In Shalane Flanagan's interview at TrackandFieldNews.com, she -- seemingly casually -- drops a rather unexpected bomb regarding BTC's plans to get the Steeplechase qualifiers this spring.
Here is her pertinent info drawn from the article:
Basically, we’re just waiting for a few steeplechase races so that we can have our steeplers get their times in.
T&FN: I get that. Steeplechasers had essentially zero opportunities in 2020.
Flanagan: Yes. We’ve been using a lot of high school facilities and high school tracks really don’t have steeplechase pits. So we’ve been very limited. Really the best tracks that we’ve been able to use are private Catholic schools and they just don’t have steeplechase pits.
So that’s why we need a few of our men to go run some steeples and Courtney [Frerichs] hasn’t steepled in over a year either. We’re basically waiting, and then we’ll have everyone pretty much check that box to get their Olympic standards so that when they stand on the [OT] start line they’ve got that, they don’t have to worry about it, they just have to be top 3.
"a few of our men" means Evan Jager . . . and who else?
Based upon past interviews, social media posts, etc., my guess is the "other" guys could be one or more of the following:
Josh Thompson (was once a steepler)
Sean McGorty (given size/long legs, seems logical . . . but has to be careful with that surgically repaired right foot)
Amos Bartelsmeyer (may want to use his 3:36/1500 chops)
Woody Kincaid (wild guess here)
BTC will be up in Park City training thru April so the first opportunity for any racing at all would be the Kansas City Qualifier on May 1. Mt. SAC and Sound Running will have pro-oriented meets later next month.
Whatever occurs, looks like Jerry is doing something to break the 5k logjam on his men's team.