CU track star Barringer chases global gold
By Chris Tomasson 
| July 22, 2009 | 7:01 AM
Jenny Barringer, who has completed her track-and-field eligibility for the Buffaloes, is chasing another Olympic appearance. (Photo from Newscom)
Steeplechase star Jenny Barringer wants to get one misconception out of the way immediately.
“I race the whole thing without the aid of a horse,’’ she said. “I’m totally on my own — no livestock.’’
The steeplechase is a 3,000-meter event in which athletes circle the track while hurdling 28 barriers and seven water jumps. And Barringer, 22, of the University of Colorado, happens to be America’s best at it.
Barringer, who has completed her track-and-field eligibility for the Buffaloes but will be a senior in the fall for cross country, set a U.S. record at last summer’s Olympics in Beijing while finishing ninth.
Since then, her accolades have continued to pile up. She recently won her third NCAA steeplechase title and took the Honda Sports Award for the nation’s top college women’s track-and-field athlete. She was one of five finalists for the Honda-Broderick Cup for best overall women’s college athlete, but lost out to University of Georgia gymnast Courtney Kupets.
“I’d love to say it’s brilliant coaching, but it’s God-given talent and a great deal of sound training,’’ Buffaloes track-and-field and cross-country coach Mark Wetmore said of Barringer, an Iowa native who went to high school in Oviedo, Fla., an Orlando suburb.
But there’s more to Barringer than just athletics. She is an academic All-American with a 3.5 grade-point average.
Last summer, she served as an intern in the Jefferson Country campaign office of U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter. She also works with her Boulder church to help politically oppressed refugees from nations such as Sudan and Myanmar.
“I think it’s very important for me to be good at things that are important, and school is important,’’ said Barringer, adding about all her activities, “I’m not too good at taking time off.’’
Barringer plans to graduate in December with a degree in economics and political science and eventually wants to attend law school. But she likely will put that off for a few years to devote plenty of time to track.
She will compete in the steeplechase next month at the World Championships in Berlin. She has her sights set on making a second Olympics appearance in 2012 in London.
But before one pencils her in only for the steeplechase, it’s possible that her career could take a different turn by then. Last month at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., Barringer stunningly ran a 3:59.9 in the 1,500 meters. Although she finished second, it was the third-fastest time in the world this season, an NCAA record and her personal best by more than eight seconds.
Although Wetmore said Barringer’s best event remains the steeplechase, he acknowledged there’s a chance that could change. She surprised even herself with her sub-four-minute 1,500 because she has run that event competitively so infrequently.
“That’s something that we’re definitely going to talk about,’’ she said of possibly concentrating more on the 1,500. “But we’ve got a couple of years to experiment.’’
Regardless of the event, Barringer does know she wants to be on a U.S. Olympic team again. She said she never will forget the experience of competing in Beijing.
“It was unlike anything else,’’ she said. “The Olympics are so special. Just being able to stay in the Olympic Village with all of these world-class athletes.
“I was there for 10 days after I raced. I was able to take advantage of going to a lot of Olympic events. I did some sightseeing. I went to the Great Wall. I went to the Forbidden City. . . . It’s a totally different culture. The Chinese were very gracious hosts.’’
On her big night at the Olympic Stadium, Barringer clocked a 9:22.26, breaking the U.S. record. Still, on the unseasonably cool night, she finished well behind gold medalist Gulnara Samitova-Galkina of Russia, who set a world mark with a time of 8:58.81.
With Russians also finishing third and fourth in the Olympic final, Barringer acknowledges they are well ahead of the Americans and just about everybody else in the world. But Barringer, whom Wetmore projects to be about five years away from reaching her career peak, insists there is time to catch up.
In the meantime, she has some unfinished business to take care of this fall. After redshirting last fall while resting up from the Olympics, she will try to win her first NCAA cross-country title. She finished second to Texas Tech’s Sally Kipyego in both 2006 and 2007, but Kipyego has departed.
As far as cross country goes, no, that doesn’t refer to skiing. Barringer has enough misconceptions about the steeplechase to have to deal with any more.
2012 Olympics, buffaloes, china, honda sports award, jenny barringer, ncaa, steeplechase, track and field, university of colorado, world championships in berlin
