BREAKING THE American Collegiate Record normally would make one the favorite coming into the NCAA, especially when there is no clear foreign challenger.
Not so with BYU junior Kenneth Rooks — because he lost that record only 20 days after setting it. Rooks set his mark of 8:17.62 on May 6, also breaking the school record of none other than Henry Marsh. But by May 26 his AmCR was gone, replaced by the 8:16.23 of Montana State senior Duncan Hamilton.
Thus the stage was set for a heavyweight title bout by the two fastest collegiate steeplers ever not named Henry Rono.
The early punches were pretty light, slow laps of around 77 seconds (outside water jump) where Hamilton tucked right behind the leader but Rooks was content to hide deep within the pack.
Hamilton took the lead in the fourth lap but didn’t make his real attack until two circuits remained. When he went, only Eastern Kentucky’s Abdelhakim Abouzouhir and Rooks covered the move.
On the penultimate water jump, Rooks passed Hamilton and made it clear that Hamilton’s strike hadn’t fazed him. Rooks looked smooth and Hamilton’s form started to break.
By the final waterjump, Rooks had a 10m lead, and as he stormed into the bend, it quickly increased to 40. Rooks won easily in 8:26.17, while a fading Hamilton (8:32.18) fought to hold off UTEP frosh Victor Kibiego by 0.31.
“I respect Duncan Hamilton,” Rooks said, but losing his record didn’t intimidate him. “It got me excited because I’d be able to race him here at Nationals. Today was my day. He’s a really good guy, maybe he would have gotten me on another day.”
The winner said BYU coach Ed Eyestone prepared him well on pre-race strategy: “I’ve been in a lot of different race scenarios this year. I’ve succeeded well in all of the races I’ve been in so far, and so [I went] in with the confidence that I’ve put myself in good position, not necessarily up to the front, but just to be there and be ready to respond to moves when they come, and make a hard push at 600 to go. That was what the race plan was, it ended up working out.”
“The last lap [64.23 vs. Hamilton’s 69.86] felt good. I really like to lead going fast because I get a clear look at the barriers and it helps me get some clean hurdles. And it gives me some confidence when the person behind me is starting to drop a little bit.”
MEN’S STEEPLE RESULTS
FINAL (June 09; exterior water jump)
1. *Kenneth Rooks (BYU) 8:26.17 (64.23, 2:10.81, 3:23.21, 4:34.14)
(4.24, 77.67 [1:21.91], 77.45 [2:39.36], 72.67 [3:52.03], 70.93 [5:02.96], 72.40 [6:15.36], 66.58 [7:21.94], 64.23);
2. Duncan Hamilton (MtSt) 8:32.18 (69.86, 2:17.40, 3:30.09, 4:40.95);
3. ***Victor Kibiego’ (UTEP-Ken) 8:32.49 (67.74, 2:16.53, 3:29.72, 4:40.57);
4. **Nathan Mountain (Va) 8:35.99 (67.49, 2:19.37, 3:32.41, 4:43.58);
5. Matthew Wilkinson (Mn) 8:36.12 (67.57, 2:19.74, 3:32.81, 4:44.55);
6. *Abdelhakim Abouzouhir’ (EnKy-Mor) 8:36.19 (71.19, 2:21.03, 3:33.85, 4:44.73);
7. Victor Shitsama’ (OkSt-Ken) 8:36.79; 8. *Derek Johnson (Va) 8:37.29; 9. Ed Trippas’ (Wa-Aus) 8:39.63; 10. *Peter Herold (UCLA) 8:43.68; 11. *Carson Williams (Furm) 8:53.75; 12. *Kevin Robertson’ (Syr-Can) 9:04.02.
SEMIS (June 07)
I–1. Hamilton 8:38.07; 2. Trippas’ 8:38.26; 3. Mountain 8:38.31; 4. Herold 8:38.63; 5. Kibiego’ 8:41.24; 6. *Alex Slenning (Or) 8:44.60; 7. *Parker Stokes (Gtn) 8:44.69; 8. *Levi Taylor (MtSt) 8:45.17; 9. *Zach Jaeger (GaT) 8:47.94; 10. *Pedro Garcia-Palencia’ (EnKy-Spa) 8:53.39; 11. Marshall Williamson (NC) 8:59.53; 12. *Bronson Winter (Web) 9:12.30.
II–1. Abouzouhir’ 8:35.41; 2. Wilkinson 8:35.69; 3. Rooks 8:35.79; 4. Johnson 8:35.85; 5. Shitsama’ 8:36.27; 6. Williams 8:39.92; 7. Robertson’ 8:43.18; 8. ***Rob McManus (MtSt) 8:47.86; 9. *Tom Seitzer (NDm) 8:55.42; 10. Awet Yohannes’ (NM-Swe) 8:57.86; 11. **Ahmed Kadri’ (EnKy-Tun) 9:00.21; 12. Charles Harders (M/O) 9:01.40. ◻︎
