As Seton Hill’s Natasha Bernett stepped in front of the blocks for her last collegiate track and field event — the NCAA Division II 100-meter hurdles final — she couldn’t help but smile.

That was not her usual on-track demeanor. She always had a game face, one so intense that her teammates found her difficult to approach. “Angry” was the word they used to describe her on meet days.

But there in the stadium at Emporia (Kan.) State University, as she stared down the track, she beamed.

“I was so happy and light,” she said. “This was one of the first times ever I was just happy getting into the blocks and just ready to be done in a great finishing-up meet.”

* * *

Bernett’s college track and field journey began at Lewis University, a Division II school located about 35 miles southwest of her Chicago home. There, she was a two-time NCAA outdoor qualifier, finishing fourth and earning All-American honors in the 100 hurdles in 2022.

When she finished her four years at Lewis, she aimed to do post-graduate work at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM). She perused the four campuses online and chose Seton Hill simply because she thought the photos were most appealing.

The catch was this: She had one year of athletic eligibility left, but because LECOM is not technically part of Seton Hill, she wouldn’t be allowed to compete for the Griffins.

So she became an assistant under coach Jamal Johnson, working with the hurdlers. Bernett admitted it was strange overseeing athletes who were so close to her age and, in some cases, the same age.

“At first I was a little nervous,” she said. “I had never truly coached before. … I started taking the reins, and Coach J would tell me what I needed to do. He would explain how I could talk to the athletes, and I was able to adapt to how each athlete needed to be talked to in practice versus a meet.”

If her pupils had any doubts about Bernett, they were erased quickly. At one practice, Bernett was approached by hurdlers Haley Brenny and Anna Roberts. They asked her to watch a video clip.

The segment showed a Lewis University athlete gliding effortlessly over the hurdles. It was Bernett.

“Is that really you?” they asked. Bernett confirmed it was, indeed, her in the video.

“So you really were good at hurdles,” they said. Bernett’s response had a hint of sheepishness: “I was OK.”

Was.

Bernett believed she had run her final track meet. Then fate intervened.

Her first year at LECOM “didn’t go quite as planned,” so she enrolled in a master’s program at Seton Hill. After doing his due diligence, Johnson determined Bernett’s class load would make her eligible to compete for the Griffins in the 2023-24 season.

If that wasn’t enough of a lift, Bernett was about to get another surprise. Johnson asked her if she wanted to compete not only as a hurdler but also as a “multi,” i.e., in the indoor pentathlon and the outdoor heptathlon.

“I had always hoped that they would put me in the multi (at Lewis), but they never did,” said Bernett, noting she had experience in each of the events except for shot put and the 800. “When I came here … he immediately was like, ‘Hey, want to try the multi?’ And I was ecstatic.”

Said Johnson, who just wrapped up his second season as Seton Hill’s coach: “She has an amazing work ethic. It’s as simple as that. Before she got here, she was good at hurdles. She was good at long jump and triple jump, and she had done some javelin as well. But the pentathlon … and the heptathlon were completely new.”

Johnson wasn’t too worried. He knew Bernett had the stamina to run the 800. It was just a matter of reprogramming the lifelong sprinter with the pacing required. For the shot put, she had the explosive strength that would help her succeed.

The hardest event for Bernett was the high jump. Until the 2023 indoor season at Seton Hill, she hadn’t high jumped since high school. Not because she was physically incapable but because she had a mental block.

Bernett said that during her junior year of high school, her team was competing in a meet after a rain. As she made her approach to the high jump bar, which was set at 4-foot-8, she slipped and crashed into the standard. The incident has haunted her since.

Including at last weekend’s outdoor national championships.

“Since that junior year, I had basically completely stopped doing the high jump,” she said, “because I was never able to completely get my brain to let me go above that mark. … Every time I approached the bar, it was just pure dread, and it was just very nerve-racking.

“Even at (outdoor nationals), it was right before my last jump over 1.57 (meters, or 5-11⁄2), I had quite the mental breakdown, a little bit of a panic attack. I was tearing up on the track.”

But Bernett overcame her trepidation — she had cleared 5-33⁄4 in winning the pentathlon at the PSAC indoor championships — and cleared the bar. The height, though it was 12th among the 16 competitors, was, she said, probably the minimum she needed to remain in contention for a top-eight finish.

It was the second event in the two-day heptathlon, so once that was out of the way, she was able to relax and excel in the others. She placed fourth in the shot put and fifth in the 200 to end Day 1, which she kicked off by placing second in the 100 hurdles. On Day 2, she was eighth in the long jump, second in the javelin and seventh in the 800.

Her totals added up to a fourth-place overall finish and All-American honors.

She failed to qualify for the final in the 400 hurdles, but she made it in the 100s. And, with that 100-watt smile she couldn’t contain, Bernett placed fourth in a PSAC all-time best mark of 13.52 seconds to earn a second All-American honor. (She ran 13.49 in the 100s during the heptathlon, but that doesn’t count toward the conference’s records.)

“I couldn’t be more content and fulfilled with how I finished this year,” she said.

Added Johnson: “Her being a great person off the track is what makes this work. If she wasn’t coachable, if she wasn’t able to have conversations and wasn’t personable, it was not going to work. … She’s someone I can trust because she coached with me last year. That’s a huge part of why she is able to have that success this year.”

“That success” was arguably the best year of women’s track and field in PSAC history. Over the 2023-24 indoor/outdoor seasons, Bernett:

• won the pentathlon and 60-meter hurdles at the PSAC indoor championships, setting a meet mark in the pentathlon (3,678 points)

• set the all-time PSAC mark in the indoor heptathlon (3,830) at nationals to place eighth

• won PSAC outdoor titles in the 100 hurdles (tied meet record, 13.70 seconds), 400 hurdles and heptathlon (meet record 5,308), earning women’s MVP and top field athlete awards

• finished fourth, earned All-American status and set all-time PSAC records in the heptathlon (5,580) and 100 hurdles (13.52) at the NCAA Division II championships, reaching the Olympic Trials qualifying mark in the heptathlon.

“Theoretically, Coach J could enter me (in the Olympic Trials), but, obviously, there are a lot more athletes above me in the world,” Bernett said. “I would assume (I won’t take part). This year is pretty stacked with multis across the board.

“Even though I know there are some marks I could do better in … who knows? Maybe I’ll keep doing it off on the side, enjoy real life but maybe have a little hobby of going for the 2028 Olympics.”

In the meantime, Bernett plans to stick around the Greensburg area. She has fallen in love with western Pennsylvania, particularly, she said, the numerous outdoor and hiking opportunities it offers, and calls her decision to come to Seton Hill “one of the best decisions of my life.”

Even though she technically can return to the LECOM program, she isn’t sure that is in the cards. She is eager to work as a personal trainer and, of course, a track and field coach.

“I want to help any other athlete I can get this feeling,” she said, still brimming with excitement a day after returning from nationals. “It is an amazing opportunity even to just make it to nationals. … I want other people to feel the way I feel.”

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