From worst nightmare to NCAA champion on final straightaway

Stanford fifth-year senior Steven Fahy trips on final barrier, recovers to claim NCAA title in 3,000-meter steeplechase.

“Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

— Alfred Pennyworth to Bruce Wayne, “Batman Begins”

On the final straightaway of his last race on a track as a Stanford Cardinal, the unthinkable happened for Steven Fahy in front of a national audience on ESPN.

“It kind of makes me cringe watching it,” he said.

The 23-year-old could’ve trotted to the finish line for a national title at the 2019 NCAA outdoor track and field championships in Austin, Texas.

Instead, his right foot clipped the last barrier of the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase as Fahy tumbled off the track.

“I’ve watched the video a bunch of times,” said Fahy, who found enough time to recover for a win by more than half a second. “I think that the adrenaline really took over and I didn’t really feel the pain of falling and then hitting the rail right away.”

He added: “I don’t think I ever really lost hope that I could still go win it. And I think that ultimately helped me get up and gather the speed I needed to go get it done.”

A year earlier, Fahy finished third in the event.

His older brother, Darren, garnered a trio of CIF state titles at La Costa Canyon High in Carlsbad (cross country; 1,600; 3,200) and discovered a liking to the steeplechase at Georgetown, an NCAA runner-up as a fifth-year senior in 2017.

His Stanford-bound younger sister, Kristin, claimed a state title last month in the girls 3,200 meters by more than six seconds.

Genetics definitely played a role for the human biology major, who upon his arrival on The Farm in fall of 2014 was promised by Stanford coach Chris Miltenberg to mold Fahy — who peaked in high school as a state runner-up in the boys 3,200 meters — into one of the top distance runners in the country.

“So to see that happen at the end of the day in my very last track meet it’s definitely special,” said Fahy, who required a while to build that belief within himself. “And I really do attribute it more to our system and to the culture that we’ve built here on our Stanford track team than anything else.”

For the first time since 2003, the Cardinal managed a top-5 finish in the men’s standings.

It required only four athletes, with former NCAA champ Grant Fischer a runner-up in the 5,000 meters and teammate Thomas Ratcliffe in third.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Harrison Williams took second in the men’s decathlon.

“A lot of that comes down to just having trust in our process,” said Fahy, who was sidelined by a hip injury in the fall but was accepted to graduate school at Stanford and awaits NCAA approval on his waiter petition for a sixth year of cross country in the fall. “Trust that Coach Milt will have us ready at the right time.”

A runner-up at the 2015 U.S. Junior Championships in the steeplechase, the 6-foot-1½ runner found his calling after a tough freshman year on the track.

“Basically, I see the steeplechase as an event where you have to have the strength of a 10K runner or a cross-country runner, and you have to be able to have the speed of a 1,500 guy to accelerate into the barriers and to be able to close out in a race that is really tactical,” Fahy said.

With scorching heat on the track in Texas, records were not meant to be broken.

“I think anybody can kind of make through 8½ minutes of heat, but it’s how you can prepare yourself for that hour before the race when you’re really feeling it,” Fahy said.

Composed and relaxed before the race, there was no reason to empty his tank during the first couple of miles until intensity built over the final 600 meters.

“It ended up unfolding for me really nicely, but the heat definitely changes things a little bit,” Fahy said. “It’s always going to make for more tactical races.”

Entrenched in a two-man showdown and prepared for a sprint to the finish line after nearly 10 laps, Indiana’s Daniel Michalski fell over the water jump on the final turn.

“All of a sudden I had all this daylight,” Fahy said. “I came around the turn with a lot of speed because I thought the guys behind me were probably a little closer.”

Feeling strong after bursting into his final kick into the straightaway: Boom Goes the Dynamite!

Five years of hard work nearly lost to a clipper final barrier.

“When you’re in a situation like that, I think in your mind you perceive it as you hit the ground and immediately bounce back up and run,” Fahy said. “And it wasn’t until I watched the video later that I saw just how long it took me to really get up and reorient myself and get back up to speed.”

Fahy didn’t set a PR. His winning time of 8:38.46 over 30 seconds off the NCAA mark. None of it matters.

A spot atop the podium after his final race on a track for Stanford is the ultimate reason to fall, only to get up.

“It’s kind of hard to find the words sometimes to describe how the last 48 hours have been,” Fahy said. “I think part of that is just because there are so many people at Stanford, and even before Stanford, who played a big role in making this happen.”

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