BYU’s James Corrigan won the 3,000-meter steeplechase Friday night at the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, taking the lead with less than 200 meters to go and pulling away from a field loaded with Kenyans to notch another win for Steeplechase U.
Corrigan recorded a time of 8:16.41 to become the fourth-fastest collegian ever. In the process, he beat the event’s second-fastest collegian ever, Louisville’s Geoffrey Kirwa.
The first two laps of the 7 ½-lap race were slow and tactical, but then Iowa State’s Joash Ruto, a native Kenyan, accelerated and opened up a 10-meter gap on the field and the real racing had begun.
Kirwa, another Kenyan, pulled the field to close the gap on Ruto over the next couple of laps, with Corrigan running fifth. With about 900 meters to go, Kirwa passed Ruto, and with 800 meters to go he accelerated and opened up a gap. Corrigan was some 10 meters back, still in fifth.
“James has the talent to kick off of a slow or fast pace. Any scenario is going to be OK if he maintains contact,” said BYU coach Ed Eyestone.
“With two laps to go, I was mildly concerned because he was running fifth in traffic and (Kirwa) was opening a gap.”
Corrigan swung wide on the backstretch to skirt traffic and put himself in position to run down Kirwa, but with one lap to go he had slipped even farther behind, some 15 meters or more.
Eyestone had seen Corrigan’s closing speed at the end of workouts and was hopeful as he watched from the stands. Sure enough, Corrigan began to quicken his pace and was gaining ground as they headed into the backstretch.
“He kept his head and the last 300 meters you could see he was cutting into the lead,” said the coach.
Kirwa and Corrigan reached the final water jump together, but Corrigan maintained his momentum better coming out of it. Kirwa trailed by only one stride as they turned into the homestretch, but Corrigan pulled away with 50 meters to go.
It was an astonishing win on many levels for Corrigan, the ninth-place finisher in the 2024 NCAA championships. Earlier this week, Eyestone surveyed the competition in the steeplechase at nationals and noted, “It might be more difficult to get top three at the NCAAs than at (the U.S. national championships).”
Another coach told ESPN, “This is shaping up to be one of the best steeplechase fields ever at these championships.”
That was largely because the field was dominated by Kenyans, who are to distance running — and especially the steeplechase — what Juilliard students are to music.
Kenyans have won nine of the last 11 Olympic finals and 19 total medals. They make up nine of the 13 fastest steeplechasers of all-time.
At this week’s NCAA track and field championships, Kenyans swept the first five places in the 10,000-meter run and the first two places in the 5,000. The only race they couldn’t win was the steeplechase, even though they represented seven of the 12 finalists.
“It was a little daunting in that respect,” said Corrigan afterward. “It was definitely the fastest race I’ve been in during a major competition.
“I was happy that I was still able to win with a hot pace like that. The Kenyans have a great heritage (in the steeplechase), but BYU has a good heritage, too.”
BYU has become Steeplechase U. Five BYU athletes have won the steeplechase — Josh McAdams in 2006, Kyle Perry in 2009 and, more recently, Courtney Wayment in 2022, Kenneth Rooks in 2023 and now Corrigan in 2025.
BYU’s Lexy Lowry, who will compete in the final of the women’s steeplechase Saturday at these NCAA championships, is the fifth-fastest collegian ever and will be joined in the final by teammate Taylor Lovell.
Rooks and Corrigan finished first and third, respectively, at last summer’s U.S. Olympic trials to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team that competed in Paris. Rooks won the silver medal in the steeplechase, delivering one of the biggest surprises of the Olympic track competition.
The win by Corrigan was worth 10 team points and played a big part in putting BYU in a three-way tie for 11th place, with 19 points for the championships.
BYU’s other scorers were Danny Bryant (sixth in the shot put), Ben Barton (sixth in the decathlon), BYU’s 4 x 400-meter relay team (seventh) and Creed Thompson (eighth in the 10,000-meter run).
Competing in the last event of the men’s competition, the BYU relay team of Eli Hazlett, Josh Taylor, Jonah Heimuli and Trey Jackson produced a school-record time of 3:02.51, finishing one place behind Alabama and one place ahead of USC.
Friday’s win will likely mark the end of Corrigan’s collegiate career, even though he has another year of NCAA eligibility remaining. He already has an NIL deal with Nike and shoe companies will offer him a professional contract the moment he declares that he is finished with collegiate competition..
“I’ve got options now,” said Corrigan. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’ll talk to my coaches and my agent and we’ll shop around a little.”
