Kendra Harrison: A Passion for the Hurdles

One of the best female hurdlers in the collegiate ranks is Kendra Harrison, a junior at the University of Kentucky. After attending Clemson University for the first two years of her college career, Harrison transferred to Kentucky in the fall of 2013 to stay with her coach Tim Hall after Hall made the move to Kentucky following a shake-up in the Clemson coaching staff. At Clemson and now at Kentucky, Harrison has made a name for herself as a high-level performer in both the 100 hurdles and the 400 hurdles, not to mention the 60 meter hurdles indoors. Harrison owns personal bests of 12.88, 55.75, and 7.94. Earlier this spring she ran a slightly wind-aided 12.68 in the 100 meter hurdles, and she seems poised to become the best female double hurdler since Queen Harrison (no relation).

The 21-year-old Harrison’s path to the collegiate elite and among the best in the world was not a direct one. Born September 18, 1992 in Tennessee, she was adopted at birth by Gary and Karon Harrison. A military family, the Harrisons traveled a lot. They moved to North Carolina when the young Keni was five years old, where they settled down. She would go on to enroll at Clayton High School, just outside of Raleigh, where she would emerge as one of the greatest female hurdlers in North Carolina history.

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But before becoming a track star, Harrison had to adjust to life as one of eleven children. At the time she was born, her parents had already adopted four older kids, and had one biological daughter, Casey. Harrison currently has ten siblings, eight of whom are adopted.

“It was crazy at times,” Harrison says, recalling her early childhood. “There was usually a lot of arguing, but we’d resolve it by talking it out. Growing up in such a crowded house was nice overall. There was always someone there to play with.”

Harrison’s love of play led her to get involved in sports while still in elementary school. “I liked gymnastics, soccer, and cheerleading. I was a competitive cheerleader. I cheered through my sophomore year of high school.”

But her best sport in those early years was soccer. Describing herself as “decent” in middle school, she started taking soccer more seriously heading into high school. She tried out for an elite team in the Triangle Football League (TFC), and made the highest level team. She also played varsity soccer for Clayton, and was planning to continue her career into college.

She started running track her sophomore year, on an “off and on basis,” then messed around and won second place in the 300 hurdles that year. When asked how she got into hurdling, Harrison said that “I didn’t like running just to run. Hurdling was the fun aspect. And being a cheerleader, jumping came easily to me. So one day the track team was out there and I was seeing if I could jump over it, and I could.”

That second-place finish at the state meet was an eye-opener for Harrison, leading her to drop cheerleading and soccer in order to put all of her energies into track. Having done so well off minimum training, she began to wonder what she could accomplish if she trained intensively. “When I got second at state I knew I wanted to take track seriously,” she recalls. “My older sister Kasey bribed me to take track seriously. She said she would buy me shoes.”

But the decision was not an easy one. A lot of colleges were showing interest in her for her soccer skills. So she felt a little hesitant about making a big leap of faith into the track arena without any certainty that she was good enough to earn a scholarship. But make the leap she did.

In the fall of her junior year, Harrison’s mom contacted me, after Kasey had found my website, asking if I did any private coaching. Of course I did, so I told her to bring Keni by and we’d see how she looked.

When Keni arrived on the track that cool October afternoon, I saw this frail little 5-3 girl who couldn’t have been more than 110 pounds. While she stretched and warmed up, I asked her questions. “What year are you? What are your pr’s? How long have you been hurdling?”

When she told me that she had finished 2nd in the state in the 300’s the previous year, I wasn’t sure if she was joking. I had been the private coach for the girl who had won it that year (2009), and I had attended the state meet and watched that race, but I didn’t remember Keni at all.

“You finished second?”

“Yeah,” she assured me, showing no emotion.

“What was your time?”

“I don’t remember. 44-something.”

I couldn’t believe it. This skinny little girl ran 44 in the 3’s? “I don’t remember you at all,” I said. “I must’ve been too zoned in on my girl.”

“I guess,” she said.

But as soon as she started doing her A-skips and B-skips, I could see a bounce in this girl’s stride that led me to believe she had much more athletic ability than her diminutive frame suggested. More than that, I saw a quiet yet fierce intensity in this girl’s eyes that let me know she was all business. She wanted to get better.

At that point, she had never run the 100m hurdles, so we spent many months prior to the outdoor season working on her technique, her rhythm, and her speed between the hurdles. Keni was an eager, willing student. At first, despite her obvious speed, she was four-stepping between the hurdles, obviously afraid of the dangers involved in really letting loose and running fast.

