I heard ran for mayor of Cleveland a few years ago although he didn't have any big-pocket backing and was not a serious contender.