Hill Finishes Seventh in IAAF World U20 Steeplechase Final

TAMPERE, Finland -- One month ago, Alice Hill of the University of Michigan women's track and field team was just days away from running her first 3,000-meter steeplechase race. On Friday (July 13), Hill can officially count herself among the best young steeplechasers in the world after finishing seventh at the IAAF World U20 Championships.

Running in just the third steeplechase race of her career -- and, indeed, only the third track race of her career farther than a mile and just the seventh farther than 800 meters -- Hill clocked 9:57.04 donning the red, white and blue of Team USA to race to the line as the fastest woman under the age of 20 in the Western Hemisphere.

While world leader and eventual champion Celliphine Chespol of Kenya laid down a hot pace at the front of the race alongside runners from Bahrain and Uganda, Hill ran her own race as part of a chase pack that developed relatively early in the race with five laps remaining.

Coming through at the bell with a lap to go in ninth place, Hill -- in a style reminiscent of All-American steeplechase training partners Claire Borchers and Sarah Zieve from this past spring -- closed hard over the final 400-plus meters.

Hill found herself in a duel with Germany's Lisa Oed coming off the final barrier and down the homestretch, though she was able to hold off the German by .41 of a second.

The sprint finish clinched her the distinction of becoming the only first-year collegian in Michigan history to break 10 minutes in the steeplechase -- topping her 10:09.15 as the Michigan freshman record -- and just the third Michigan woman to dip below that threshold alongside former NCAA Champion Anna Willard and Hill's teammate Borchers.

WOAH! ALICE HILL! She breaks 10 minutes for top-10 in the IAAF World U20 Championships steeplechase final! Stay tuned for final results! #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/HDglGJby8p
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack) July 13, 2018

Friday's final wrapped a whirlwind month for Hill that saw her catapult from steeplechase neophyte to one of best in Michigan history in the event and one of the discipline's top talents in the NCAA and the world.

Nationally, Hill will finish the year as the 2018 season's second-fastest freshman and the No. 9 overall returner in the NCAA for 2019 based on this year's results. The lone first-year collegian ahead of her on the list is Kristlin Gear of Furman, whom Hill defeated by nearly four seconds in Friday's final.

With the five fastest women in the Big Ten conference having all exhausted their outdoor eligibility after 2018, Hill also now finds herself atop the conference's list of returners for the 2019 season. Fellow freshman Alissa Niggemann of Wisconsin would otherwise have been the Big Ten's top returner at 10:13.70.

But prior to her steeplechase debut at the USATF Junior Championships on June 15, Hill had never run a race on the track longer than a mile -- nearly a full 1,400 meters shorter than the 3,000-meter distance required for the steeplechase.

And unlike most collegiate distance runners, Hill does not even have a cross country background on which she can fall back. During her high school days, Hill was an all-state field hockey player for Ann Arbor Pioneer's multiple-time state championship-winning squad.

Nevertheless, with All-American training partners throughout the spring in Borchers and Zieve, Hill quietly developed into a steeplechase talent.

That talent first revealed itself to the world at USA Juniors, where she clocked 10:31.07 to take runner-up and clinch her spot to the World Championships in Tampere. After just one race, she already stood at No. 10 in school history for the event.

Fast forward a month to this past Tuesday (July 10), and she one-upped herself in a big way in the first round at Worlds. With a 10:09.15 in her second try at the event, Hill qualified for the 15-woman final and obliterated the previous Michigan freshman record (10:26.28 by Zieve in 2015) along the way.

For reference, Michigan record holder and former collegiate record holder Williard did not break 10:10 until her second year competing in the steeplechase at Brown in 2006. Surpassing that threshold for the No. 2 all-time Wolverine, Borchers, also came in her second year in the steeplechase.

FULL MICHIGAN RESULTS BY EVENT
q = Advanced to the next round with a non-automatic, at-large berth

800 Meters (Prelims) [Tuesday]
34. Aurora Rynda / 2:12.31

Steeplechase (Final)
7. Alice Hill / 9:57.04

13. Alice Hill / 10:09.15q (Tuesday Prelim)