“My story began in Nixa, MO where I fell in love with competition, now I’m racing the world’s best!” New Mexico alum Courtney Frerichs recently tweeted.
Shortly after setting a new collegiate record, 9:24.41, in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase last month, Frerichs signed a professional contract, joining Bowerman Track Club, to continue training for the Olympic Trials.
Frerichs’ dream became a reality when she qualified for the Olympics with a late burst to finish second in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in Eugene, Oregon on July 7, finishing in 9:20.92.
She ran in seventh place for much of the race and was on the outside looking in throughout the latter part of the race. She entered the final lap in fourth place before using a late kick to finish just ahead of her Bowerman teammate Colleen Quigley, who also secured a spot on the Olympic squad.
Emma Coburn, who finished ninth in the 2012 Summer Olympics, turned in the top time at 9:17.48.
Frerichs had not really been challenged by other competitors in the steeplechase event her senior season, winning most of the races with a wide margin of victory.
The fact that she responded so well when she was challenged by the top runners in the country could be a sign that the track and field standout is poised to sustain her string of recent successes.
Frerichs has already accomplished plenty in the past year. Her fourth place finish at the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Championships helped bring New Mexico its second national title, and she followed that up with an individual national championship at the 2016 NCAA National Outdoor Championships.
Now she shifts her unwavering focus to pursuing a medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Frerichs said things started to get exciting the day after she qualified.
“The next morning we went to team processing, which was amazing,” Frerichs said according to KRQE news. “We got to try on the uniform and everything. That’s when it started to get real.”
Prior to trials, Frerichs said she knew it would be difficult to make the team, but realized she was a lot closer to qualifying for the team than she may have realized.
She said she was looking forward to the opportunity and thought the experience of the trials would help her career regardless of the outcome.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Frerichs is the seventh New Mexico track and field athlete featured in the Olympics, the first female to do so.
Frerichs has consistently met her goals, shaving significant time off of her runs in the last several months, and her reward is a chance to add a medal to her résumé.
Frerichs has put in a lot of work to earn the right to represent her country. She may be modest about her humble beginnings, as she suggested in her tweet. But she isn’t just racing the world’s best—now she is one of them.
The opening round of the women’s steeplechase is scheduled to begin August 13.
Robert Maler is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers cross country, tennis, and track and field. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
