'... And here we are'

Here’s the thing about the steeplechase event in track and field: It’s not for everyone.

But for one member of the Kansas women’s track squad, it seemed almost tailormade for her. She just didn’t always know it.

Now, Ebba Cronholm, a freshman from Sweden who only joined the KU track team in January, is at outdoor nationals in Eugene, Oregon, ready to compete in her signature event against the best in the country.

Always one who liked to run, but a soccer player at heart, Cronholm found her way to the steeplechase by way of logic.

After picking up track and field at age 14, Cronholm began with the multi events but admittedly was not very good at them. So, running it was. Up to a point, anyway.

“I just figured I was ranked so much higher in steeple than I was the 800 or 1500, so then I just started competing in steeple in the bigger meets and here we are,” the KU freshman recently told R1S1 Sports before leaving for Oregon.

“I think it’s more fun when you have the barriers because then you have something to think about during the race. It’s not as boring.”

— KU freshman Ebba Cronholm on the unique elements of steeplechase

The fact that she’s in this position at all is a bit wild. After all, she came to KU to play soccer for Nate Lie’s squad. And she enjoyed the heck out of her first experience as a Jayhawk on the pitch, playing little but helping her team win a Big 12 tournament title.

While soccer was always her first love, her family never let her forget how good she was at running.

“They’ve all been saying, ‘Oh, you should do track, you should do running, you would be so good at it,’” Cronholm recalled. “And I have always been confused about what sport I should choose and I just ended up doing both all the time.”

Last fall, after the soccer season ended, Cronholm approached Lie about whether she could join the track team and he was all for it.

So, how did all of this lead her to the steeplechase, a 7.5-lap race (roughly 3,000 meters) with four barriers to clear and a random water feature tucked in for good measure?

That, Cronholm said, had to do with her attention span.

“It’s nice because I have something to do while I’m running,” she said, noting that the long-distance nature and calmer pace of the steeplechase made it more appealing to her than action-packed, short-distance hurdles. “I think it’s more fun when you have the barriers because then you have something to think about during the race. It’s not as boring.”

And the water feature?

Cronholm’s face tells you everything you need to know about her feelings about the12-foot rectangular pit filled with water on a slope that ranges from 2-3 feet deep closest to the barrier to ankle deep at the high end of the slope.

“I love the water,” said Cronholm, who, interestingly enough, actually lives with another KU athlete named Ebba — women’s golf’s Ebba Nordstedt.

The two didn’t know each other before arriving at KU, but they became fast friends and are now both countrymen and Jayhawks.

OK. Back to the water. There are different strategies to clearing the pit, and some steeplechase runners change up their approach depending upon how deep they are into the race.

For Cronholm, and most other steeplechase competitors, it’s simple — one leap onto the top of the barrier and then a quick spring off of the top as far over the water as you can get.

On occasion, you’ll see runners jump the barrier like a hurdle and land in the deeper part of the water pit. And, if they’re really gassed, sometimes competitors will do a sort of sideways crawl over the barrier and fall into the water.

Neither of the latter two options are ideal, Cronholm said.

“If you land deep in the water, it will slow you down,” she explained. “So, you try to get as far as you can from the barrier. I think it’s so fun to watch steeple because anything can happen. You don’t know.”

Her training for the event is pretty simple. She spends most of her time with the KU distance runners and sprinkles in some hurdle work at the end of practice once a week.

All of it has led her to the biggest stage in college track, and while she’s thrilled to be there as a true freshman, securing a spot in Eugene was something she began aiming for as soon as Lie gave her the OK to join the track team.

“I had been looking at the times from previous years quite a bit,” she said. “And when I had my first meeting with (my track) coach we were talking about nationals. So, my goal has always been to qualify.”

With that ambition already checked off, it’s likely all about track and the steeplechase from here on out.

Cronholm, who played striker in soccer and chose the sport because she loved to run, said her rapid rise in college track has inspired her to put soccer firmly in her past.

Track, she believes, is where she has the most potential and also is the sport she thinks she is best positioned to compete on the world stage.

“I want to be as successful as I can in one sport,” she said. “Soccer was my sport before I started doing track here, but now I figure that I can probably be better and more successful in track.”

She grew up playing a little bit of everything in Ljungby, Sweden. And she still dabbles in sports like golf and tennis for fun. So, perhaps soccer will join that group, and she’ll kick the ball around on the beach or at picnics with her friends in the future.

No matter what happens, she’ll always remember that sport getting her to this point, and the magical 2024-25 seasons on the pitch and the track.

“I’m thinking, like, everything’s gonna be good; I’ll just go with the flow, I guess, and see what happens,” she said. “But I had a really good year. I’m so grateful.”

The semifinals for this year's 3000-meter steeplechase are slated for 6:38 p.m. central on Thursday, with the finals set for 8:24 p.m. Saturday evening.

— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com