(Steeple)chasing a title

The steeplechase is a spectacle.

It’s 7 1/2 laps of running mixed in with barrier hurdles and a water pit. It’s a grueling test of endurance and athleticism.

Kalispell’s Troy Fraley is one of the best steeplechasers in the United States.

“My high school (cross country) coach at Glacier, Mike McLean, always thought that I’d be good at that,” Fraley said.

“It’s my natural inclination to jump over things. Probably from my outdoorsy background, running on trails and stuff as a kid.

“When I started trying it out in college, it was something that I was good at and enjoyed. I found an event that’s not just for fun, but I’m also pretty good at. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Fraley, now a redshirt junior at Gonzaga, entered the NCAA postseason with the fastest time in the nation this year, finishing in 8 minutes, 39.30 seconds at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University in May. That time is still the sixth fastest that has been run this year, eclipsed only by the final heat of the NCAA East Prelims two weeks ago. Fraley won the West Prelims the same day.

“If we’re being totally honest, I wanted to run a lot faster than that (at the Payton Jordan),” Fraley said.

“Track and field is interesting with the distance events. People don’t always go out and run as fast as they can every time. It was more of a tactical race because it was kind of windy and cold. People didn’t really want to take the pace. I kind of hung out until the last couple of laps and then it really heated up.

“I felt really, really good that whole race until the last 400. But that’s always going to feel hard.

“I still know that I can run a lot faster. That’s promising.”

Fraley opened the NCAA outdoor championships on Wednesday at the University of Oregon, with a sixth place finish in his semifinal heat to qualify as one of the top-12 runners in the event in the country. He is the first Gonzaga track athlete to make a national final.

He will compete on Friday for a chance to be the first national champion in school history.

That is a far cry from where he was after his freshman year, out of shape and not seeing the results he wanted on the track.

At Glacier he was a stud, finishing second his senior year in 2013 in the 1,600 and 3,200, falling behind only fellow NCAA Division I athletes in Flathead’s Zach Perrin and Hellgate’s Adam Peterman, who both ended up at Colorado. He finished third behind those two at the cross country final and second at the Foot Locker West Regionals, placing 18th nationally to finish just short of an All-American performance.

But, after a year at Gonzaga his habits weren’t where he wanted them to be, struggling to juggle a difficult major, major competition and the first time being out on his own.

“I didn’t do as well as I’d like that first year, that kind of turned a switch,” Fraley said.

“I realized what was really important to me, and that was running well.

“That’s been the turning point that’s caused me to buckle down and live the lifestyle, train hard and be committed all the way.”

He switched his major from human physiology to accounting and turned the rest of his focus to training. After a few years of hard work and patience, the results are finally starting to show.

“I have no social life,” Fraley said.

“You can do two things well, three is asking a lot.

“You have to do school, you have to pass your classes in order to compete. Then, ideally, you want to run well, otherwise you’re there for the wrong reasons. Those two take the front and everything else has fallen to the wayside.”

That hard work has manifested itself in different ways.

He took a redshirt year in 2016 to get into better shape for this winter. Once winter showed up, snow rarely stopped falling as he spent the break at home in Kalispell, leaving him to spend four hours shoveling the track at Glacier so he could get his workouts in.

Gonzaga doesn’t have a track of its own, so all of the team workouts in Spokane are held on an old, poorly maintained track at one of the local community colleges.

By the time indoor season hit, he felt strong, but not as fast as he’d like to be without the ability to get in speed workouts.

“I wasn’t satisfied with that,” Fraley said.

“That not only delayed my peak for outdoor, being strong and fit but not having the speed work in, it also made me more hungry for outdoor season because I knew I was not performing for the fitness I was actually in. It just didn’t show yet.”

When outdoor season arrived, he was ready, shaving 17 seconds off his own school record in the steeplechase.

“There’s always going to be some adversity. That’s really the Montana attitude. We’re not soft people. We get through whatever comes at us.

“If it’s when I was a fresman, gaining some weight and not running like I wanted to and getting through that and getting my self-esteem back, or if it’s shoveling the track at Glacier for four hours. It doesn’t matter, we’re going to get it done. That’s something that growing up in Montana really taught me.”

