Men’s Steeple: Kenneth Rooks Powers Away to Win with Big Final 600

AUSTIN, Tex. — BYU’s Kenneth Rooks took the lead on the penultimate water jump of Friday’s steeplechase final at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and ran away from Montana State’s Duncan Hamilton the rest of the way to get the easy win in 8:26.17 as Hamilton was second in 8:32.18 holding off Victor Kibiego of UTEP.

Rooks and Hamilton shared a fist bump after a tough NCAA final

Rooks and Hamilton came into the meet with the fastest times in the NCAA, with Hamiton #2 on the all-time collegiate list and Rooks #3, but Rooks was clearly best today. His coach Ed Eyestone won the NCAA 5000 and 10,000 in Austin in 1985 so Austin is good for the Cougars. So is the steeplechase – Rooks is now the fourth BYU man to win the steeple, following in the footsteps of Bob Richards (1966), Josh McAdams (2006), and Kyle Perry (2009).

Race video

Results

Pl		Athlete	Time
1		Kenneth ROOKS BYU [JR]	8:26.17							FR
2		Duncan HAMILTON Montana State [SR]	8:32.18
3		Victor KIBIEGO UTEP [FR]	8:32.49
4		Nathan MOUNTAIN Virginia [SO]	8:35.99
5		Matthew WILKINSON Minnesota [SR]	8:36.12
6		Abdelhakim ABOUZOUHIR Eastern Kentucky [JR]	8:36.19
7		Victor SHITSAMA Oklahoma State [SR]	8:36.79
8		Derek JOHNSON Virginia [JR]	8:37.29
9		Ed TRIPPAS Washington [SR]	8:39.63
10		Peter HEROLD UCLA [JR]	8:43.68
11		Carson WILLIAMS Furman [JR]	8:53.75
12		Kevin ROBERTSON Syracuse [JR]	9:04.02

Quick Take: Rooks could not have drawn this race up any better

Rooks said after the race that his plan was to stay in position to respond to moves until 600 meters to go and then attack from the front as he likes to have a clean look at the barriers when he’s kicking and the best way to do that is to be in the lead. Well that’s exactly what happened. Rooks did not look back after clearing the final water barrier and it turns out he didn’t need to as his win was no longer in doubt at that point.

It’s not a huge surprise that Rooks won given his terrific 8:17 earlier this season, but this race was expected to be a tight one with Hamilton also in great form this year. In the end, however, it was no contest as Rooks put a big gap on Hamilton over the final lap.

Quick Take: Get ready to see this battle again in Eugene next month

Hamilton (8:16.23) and Rooks (8:17.62) currently rank 2nd and 4th in the US in the steeple in 2023. With US leader and three-time US champ Hillary Bor breaking his foot in Rabat and likely missing USAs and American record holder Evan Jager yet to race a steeple in 2023, both collegians will be in the mix for spots on this year’s World Championship team.

The race for the team got a lot more interesting today in Paris, however, as American Anthony Rotich – the three-time NCAA steeple champ at UTEP (2013-15) – ran his first personal best in 10 years at the Meeting de Paris. Rotich’s pb of 8:21.19 dated back almost exactly 10 years ago to the 2013 NCAA final but he slashed five seconds off in Paris by running 8:16.27.

Hamilton said he still believes he can turn the table on Rooks at USAs but admitted tactics can be tricky for him. He realizes his strength is his strength but he didn’t want to lead the entire race only to get passed late like he did last year.

Interview with 3rd placer Victor Kibiego of UTEP