But over time the fear of the obstacles decreased, her confidence in her speed increased, and she started to master the rhythm. She didn’t run her first 100h race until midway through the outdoor season – in mid-April – but she went on to win the state championship in 14.56. She also won the 300 hurdles in 42.53. That summer, she ran 59.08 in the 400 hurdles at the Junior Olympic regional championships, showing that she had the endurance as well as the speed needed to compete at a high level in the longest hurdle race.

In describing that whole journey of her junior year, Harrison says, “At first I was like, I can kinda hurdle, but I wasn’t getting it as fast as I wanted to. I just kept telling myself to keep concentrating (because of my ADD), keep working  hard, practice at the house with the hurdles there. As the months went on I could see myself getting better and better. I was nervous for the outdoor season. Then I won a race, thought maybe that was luck. I won regionals, figured I was lucky again. Once I won states, I knew I have a gift, it’s not a fluke. It was just a great feeling seeing how far I came. From I could barely do the 100 hurdles to getting it all connected – the rhythm, the speed, everything.”

In her senior year, Harrison, continued to progress, becoming one of the top high school hurdlers in the nation. At the New Balance Indoor National Championships, she won the 60m hurdles in 8.42. That spring, she won the North Carolina 4A state championship in both hurdling events, running 13.69 in the 100h and a state record 41.41 in the 300h. she considers that 300h race the most satisfying of her high school career. “It was raining. I knew it was my last chance to break the record. It was pretty overwhelming.” At New Balance Outdoors, she won the 100 hurdles in 13.49.

With such exceptional success in all hurdling events from the 60h to the 400h, Harrison had her pick of colleges to choose from. Local programs like North Carolina State expressed interest, as did other major programs such as Virginia Tech, LSU, Cincinnati, and Clemson. The recruiting process was long, tiring, and emotionally draining, but in the end she chose the Clemson Tigers.

“They had the top hurdlers in the nation,” she explained. “I knew that I’d be able to train with them. I like a good competition. I thought the coach (Lawrence Johnson) knew what he was talking about. He was very knowledgeable about the event, and had a passion for the hurdles. During his house visit he really impressed me.”

At Clemson, Harrison trained with upperclassmen Brigitte Owens (who was one year ahead of her) and Brianna Rollins (who was two years ahead of her). As we all know, Rollins went on to win the World Championships last summer. With such teammates, Harrison couldn’t help but get better. “I was the only freshman hurdler,” she recalls. “I had to step it up or get left behind. They had better technique, more experience. And seeing how serious college coaches are, how serious track meets are, I knew I had to step it up.

She includes Rollins as one of the most influential people in her career. “I’ve seen her at her worst and I’ve seen her at her best. I feel like I can do what she has done.”

Harrison’s freshman year wasn’t too shabby at all. She dropped her 100h time down to 13.12, dropped her 400h time down to 56.72, and qualified for NCAA Nationals in both hurdling events. She also won the ACC championship in the 400 hurdles. She also competed in the 100h at the Olympic trials, where she ran 13.23 in the first round.

Things were looking good. She had great teammates, a great coach, and a very bright future. But then Coach Johnson left Clemson right before the indoor season started, and Coach Hall, who was already coaching the sprinters and did have experience coaching hurdlers, took on the hurdlers.

This change proved to be a blessing in disguise. While she improved vastly under Coach Johnson, Harrison connected better with Hall. “He’s more of a quieter coach,” Harrison explained. “He knows how I am as a person.”

With Hall guiding the Clemson hurdlers, Harrison continued to drop time. She finished the year with pr’s of 12.88 and 55.75. She made the finals in both hurdle events at NCAA’s, earning 1st-team All-American honors in both events.

But again more change was on the horizon. Bigger change this time. After the end of the outdoor season, Clemson hired a new head coach for their program, and a lot of assistant coaches were replaced. Coach Hall landed in Kentucky, so Harrison had a choice to make: either transfer to Kentucky to stay with Coach Hall, or stay at Clemson and see what the new hurdle coach would be like. Kentucky was in the more competitive SEC, but with change there’s always risk.

Coach Hall assured her that she’d get scholarship money if she transferred, but he also encouraged her to talk to the new Clemson coaches and see if she felt she’d be a good fit. She ultimately decided to transfer because Coach Hall “was someone I knew. He had my best interests in mind. He gave me the choice instead of telling me what he thought I should do. I figured I can either start anew or stay somewhere where I wasn’t sure about the coaching, so I went with Coach Hall.”

