A ten-time Idaho State Champion in cross country and track, the native of Boise has been a reliably solid member of the Husky cross country squad that has reached the NCAA Championships the past three falls, but after a breakthrough spring on the track, Hamlin is positioned to have her best fall yet.

“Absolutely,” says Hamlin on if this can be her strongest fall. “I feel like I’m the fittest I’ve ever been in cross country. Just trusting the process of training through these early meets, and then hopefully we’ll reap the benefits at the end of the season. It was a really good end to last track season, so hoping to swing some of that momentum into cross country.”

The year of new challenges for Hamlin really began in the spring, when she began running the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the first time in her career.

Hamlin claims her early attempts at tackling the signature water pit were not impressive, laughing at the memory.

“The steeple was very nerve wracking at first. I learned how to do the water jump for the first time like two days before my first steeple, and it wasn’t going very well! I kind of just trusted the coaches and was like ‘okay, I can do this, just gotta be tough.’

She improved with every outing, first running a time of 10:38.59 at the Pepsi Team Invitational, then cutting 14 seconds off that to 10:24.04 at the UW-WSU Dual which she won. Her next steeple came at the Pac-12 Championships, taking fifth in 10:20.49, which took her to NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento.

By that point, Hamlin looked like she had been jumping water pits since she first learned to walk. She typically made up considerable ground on her competitors every time the water pit came around, nearly clearing the water entirely.

Some of the credit Hamlin thinks goes to her soccer background, “having general athleticism from that, like the jumping and side to side stuff helped a lot,” but it was also a mindset. “I learned not to be afraid of the water jump, and to just go up and be like ‘I own you!’ and go over it.”

Hamlin went into West Prelims seeded 23rd, needing a top-12 finish to move on. Cool temperatures at night made for perfect racing conditions and the pace was fast. Hamlin just “stuck [her] nose in it” and thought that she could at least run a PR. But with a lap to go she was still in the mix.

Knowing every second counted, Hamlin went all out to reach the finish line, and crossed in a stunning 20-second career-best time of 10:00.35, winding up 11th overall and advancing.

“It was the biggest shock crossing the line,” Hamlin remembers. “I think the announcer immediately said ‘Hamlin is going to Eugene!’ and I was overcome with emotion.”

By Rich Myhre

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