Fraley won’t be the only local runner competing this weekend at the national championships.

Colorado redshirt freshman Makena Morley, a 2015 Bigfork grad, will compete in the 10,000 meters today at 8:08 p.m. MT.

Perrin, now a redshirt junior at Colorado, will run in the 5,000 meters on Friday at 8:25 p.m. Fraley’s steeplechase final is scheduled for 5:54 p.m. on Friday.

Each can secure first-team All-America status with a top-8 finish. All of the races will be broadcast on the ESPN networks. Today’s coverage starts online at 11:30 a.m. and on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m. Friday’s races will be broadcast online starting at 1:30 p.m. and on ESPN at 6:30 p.m.

Fraley said after this week he’s headed back to the Flathead Valley for the summer to continue training and get ready for the cross country season in the fall.

He’s still got some work to do before vacation starts.

“I have some really big goals,” Fraley said.

“I’m super excited to represent my family, my team and my school. Hopefully this brings great new opportunities to Gonzaga. I’m going to go out there and compete and do my thing.”

NCAA Outdoor Track And Field Championships

Wednesday

Hayward Field

Eugene, Ore.

(All race distances in meters)

Finals

Men

10,000 — 1, Marc Scott, Tulsa, 29 minutes, 1.54 seconds. 2, Rory Linkletter, BYU, 29:02.96. 3, Erik Peterson, Butler, 29:04.74. 4, Arsene Guillorel, Samford, 29:05.27. 5, Lucas Stalnaker, Navy, 29:08.81. 6, Gilbert Kirui, Iona, 29:09.42. 7, Matthew Baxter, Northern Arizona, 29:09.83. 8, Luke Traynor, Tulsa, 29:10.58.

Hammer—1, Rudy Winkler, Cornell, 243 feet, 2 inches. 2, Alexander Young, Southeastern Louisiana, 241-8. 3, Gleb Dudarev, Kansas, 240-11. 4, Hilmar Orn Jonsson, Virginia, 237-5. 5, Denzel Comenentia, Georgia, 235-4. 6, Johnnie Jackson, LSU, 235-4. 7, Alex Poursandis, Georgia, 234-4. 8, Joseph Ellis, Michigan, 230-9.

Javelin—1, Ioannis Kyriazis, Texas A&M, 270-11. 2, Nicolas Quijera, Mississippi State, 251-10. 3, Michael Shuey, Penn State, 250-9. 4, Alex Pascal, Missouri, 247-4. 5, Matti Mortimore, North Dakota State, 243-10. 6, Sindri Gudmundsson, Utah State, 240-5. 7, Curtis Thompson, Mississippi State, 237-9. 8, Chris Mirabelli, Rutgers, 235-2. Pole vault—1, Matthew Ludwig, Akron, 18-4½ 2, Adrian Valles, Cincinnati, 18-2½ 3 (tie), Chris Nilsen, South Dakota, and Hussain Alhizam, Kansas, 17-10½ 5 (tie), Cole Walsh, Oregon, and Jacob Wooten, Texas A&M, 17-10½ 7, Audie Wyatt, Texas A&M, 17-10½ 8, Sean Collins, South Alabama, 17-10½

Long jump—1, KeAndre Bates, Florida, 26-5. 2, Grant Holloway, Florida, 26-3. 3, Will Williams, Texas A&M, 26-1½ 4, Terrell McClain, Akron, 25-7 5, Chris McBride, Clemson, 25-3½ 6, Eric Sloan, USC, 25-1 7, Carlos Becker, Florida State, 25-½ 8, Andreas Trajkovski, Arkansas, 25-0.

Shot put—1, Filip Mihaljevic, Virginia, 69-10 }. 2, Mostafa Hassan, Colorado State, 66-10½ 3, Nicholas Demaline, Ohio State, 65-10½ 4, Oghenakpobo Efekoro, Virginia, 64-7 }. 5, Denzel Comenentia, Georgia, 64-5. 6, Nicholas Ponzio, USC, 64-1. 7, Peter Simon, California, 63-11½ 8, Alex Renner, North Dakota State, 63-2.