Distance Night at Mt. SAC: Sean McGorty (8:20) Dazzles in Steeple Debut as Evan Jager Paces and Molly Huddle Struggles Sean McGorty to make his steeplechase debut. It was worth the wait. Article continues below player Running on the same track where his teammate Evan Jager made his debut nine years ago, McGorty — who was paced by Jager in this race through two kilometers — ran 8:20.77 to smash his first career steeplechase, knocking out the 8:22.00 Olympic standard and holding off a charging Dan Michalski to win the USATF Golden Games at Mt. SAC on Sunday night. McGorty, the 2018 NCAA 5,000m champion at Stanford, had initially planned on trying out the steeple in 2019, his first full year as a professional with the Bowerman Track Club, but he wound up missing almost the entire season due to a mysterious (and serious) infection in his foot, which required multiple surgeries. McGorty was healthy in 2020, but the lack of access to facilities meant there were no steeples for him to race that year either (though he did manage an 8:25 time trial at the end of the summer). Which meant McGorty had to wait until Sunday night — 43 days before the first round of the men’s steeple at the US Olympic Trials — to run his first real race over barriers.