Dublin Coffman graduate Abby Steiner hitting new gear for Kentucky track and field

Once Abby Steiner gets moving, nothing slows her down.

Three days of nearly every week the past few months, the University of Kentucky senior spent one hour in the weight room beginning at 7 a.m. before getting a bite to eat and then heading to a three-hour internship through the school’s physical therapy department.

In the afternoon, Steiner attends classes before practice with the women’s track and field team.

“Some people have to be (in the weight room) by 6 a.m., but at least I get an extra hour of sleep,” said Steiner, who graduates May 6 with a degree in human health sciences.

This demanding routine has been a way of life in some semblance for about a decade for Steiner, a 2018 Dublin Coffman graduate who followed a historic prep career by finding new ways to impress in college.

Steiner, who won seven indoor and nine outdoor Division I state championships in various sprinting events for Coffman, has become one of the world’s top sprinters despite facing some hurdles.

At the Southeastern Conference meet Feb. 26, Steiner ran 22.09 seconds in the 200 meters to set the American indoor record. Then on March 12 in Birmingham, Alabama, she ran 22.16 to win her second consecutive NCAA title.

Steiner is set for the SEC outdoor championships May 12-14 in Oxford, Mississippi, before embarking on what she hopes will become her second appearance at the NCAA outdoor championships in mid-June.

“I’m super excited with the results I’ve had so far (this spring), and I’m just looking forward to building off of that,” Steiner said. “It’s my first outdoor season in a while and I’m enjoying the whole process of it. I’ve just been balancing graduation and running and all that stuff, just the typical student-athlete stuff, and I’ve been having a ton of fun this season.”

On April 9 in the Joe May Invitational at LSU, Steiner ran 10.92 in the 100 for the best time in the world this year and an hour later finished the 200 in 22.38, which is the third-best time in the world despite running into a 5.6 meters per second headwind.

She also competed on the 400 relay that captured the title in 42.46, the second-fastest time in the world this season.

In the Kentucky Invitational on April 22, Steiner ran 22.05 in the 200 for the third-fastest wind-legal time in collegiate history and the second best this season behind the 21.96 run by LSU’s Favour Ofili on April 15 in the Tom Jones Memorial Classic in Gainesville, Florida.

Taking the steps for success

Considering Steiner won four consecutive state outdoor titles in the 200 and state titles in each of her final three prep seasons in the 100, her gifts in running were clear long ago.

That athleticism also translated into success in soccer, as Steiner helped Coffman to a Division I state runner-up finish in 2014 and then was district Player of the Year as a sophomore.

She tore her right ACL while participating in a soccer camp in July 2016 and missed her junior season in that sport before electing to play at the club level as a senior in 2017.

Steiner originally began attending Kentucky on a dual track and soccer scholarship and played in 19 games for the women’s soccer program in 2018 but has focused solely on track since.

“She’s had a really nice continuous improvement and has been able to handle the downs,” Coffman girls track coach Greg King said. “She’s never let intermediate setbacks keep her down for long. She has always (focused) on the future.”

That resilience proved to be particularly important during the past two outdoor seasons.

Steiner won an SEC indoor championship in the 200 (22.57) on Feb. 29, 2020, but didn’t get a chance to compete again that school year after the NCAA indoor meet and the outdoor season were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the 2021 NCAA indoor meet, she won the 200 (22.38) and helped the 1,600 relay finish fifth (3:30.28), but her outdoor season was marred after three meets because of a left Achilles injury.

Steiner won the 200 at the Tom Jones meet in April 2021 but didn’t attempt to compete again until the NCAA East Preliminary Round, where she finished 27th after being out for nearly six weeks.

The further rehab she needed from that injury also ended her hopes of competing in the Olympic Trials in June 2021.

“We were actually there when she ran in her last (regular-season) outdoor meet (in 2021) and she actually won the race, but we just saw her limping off the track and she couldn’t run in that meet,” said her mother, Mollie Steiner. “She had to watch all of the championship meets from our home and all of the Olympic Trials, so there were a lot of tough moments for her to get through.

“She had had a season-ending injury with her ACL (during high school) so she knew she could recover. I think that helped her just knowing that while it was unfortunate to not be able to run, she just had the mindset to know this was not the end of Abby Steiner.”

Steiner, who began experiencing issues with her Achilles in February 2021 but continued to compete through the injury, received shockwave therapy during her rehab. She believes it made a difference in her recovery.

“It consisted of a lot of rest and giving that tendon time to calm down and heal,” she said. “This fall I drove to Louisville every other week and (getting shockwave therapy) changed the game for me. I really started to see a big improvement.”

Finding her motivation

Steiner, who has been interning in Kentucky’s BioMotion Lab, which focuses on lower-body injuries and muscle function, could compete in one more college season after the NCAA added one year of eligibility to all college athletes following the cancellation of the 2020 season.

Steiner is keeping her options open as she finishes the NCAA outdoor season and prepares for the U.S. team trials in late June.

The World Athletic Championships will be held in July in Eugene, Oregon.

“The way she’s running right now, you’d have to think she’s a favorite to make the world championships team,” King said.

In the meantime, Steiner has gotten a boost from running alongside Kentucky athletes such as senior Masai Russell, who was the NCAA indoor runner-up in the 60 hurdles and also runs on the 400 relay.

Kentucky finished third at the NCAA indoor meet.

“There’s a lot of outside factors that contribute to my motivation,” Steiner said. “My parents are super encouraging. The thing that really inspires me at Kentucky is being on a team. You constantly have people working harder or as hard as you. It brings me a lot of joy to have these individual goals and helping with our team goals, making my teammates and coaches proud and being able to help out my team. We were a podium team indoors, so being able to podium again as a team is one of the goals we’re focusing on.”

After some of the conversations Steiner has had with Kentucky sprints coach Tim Hall over the past few months, she believes her time drops have been more like a natural progression than a surprise.

“She has one of the best coaches in the country, and (Hall) is one of the best coaches especially for her event,” Mollie Steiner said. “It’s just been really special for us. We’re just grateful she made it through the indoor season healthy and has made it to the outdoor season. We’re just really grateful she’s out there doing what she wants. She’s matured as an athlete and as a young woman. Dealing with injury and the pandemic and a whole different way of going through a college experience contributed to her growth and where she is now.”

julrey@thisweeknews.com

@UlreyThisWeek

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Abby Steiner: Kentucky track star aims for SEC, NCAA outdoor titles