Sutherland still realizing NCAA
title win did happen
By Darren
Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex
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| Savannah Sutherland does a drill at the Track and Field Track. |
On June 10 at the 2023 National Collegiate Athletics Association Track and Field Championships held at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, Sutherland won the championship race in the 400-metre women’s hurdles in a time of 54.45 seconds with the University of Michigan Wolverines. Along with claiming the NCAA title, Sutherland’s time was a personal best, set a school record, a Canadian U23 record and the 2023 world championship standard.
She just missed clipping Sage Watson’s overall Canadian
record in the 400-metre women’s hurdles of 54.32 seconds set in October of
2019.
With having won an NCAA title with one of the most storied
overall athletic programs in the Wolverines, Sutherland’s win made major rounds
in mainstream media and social media.
In early July, she returned home and first spent quality
family time in her hometown of Borden, which is located about 53 kilometres
northwest of Saskatoon. She proceeded to return to the Track and Field Track on
the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds to train with the elite national level
crew that includes Michelle Harrison, Nicole Ostertag and Madisson Lawrence.
The training mates would send good-natured jabs Sutherland’s
way telling her how well-known she was and that news of her heroics takes over
their social media feeds. Sutherland, who turned 20-years-old on August 7, chuckled
at the comments about her newfound fame. Due to the fact she was only in her
second season with the Wolverines when she won her NCAA crown, Sutherland
admits she still thinks that day was some sort of dream.
“It still feels surreal,” said Sutherland. “It almost feels like it didn’t happen to me.
“It is like someone that I watched on TV. It hasn’t sunk in that, ‘Hey, that was me on the track.’ It still feels pretty unreal.”
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| Savannah Sutherland jogs around the Track and Field Track. |
“I just wanted to get out hard,” said Sutherland about the
NCAA title race. “I knew that there was a pretty big head wind on the back
stretch, so I was just focused on that first 200-metres on getting out.
“It was around the 250-mark where I started wondering like,
‘Hey, where is everybody else.’ The two people that were favoured were on my
inside, so I couldn’t see them for the whole race. Coming around that last
curve, it kind of sunk in that, ‘Hey, I could win this thing.’
“Then, it was just trying to come home as strong as I could.
It was a little scary, because I knew that they were coming after me. I was
just hoping that I could hold them off for that last 150-metres.”
Sutherland,
who stands 5-foot-8, was named the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year for the
Big Ten Conference. Her lengthy list of accomplishments for the 2022-23 season
included a Big Ten championship in the 400-metre hurdles, a Big Ten
championship in the 4 X 400-metre relay for the indoor season, a first team
all-American nod in the 400-metre hurdles and a first team all-American
selection in the 400-metre race for the indoor season.
In the
400-metre race, Sutherland set a personal best time for outdoors at 51.41
seconds on February 25 and a personal best in indoors at 51.60 second in March 11.
The indoor personal best came at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Sutherland
said she couldn’t believe how many accomplishments she had until they were
listed to her.
“It feels amazing, especially indoor, because it was my off
event,” said Sutherland. “To still be able to get top eight at NCAAs indoor for
the flat 400-metre was really great.
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| Savannah Sutherland, left, share a laugh with Nicole Ostertag. |
Sutherland has enjoyed campus life at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. She said it was different going into a lecture hall for a class and there were more people in the lecture hall than the entire population of Borden. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Borden had a population of 281 people.
Overall, Sutherland has been amused when she explains to
folks at the University of Michigan about where she is from.
“It is funny, because usually, I’ll be in a conversation
with someone, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m from a small town,’” said
Sutherland. “They are like, ‘Oh, me too like there are only like 5,000 people.’
“I’m like you don’t understand. You don’t even understand.
Once I try to explain it to people I think it is hard for them to even grasp
like growing up in a place that small until they like see it on the map and
there is only like six streets type of thing.
“It is really hard for them to actually wrap their minds
around it that people actually come from places that small.”
Still, the gal from the small town has proven she can make an impact on the biggest stages. On July 30 at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Langley, B.C., Sutherland won the senior women’s 400-metre hurdles final in a time of 56.14 seconds. She just edged out Brooke Overholt from St. Mary’s, Ont., who had a time of 56.17 seconds.
Sutherland spent the majority of July training at the Track and Field Track on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds preparing for nationals. She enjoys coming back to the state-of-the-art facility in Saskatoon to train.
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| Savannah Sutherland blasts over a hurdle while training on June 8, 2021. |
“I’m always excited to come back here. I’m always excited to
compete for Canada and compete for Saskatchewan. I never forget who I am
representing even when I’m in the States.
“It is always mentioned, ‘Oh, girl from small town
Saskatchewan.’ I’m really proud to be from where I am from.”
