Before he ever got to the starting line on Saturday night, BYU’s Kenneth Rooks ran through a scenario in his mind.
“If I fell,” the NCAA steeplechase champ asked himself, “what would I do?”
A little over two minutes into the men’s steeplechase at the U.S. track and field championships, Rooks found himself on the ground in Eugene, Ore.
“I was pretty close to [the runner] in front of me and he stuttered really hard and I almost ran into him — and then I ran into the barrier,” Rooks told NBC Sports afterward. “Everyone was running over top of me.”
That’s when Rooks drew inspiration from a former Cougar, three-time Olympian Henry Marsh, who preferred to run the steeplechase from the back in an effort to avoid such falls.
“I just told myself to go into Henry Marsh mode,” Rooks said. “… I gotta get back up and work my way back up slowly. If I get up close to the pack and I’m feeling good, we’ll see what happens.”
Over the next six minutes, Rooks did just that — until he was sprinting down the final stretch on his way to a national championship.
Rooks’ time of 8:16.78 was even faster than the 8:26.17 the three-time steeplechase All-American ran to win the NCAA title in Austin, Texas, last month.