Tri-Cities grad makes a run — and jump — at the USA Olympic steeplechase team
Pasco High School graduate Marisa Howard has learned how to be patient these past few years.
Over the next week, she’s hoping that patience pays off.
Howard, whose maiden name is VanderMalle, will be competing in the women’s 3,000 meters steeplechase at the USA Track and Field Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Ore.
No stranger to track and field — the 2010 Pasco grad has represented the United States in a number of international events such as the Pan American Games in 2019, and a cross country meet in Scotland — Howard has been eyeing the Tokyo Summer Olympics since 2019.
But, like every other athlete, that dream was put on hold when the 2020 event was postponed by the COVID pandemic until this year.
“My faith has played a big role, just knowing there are a lot of things out of my control,” said Howard in a phone conversation with the Herald on Wednesday while her husband Jeff was driving them from their Boise home to Eugene. “The Lord has a plan.”
Howard, 28, put that extra time to good use, training more and safely. A graduate of Boise State University in Nursing, Howard was hampered by injuries throughout her collegiate career.
“But I’ve been healthy for three full years,” she said. “Since COVID started, I’ve been doing a lot of cross training, working in the pool and on the bike. My coach’s biggest thing he says to me is I have to just get to the starting line.”
Not running every day has kept her legs strong and injuries away.
She hit her Olympic standard time — it has to be under 9 minutes, 30 seconds — with a 9:29.65 at the USA Track and Field Golden Gate Invitational on May 9.
She enters Sunday night’s first round (set for 6:35 p.m.) with the sixth fastest time in the field.
“I’ve got the sixth best time in the country. But I’m kind of seventh,” Howard said. “There’s a runner ahead of me who hasn’t run the steeplechase this year but she had a better time last year.”
But the difference among a number of them is seconds.
“There are two girls ahead of me who I’ve beaten this year, but they later ran a faster race,” said Howard. “So I’m anywhere between third and seventh.”
Steeplechase challenges
Running the 3,000 steeplechase is not easy.
Concentration is needed in the event, which has a tall hurdle on one side of the track.
Runners, competing at a very fast pace (5-minute miles or better), must time their steps to jump up on top the wide hurdle.
Then they jump down into a pool of ankle-high water, before trying to pick up the pace again.
The race is 7.5 laps.
The steeplechase is something that Howard really started doing at BSU as a freshman.
She was a hurdler at McLaughlin Middle School in Pasco, but actually did a couple steeplechase events during the summers.
Despite her injuries, Howard became an NCAA All-American in the event in 2015.
She won the silver medal in the event at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, in 2019, and WorldAthlete.org ranks her the 27th best women’s steeplechase runner in the world.
The steeplechase can be tricky.
“In the 2016 Olympic Trials, in the finals of both the men’s and women’s races, the team was not decided until the last hurdle,” said Howard. “People can mis-time their steps to the hurdle, or trip and fall. It’s why my coach (Pat McCurry) says you just have to keep racing.”
So she said she’ll plan to stay out of trouble at first.
“I’m interested to see how it’s going to play out,” Howard said. “It’s supposed to be pretty warm on Sunday night. In the steeplechase, it’s important to stay out of trouble. And we don’t want it to come down to a sprint at the end.”
“I’ll look at my coach, and if we have to take control at mid-race we’ll do that,” she added. “A sprint to the finish is a worst-case scenario.”
To get to Tokyo, this is what Howard needs to do:
- Finish among the top 14 in the first round on Sunday to advance to the final.
- Place among the top three in the final, which is set for 8:47 p.m. Thursday, June 24.
It’s something she’s waited for, for a few years now, and she believes she’s ready.
“With all of my injuries in college, you just don’t take anything for granted,” said Howard. “But I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been, and I feel thankful that I have this opportunity.”
Note: Sunday’s events will be televised on NBC from 6-8 p.m. The first round of the steeplechase begins at 6:35 p.m. The final next Thursday is set for 8:47 p.m., and will be shown on NBCSN.