When the NCAA first offered women the chance to compete in the steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Jennifer Michel jumped at the opportunity to clear some barriers. As her career progressed, Michel continued to do so. Michel captured the first steeplechase title ever awarded at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2001 when she stopped the clock at 10:22.06 to beat the runner-up by nearly seven seconds. Her reputation over 3000 meters preceded her, as she topped the podium the previous year in that event. Those were two of the three NCAA titles Michel won in her career: Michel also won the indoor mile in 2001. Michel is now a coach at Western Colorado and continues to make history, becoming the first woman in any sport at the NCAA level to earn a National Coach of the Year honor for a men’s sport with her being named the USTFCCCA National Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2007.