In final year with Seton Hill track, Hunter Martin making most of 1st year running hurdles

As he prepares for his final outdoor track and field season at Seton Hill, Hunter Martin can’t help but wonder: What if?

To be clear, Martin has had a fine tenure with the Griffins. In 2020, he placed third in the indoor long jump at the PSAC championships to earn all-conference honors. In spring 2021, he won the PSAC outdoor long jump title.

Still, what if?

The question that pricks Martin’s mind doesn’t stem from regret over time lost to injury. It isn’t related to difficulties brought on by the pandemic.

What if … what if Martin simply had been competing in the wrong event for three years?

On Feb. 26, Martin captured the PSAC indoor title in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.16 seconds. The feat was impressive considering this was the first season he had hurdled competitively since his senior year at Belle Vernon, when he was the WPIAL Class 2A runner-up in the 110 hurdles.

“My title race, I felt extremely confident,” Martin said. “Basically dropping times every meet leading up to PSACs. It gave me confidence with every hurdle race. I just needed to execute my race and go from there.”

The transformation started when Jamal Johnson came on board as the Griffins’ coach in the summer. He was the third coach of Martin’s college career.

Johnson knew about Martin. Having coached the previous two seasons at PSAC East school Mansfield, he was aware of Martin’s prowess as a long jumper.

But a hurdler?

“I don’t know how the conversation started or how I learned the information, but I found out he was a (district) runner-up in hurdles,” Johnson said. “And I was like, ‘Hold on. And you’ve never hurdled (in college)? What do you mean?’

“So not only was he a (district) runner-up, but he ran a really good time, and he’s also really tall. I just put two and two together and said he might as well just try it out.”

Martin was ecstatic about returning to hurdles. He said he dabbled in the event in practices his first three seasons, but he never lined up in an actual meet. Despite a personal belief that his hurdle practice sessions went well, he remained confined to the jumping pits.

Given his quick success in the hurdles, it isn’t a stretch to say Martin feels a little cheated.

“I wish I was hurdling more often,” he said. “I would have loved to see where I would have been if I had hurdled my whole college career.

“I’m not going to throw any coaches under, but I feel like if some coaches would have given me the opportunity, I would have progressed and succeeded a lot further.”

So with only a short time left, Martin aims to make the most of it.

When he got back into the event, he was, Johnson said, quite rusty. Understandable.

Johnson said Martin had two major flaws to overcome. First, he wasn’t getting his trail leg in the proper position going over the hurdles. Secondly, he was “kind of gliding over the hurdles” and not getting his lead foot down quickly enough.

Because of his height, he also needed adjust his number of steps to the first hurdle. He got a big assist in his technique from assistant Natasha Bernett, a student in Seton Hill’s LECOM cooperative degree program and former All-American hurdler at Division II Lewis.

“It was hard getting back into it,” Martin said. “I think it was just a confidence thing with me also.”

That won’t be a problem in outdoor season. Martin, in fact, believes he can be even better outdoors.

His M.O. in races is to get stronger the longer they go. Even in the PSAC 60 final, he said he trailed after the first couple of hurdles before starting to pass his competitors down the stretch.

That trait, he said, should serve him well outdoors, especially in the 110 hurdles.

“He is able to kind of use those legs to get over the hurdles quicker than anybody else,” Johnson said, “and when everyone else is kind of flattening off, he doesn’t have to do extra big strides between hurdles. So he can just kind of stay consistent throughout the hurdles.”

Martin has expressed his desire to run the 400 hurdles as well. That, however, will be approached with a little more caution, Johnson said.

There is a certain amount of endurance Martin will need to build to make it through the 400s, so Johnson plans to bring him along slowly. He said it might be a couple of weeks into outdoor season before Martin runs the 400s in a meet.

In the 110s, however, Johnson has big ideas about what Martin can do. The Griffins produced a national champion 110 hurdler, Sam Hartman, two seasons ago, and Johnson believes Martin has a similar pedigree despite his limited college experience in the event.

“I have a (time) in my head. I definitely have goals,” Johnson said. “I think for sure he’ll make the national championship outdoors.

“It’s crazy to say this because, obviously, we had a national champion in this event two years ago, but I think he can be the best hurdler we’ve ever had.

“It kind of makes you wonder what it would have been like if he had hurdled last year. If he had some races under his belt last year and he was just kind of putting things together this year to where it’s not completely new, man, he could be really, really special.”

Martin wonders, too. That hasn’t made him lower his sights.

“The one thing I would love to do is beat the school record in the 110s,” he said, referring to Hartman’s mark of 13.88 seconds. “I would love to set some records for just one year.”

In Martin’s case, better late than never.