Steeplechasers fill big shoes left by All-Americans

Redshirt freshman steeplechaser Josh Roche couldn’t believe what just happened.

His first instinct was to run. After all, that’s what he spends most of his time doing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

In his first year of college competition, Roche qualified for the NCAA Championships, something he said he still can’t believe to this day.

When he realized he had done it May 24 in Greensboro, N.C., his emotion took him over. Then it took over volunteer assistant coach Tom Chorny, who Roche ran to hug immediately after the race.

“To see Josh Roche’s response after the race and how excited he was, those are the things that I’ve come to learn as a coach are the priceless moments,” Chorny said, “To see the joy, it’s that time when you realize all the hard work paid off.”

The emotions weren’t over for Chorny. He still had one more steelplechaser, junior Robby Nierman, to qualify for the NCAA Championships, which start Wednesday in Eugene, Ore.

Nierman finished with a slightly better time than Roche — a trend that Nierman teases Roche about ever since he came from behind to steal second place from him by .09 seconds at the line at the Big Ten Championships on May 11 — yet Nierman sat on pins and needles waiting until all the heats finished to make sure he secured his spot in Eugene.

“It’s been a long journey coming,” he said. “I’ve been here for three years now and it was one of my main goals to make it to the national championship and hopefully score for the team. It’s kind of a relief to finally get one in under my belt.”

For the past couple of years, Nierman had watched All-Americans De’Sean Turner, Andrew Poore, Adrien Dannemiller and Andy Weatherford dominate the steeplechase. Last year, Turner captured First-Team All-American honors in the event for the third time in his career. In 2011, Turner, Poore and Weatherford all ran in the NCAA Championships in the event for IU, with Poore capturing third.

In 2012, they all graduated.

It fell to Nierman and Roche, who redshirted last year to watch and learn from those four, to continue the legacy of the program.

“They left us with some big shoes to fill,” Nierman said. “I realized that it was my time to step up and take the responsibilities, kind of getting the group together to fill those shoes. We’ve done a pretty good job of that so far.”

They have approached it quietly. Going into the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, Nierman and Roche didn’t attract a lot of attention with their times.

Then they took second and third.

“Coming in as an underdog, I feel like I have less pressure on myself,” Nierman said. “I kind of like going out there and sneaking up on people and proving I should’ve been in there and they should’ve accounted for me when they didn’t.”

Coming into the season, Chorny said he didn’t know what to expect. He saw potential in Nierman and Roche, as well as sophomore Nolan Fife, who Nierman and Roche said is just as good. He knew they would be good, but he still didn’t know exactly what to expect. After all, he was graduating four All-Americans.

“It was more a question of was it going to take more than this year to develop them,” Chorny said. “Are they going to get to nationals this year, or is it going to take two years? I knew that they were going to get there, I just didn’t know how quickly they were going to allow themselves to get there.”

Roche said the redshirt season helped him. He enjoyed learning from his four former teammates, and they have continued to help him this year. Chorny said he even congratulated Poore and Turner on the success of Nierman and Roche because the alumni have helped mentor the team so much this season.

“It really helps that we’ve had those guys and a couple of them stayed around to train,” Roche said. “I’ve already been picking Poore and De’Sean’s brain about what I can do, how to just relax in a race. That’s the biggest thing that they tell me. Just go out and do what you’ve been doing. You can’t crumble under the pressure of the national spot light. That’s something that I definitely think I’m going to have to try to take to heart.”

Chorny said the two runners approach the event differently. He said he has seen Nierman work harder than arguably everyone else on the team to reach this point. However, he said Roche still doesn’t understand his potential — something Chorny said has been a theme this year — and hasn’t put the same amount of work into the craft yet.

“If Josh dedicates like Robby has these past couple of years,” Chorny said, “I think we’ll see some pretty amazing things out of Josh. You never know who’s going to win a national championship on any given day, but I think he would be national championship caliber, even as soon as next year.”

That’s something Roche would never have expected, just  hoping to make the trip with the team to Big Tens before the season started.

“As young as I am, I didn’t expect (to go to nationals) at all,” he said. “I’m just along for the ride really. Making it to regionals was the real goal, and it seems like everything after that is just gravy.”