SALT LAKE CITY — Four years ago, Grayson Murphy didn’t even know what a steeplechase track race was. Now she just happens to be one of the premier women’s steeplechase runners in the country and will be going for a national title later this week.
Murphy, a senior on the University of Utah women’s track and field team, will be competing for the Utes at the NCAA Track and Field Championships Thursday in Eugene, Oregon. She will run in a semifinal heat that afternoon and if she qualifies among the top 12, will run in the finals Saturday afternoon.
A year ago, Murphy finished fifth in the NCAA meet and enters this year’s event as the No. 3-ranked steeplechase runner in the nation with a personal best of 9:49 over the 3,000-meter race that involves 28 hurdle barriers, plus seven water jumps.
“I didn’t even know it existed,” Murphy said about the steeplechase race. “Maybe I saw it in the Olympics, but I didn’t even know what it was called. I didn’t even run track until four years ago.”
Before taking up running, Murphy was a top soccer player for West High, but decided to switch from soccer to track and landed at her hometown university after attending two other schools.
Utah coach Kyle Kepler calls Murphy’s rise over the past four years “incredible” and notes how in her two years at Utah she’s run just 18 races, but set personal records in 13 of them and school records in 10.
“It’s a pretty unique story, but it’s possible because she’s such a great kid,” Kepler said. “She’s very particular and thorough. She’s got a very level head and obviously some God-given talent.”
The steeplechase requires great athletic ability, which Murphy has on her petite 5-foot-3 frame that doesn’t even pack 100 pounds on it. Steeplechase runners not only have 28 30-inch barriers to jump over, they must also clear a 12-foot water pit behind a hurdle seven times. Most runners, after jumping to the edge of the barrier, land on the upslope of the pit and get wet, but Murphy is usually able to clear the water.
“Usually everyone gets wet, but I don’t. I don’t know why — I jump more like out than up. That’s always been my strength — I can always outjump people on the water pit,” she says.
Kepler credits Murphy’s athleticism for being able to jump so well despite her smaller stride. “She’s efficient, she carries good speed in there and you have to know how to technically push off the barrier. She’s a great athlete and her soccer experience comes into play.”
Murphy never ran track in high school, where she was a prep soccer standout for the Panthers. After playing soccer for a year for Division III Sweet Briar College in Virginia, Murphy headed west to pursue an engineering degree at Santa Clara University. Wanting to join a sports team, she asked the track coach for a tryout and before long was the best runner on the team.
“After two years I knew I was getting pretty good at running and wanted to see how good I could get,” Murphy said. “The team there is low-key, not a powerhouse running team, and I wanted to pursue it more seriously. I wasn’t on scholarship and thought the opportunity to get it paid for would be nice. I thought about the Pac-12 and coming back home and I’ve made a lot of improvements since coming here.”
Kepler welcomed Murphy with open arms and saw her talent immediately when she competed in cross-country during her first fall at Utah in 2016. She set school records in the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and steeplechase in the spring when she finished fifth at the NCAA meet. This year, she’s continued to improve.
As for her chances this weekend, both Murphy and Kepler say it will be tough to beat Boise State’s Allie Ostrander, the defending NCAA champion, who has a best of 9:41, eight seconds better than Murphy. She’s the only runner in the field that Murphy has never beaten.
“They’re all so close, just to make the finals will be a challenge,” Kepler said. “You have to go out there and put everything on the track and run a smart race and be smooth over the barriers and the jump and finish well over the last half of the race. She needs to take advantage of her experience in that meet.”
Murphy likes to run a steady race and take the lead early so she doesn’t have a logjam at the water barrier, and hopes to be ahead going into the final part of the race.
“You can’t be sloppy, you still have a water pit to get over and at least one more barrier in the last 150,” she said. “It’s kind of a game of patience, aggressive patience. It gets a little scary when you’re running over 10 miles an hour at a stationary barrier and you try to put one foot on it and jump over it. I try not to think about that while I’m doing it. You only get six inches to get your foot on to push off seven times.
This will be Murphy’s last collegiate race, whether it’s Thursday or Saturday. But she plans to pursue a running career and longer distances such as the 10,000 meters or even the marathon.
“She definitely has interest from professional groups and agents,” said Kepler. “Those calls will come quick and furious this weekend. We’ll attack that at the end of the week. She can run the 10,000 and up and the marathon potentially. She certainly has the engine for it, it’s just a matter of where her greatest strength.”