For many collegiate athletes, the transition from high school to college can be a difficult adjustment. It can be harder when an athlete has to participate in events in which they have no prior experience.
For freshman hurdler Jenna Severson, however, finding her place on the track team has come sooner than expected. Severson, a Minneapolis native, joined the University of Wisconsin women’s track team this year and has already begun to make her presence known.
A proficient hurdler in high school, Severson could not run her desired event in the indoor season as it is run solely in the outdoor season, but she was able to make her way onto the indoor track as a freshman by playing a different role.
“I was surprised with the success I had in the indoor season, because I really didn’t think I had a race there,” Severson said. “I ended up competing in the 600 and placing, and that was really unexpected.”
Severson was able to find a race that suited her abilities as an athlete by placing eighth in 600 meters at the Big Ten indoor championships. For an athlete who had no prior experience in the event, putting the anxiety aside and placing as high as she did against a highly competitive field was a pleasant surprise.
“I was pretty nervous for it, but it just went really well,” Severson said.
With a successful indoor season behind her, Severson has now turned attention on the outdoor season, where she can run her main event: the hurdles. But unfortunately for Severson, another transition needed to take place before that could happen.
At the high school level, the 400-meter hurdles were not offered as an option for Severson to compete in. Remarkably, she competed in the event for the first time after she graduated from high school.
“This is the first time running the 400-meter hurdles since I was only able to run the 300-meter hurdles in high school,” Severson said.
Severson’s high school, like many around the country, did not list the 400-meter hurdles as an event, instead having athletes participate in the 300-meter variety. At the collegiate level, the 400-meter hurdle is the only event of the two that exists.
To Severson, the reason for having only 300-meter races in her state is a mystery.
“It’s really confusing,” she said. “Some states have 400 hurdles and some just do 300, I don’t know what the reasoning behind it is.”
Regardless of the rationale for the confusion among events, Severson needed to adjust quickly to the extra 100 meters added to her best event. In the Rose-Hulman Early Bird meet that opened the outdoor season, Severson answered the call emphatically with a first place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. It is safe to say Severson was more than pleased with the result.
“It was a huge deal for me because I finally got the chance to run my race,” Severson said. “I didn’t expect it to go that well, and it felt great so I’m hoping it only gets better.”
The freshman hurdler is now getting an opportunity to compete in her type of event and is excited about the opportunity to showcase her talents in the outdoor season that is just underway. The coaching staff certainly expects most freshmen to go through an adjustment period when they arrive on campus, but Severson has wasted no time in getting a good start to her career as a Badger.
“I’ve just taken it day by day, meet by meet,” Severson said. “I just try to take it one race at a time, and try not to get caught up in the grand scheme of things, but I’m really excited that things have started out so well.”
