Oregon’s Jackson Darland dropped more than four seconds from his personal best in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase to win the event in 8 minutes, 59.95 seconds at the Oregon Twilight at Historic Hayward Field.
He did it with help from his teammate, Chris Mulverhill, who set the pace for the first six laps before dropping out.
“That’s what pulled me through,” said Darland. “It’s cool because Chris and I trained together from before day one back in summer last year, both walk-ons. Just both big hopes and dreams, and, man, we’ve gone through some good work together. It was cool for him today to sacrifice himself and pace for me.”
“Jackson’s been close to getting the mark all year,” Mulverhill said. “In the past couple, he’s been better than me. So I decided it was in the best interest of the team to get this guy to go a good time, good place in the race –that’s what it takes.”
Hayden Randall of Lewis & Clark finished second with 9:20.83, and Miles Dunbar, competing unattached, finished third with 9:27.72.
In the week leading up to the race, Mulverhill was approached by his coach and asked what he wanted to do for the upcoming race. The two mutually decided that he would help Darland by pacing him through it. “It was really kind of Chris taking the initiative to pull through for me,” Darland said.
“Honestly, I know he would do the same thing for me,” Mulverhill said, to which Darland agreed.
“It was really good to see him do as well as he did,” Mulverhill said. “It just kind of reflects on my pacing as well.”
Asked if it was Mulverhill’s turn next to set a new record, Darland said, “You never know. It’s all up to coach.”
“We’ll see,” Mulverhill said. “We’ll see. Hopefully I’ll get another shot at it.”
“Maybe next week,” Darland said. “We’ll certainly be working hard together in practice, so I’ll pace him through intervals if anything else.”
Katie Pietzold
