Haley Cutright is no stranger to obstacles.

A steeplechaser, her primary event includes running, jumping over barriers and splashing through pits of water.

Yet perhaps the most challenging aspect is simulating the event without water — something she’s forced to do because Manley Field House doesn’t have it.

“It is tricky because nothing feels the same practice-wise as jumping in the water pit,” Cutright said.

The steeplechase involves hurdling over seven beams, the last of which a pool of water awaits on the other side.

But SU doesn’t have that pool and Cutright can’t practice like she would run a race. Despite this, Cutright, a senior, will look to pick up where she left off a season ago when she finished ninth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Cutright knows falling into the water at some points is inevitable, but the experiences doing so have helped her learn how to keep going after landing in it.

The trick to limiting those falls requires consistent repetition. Without water, though, the event is extremely difficulty to recreate in indoor practices.

“You want to land close enough where you’re out of the water but you still land in the edge of it so you can get a little cushion,” Cutright said.

SU head coach Chris Fox acknowledged the difficulties Cutright may face in preparing without water. Instead, they focus on the running and jumping aspects of the event.

Fox said that runners like Cutright prepare specifically for the steeplechase two or three times a week. While Cutright always builds her endurance practicing with the distance runners, on these days she polishes her hurdling technique in special drills.

Most schools don’t start practicing the steeplechase until May, Fox said. Cutright, though, has been simulating it even before the start of the fall season.

“I think that kind of really shows her personality,” Maura Linde, a teammate of Cutright, said. “She’s very tough.”

Cutright follows a strict pre-race regimen: 10-minute warm-up run in the morning, a consistent eating routine of peanut butter and banana sandwiches, eggs and oatmeal, and meditation a couple minutes before the race to calm herself down.

She remembers the Southeastern Conference championship her sophomore year at Ole’ Miss, her first year running the steeplechase. While falling in the water is an extremely common part of the race, Cutright had yet to take that dive. Until then.

“I had never fallen in the water before, and I fell twice,” Cutright said. “So it definitely hit me hard.”

Cutright has fallen many times since then, but says she now views it as just another part of being a steeplechaser.

“I’d like to see her score in the conferences in the steeple,” said Fox, who echoed a similar level of high expectation.

Now, a more experienced Cutright is prepping for her final season, one that she hopes will take her to the ACC Championships and NCAA regionals. She doesn’t get to practice on an actual steeplechase track and she doesn’t get the chance to jump into a pool of water.

She knows that, regardless, there will always be tumbles after the gun goes off. But each time she falls, it’s a little easier to get back up.

“You know that you’re going to fall at some point,” she said. “You try to avoid it as long as possible but once you actually do fall, you’re like, ‘OK, it’s not the end of the world.’”

Published on March 30, 2015 at 11:37 pm

Contact Matt: mralex01@syr.edu