The transition has been a smooth one. The fall training was easier than it had been at Clemson for the simple fact that Harrison was now an older athlete with a resume that proved she belonged. The indoor track at Kentucky is 300 meters, making it a little easier to train on. So even though the weather is worse at Kentucky than at Clemson, her training wasn’t affected by it. And because she already knew Coach Hall from her Clemson days, she had no problem handling the workouts themselves.

The switch from the ACC to the SEC has helped too. Running against such top-level competition every weekend has made her a more focused, confident athlete. Knowing that she’s now one of the big dogs that younger athletes want to knock off has served to improve her focus as well. Knowing that she has to bring her A game to every race “calms my nerves, gives me an advantage just because I’m understanding the hurdles more. I’m getting faster, keeping myself strong, knowing that people wanna get me. I can’t really have an off day.”

At the SEC indoor meet, Harrison ran a personal best 7.94 to defeat LSU’s Jasmine Stowers, who had won the event for the previous three consecutive years. While the media made a big deal of her ending Stowers’ reign, Harrison says that her focus was more on herself. “I knew going in that if I do what I do, I can win.”

While Harrison does not particularly like the 60m hurdles, she knows that it helps with her 100m hurdles. “It’s just five hurdles, no room for mistakes. Being able to perfect the first five, knowing that outdoor I’m only gonna get better over the last five, that really gives me confidence. But yeah, I just like the 100 hurdles way better.”

Earlier this fall Harrison was experimenting with a 7-step approach to the first hurdle, but ultimately put the experiment on hold and went back to 8-stepping after 7-stepping for one race.

When asked if she has any regrets about the experiment, she responded that “It didn’t do me wrong. I’m more powerful; it helped me push off the blocks more. After the first race of actually trying the 7-step, and seeing how there as a 50/50 chance it may happen or it may not, Coach Hall told me I have to make the decision, either I do it or I don’t, and I felt more comfortable with the 8-step.”

Yet Harrison hasn’t totally abandoned the idea of 7-stepping in the future. “At 5-3 I’m not really sure if I’ll go back to 7-step. When I did it correctly it was an advantage. But I’ll have to get stronger. I may always try to do it in the fall season, and if it doesn’t work out go back to 8. Going back to 8 is never a problem. I did it one day and I was fine.”

For all of her success, Harrison realizes that to get to the elite level and stay there will take a lot of work. Regarding the 100 hurdles she says, “I need to work on my block start. My first 60 meters could be improved upon. I need to work on snapping my lead leg down, making sure my trail leg is not lagging behind. I probably need to speed up my arms. The faster my arms feel, the faster my legs will go. So, just connecting it all together – that’s what I need to work on.”

Regarding her 400 hurdle race she makes the following observations: “My advantage is probably my endurance. I’m strong at the end. I hit a wall but I always know how to run through it. I hurdle well, I don’t float. I can alternate, which is an advantage in that race. The biggest thing I have to work on is going through with the race plan that I have, doing what I plan to do going into a race. I need to trust myself more.”

Part of Harrison’s nature is that she likes proving doubters wrong, which is why she is determined to excel in both hurdling events at the highest levels of competition. “I like to do things a lot of people can’t do,” she says. “Having the ability to do both events and be nationally ranked in both shows that I’m rare. That’s why winning those two at (NCAA) nationals would be awesome. Only one person has done that – Queen. I just see it as, there are a lot of things I may not be good at as other people, but I’ve found something that I’m blessed with. That’s what makes me wanna do it.”

And having the support of her coach does help. “Coach Hall sees the potential in me, how sometimes in practice I hit times he’s never seen before, whether it’s a 100h or 400h workout. He knows I can do it. He knows endurance-wise I can do it.”

As for her height, Harrison used to feel a bit intimated when running against taller girls, but “once I saw I was running just as fast as them or faster, I stopped seeing it as a disadvantage. Taller people have advantages, but so do I. Definitely speed-wise the taller hurdlers have a problem sprinting between. It’s easier for me between the hurdles. I can lean more; taller people can’t lean as much so they may float.”

Harrison’s long-term goals, besides winning a national NCAA championship in both hurdling events, are to make an Olympic team and to pursue track as a career after college. In the immediate future she is hoping that a nagging hamstring injury won’t prevent her from achieving victory at the SEC championships this coming weekend, at the NCAA Regional Championships the following weekend, and at the NCAA Nationals in June.

Harrison’s advice for young hurdlers is simple and it fits her formula for success: “Have a passion for it. See how far the hurdles can take you. Train as hard as you can. Hopefully it’ll turn out pretty good.”

For Harrison, it certainly has.

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Footage of Harrison’s 7.96 60m hurdle victory at a home meet at Kentucky on January 25, 2014.

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