Kenneth Rooks Wins Third Straight U.S. Title In Men's Steeplechase

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

Becky Holbrook photos

EUGENE — With a little over 400 meters to go in the women’s 3,000 meter steeplechase, newly minted Nike athlete Lexy Halladay-Lowry saw “the guns.”

They were finger guns given by her coach, Diljeet Taylor, who had lost her voice over the past few days and was relying on hand signals to convey messages to Halladay-Lowry. Simply put, the guns meant go, and she did just that, closing in 68 seconds to win her first national title in the women’s 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 9:09.14.

“I saw (the guns) and I took it, and I didn’t look back,” Halladay-Lowry said. “That’s what we’ve been practicing… when it’s time to go, take off and don’t look back.”

Originally, she and Taylor had discussed a few different race plans. If no one wanted to lead, Halladay-Lowry would assume those duties; she didn’t want a tactical race like the one that occurred in the semifinals, in which she ran 9:37.53 to win her heat.

Courtney Wayment took the lead from the gun, though, and set a fairly honest pace. Halladay-Lowry was satisfied with it, so she bided her time and planned her kick. With about 1,000 meters left, she felt good and wanted to make her move, but Taylor gave her a thumbs up, which meant “stay put.” After a few laps of sitting neck-and-neck with Angelina Napoleon, Taylor finally gave her the guns, and she obliged.

She rocketed past Napoleon and steadily increased her lead over the home stretch, eventually winning by a second and a half.

After finishing second in the steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and second in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships, she was ecstatic to put together a winning performance in the most biggest race of her season.

“I like to win,” Halladay-Lowry said. “I really like to win… it’s super sweet, it’s super satisfying. The whole time, this is what we’ve been training for, so to be able to do it on this day, I’m very happy with it.”

Napoleon finished second in 9:10.96, just a few tenths of a second off of her personal best of 9:10.72. The NC State sophomore has enjoyed one of the biggest breakout seasons of any collegiate athlete in 2025 — she took 44 seconds off of her PB in the steeplechase and finished third at the NCAA Championships — but this performance was the most thrilling for her.

“Just being here was such an experience,” Napoleon said. “Like I said on Thursday, I think it was anybody’s game, and I think that the people that made it truly showed that.”

Kaylee Mitchell, who turned pro out of Oregon State last year, finished third in 9:11.36, rounding out one of the youngest squads in any event that the United States will send to Tokyo for the World Championships. Mitchell is the oldest of the group at 25; Halladay-Lowry is 24 and Napoleon is 20. None have been out of college for more than a year.

Mitchell, unheralded high school prospect who grew up in Salem, Ore, is the first athlete from Oregon State to make the U.S. track and field team since Cindy Greiner competed in the 1992 Olympic heptathlon. 

It is also an entirely new squad from the one that the US sent to Paris for the Olympics in 2024. Two of the Olympians — Wayment and Val Constein — made the final on Saturday, but Wayment was the highest finisher at sixth.

Despite their lack of experience, Halladay-Lowry expressed enthusiasm about the squad heading to Tokyo.

“It’s so exciting,” she said. “I’ve been racing Kaylee Mitchell for years, and at NCAAs, I raced with Angelina. She’s so fun to compete with, she’s so tenacious, and so is Kaylee, and I am too, so we’re just sending a super, super gritty team. Yes, we’re young, but it’ll be great experience, and we’ll get to go and do it together.”

Rooks wins 3rd straight U.S. title

Kenneth Rooks proved once again Saturday that he is the man to beat in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, winning his third straight U.S. title in the event with a time of 8:26.58.

Rooks used his signature kick to his advantage, closing in 59 seconds and holding off a surge by his training partner, Dan Michalski.

“It feels like an incredible blessing,” Rooks said of his dominance in the last few years. “Nothing is given to you in track and field. Everyone is on their own journeys, and every year looks different.”

Rooks was surprised by how the race played out — based on the impressive performances of American steeplechasers this year, he expected a faster pace — but he didn’t let that phase him. Instead of going in with a structured race plan, he said, he went in with a sense of curiosity, telling himself to react to whatever moves were made.

For a while, he thought someone would take the lead and bring the pace down, but that never happened. After four laps, he took the lead himself and shaved a few seconds off every subsequent lap, eventually stringing out the pack and putting himself in an advantageous position at the bell. 

One of the major reasons for his calmness about the pace was the fact that no matter how it played out, he believed he could finish strong.

“As I’ve been getting better and better at the steeple, the finish has been one of my strengths,” Rooks said. “As my fitness gets better, my finish gets better, too.”

Rooks followed through on that assertion. Michalski, who finished second, also had a strong finish; his last lap was 59.09 seconds, a hundredth of a second faster than Rooks.’ 

Benard Keter finished third in 8:29.00. Neither he nor Michalski has achieved the World Championships qualifying standard of 8:15.00, and neither are in the top 50 of the World Rankings. They will likely have to run the standard at some point in the next few weeks in order to qualify for Tokyo.

Both the fourth and fifth place finishers, Matthew Wilkinson and Isaac Updike, have achieved the standard. If Michalski and Keter don’t qualify, Wilkinson and Updike will likely go in their place.