Oregon's Hannah Cunliffe re-set for a fast 2017

By Romaine Soh for DyeStat

Watch out, naysayers, Hannah Cunliffe uses comments to fuel her motivation to work harder instead of letting them bring her down.

After all, the Oregon junior sprinter has had to listen to them since June.

Cunliffe’s face was covered in tears as she pulled up due to a hamstring injury in the 100-meter dash semifinals at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Cunliffe began to erase that memory from viewers’ minds when she won the 60-meter dash in 7.19 seconds Saturday at the UW Indoor Preview in Seattle. Her time is an NCAA-leading mark and ranks second in the world this year.

“My testing was faster than last year, so I knew I had it in me,” said Cunliffe, the 2016 Pac-12 Female Athlete of the Year.

“I was a little nervous in my prelim, just how I ended last year, my first-meet jitters.”

Frustration was a dominant emotion as Cunliffe grappled with her injury, her Olympic dreams dashed. She couldn’t bear to watch the U.S. Olympic Trials until the day when teammate Deajah Stevens was competing in the 200-meter final.

On top of that, she had to deal with degrading comments on social media. 

However, such comments only served as motivation for Cunliffe in training.

“Those kinds of things, they don’t tear me down,” she said. “They actually stick in my head, and I use that as motivation to work harder.

“Some people told me last year, ‘I’m gonna beat you,’ or ‘I’m gonna win this event.’ When you tell that to me, that stays with me. Through the hardest workouts, that will pop up in my head, and I’ll tell myself, ‘Okay, push.’”

Cunliffe’s work ethic also boosts her teammates’ energy in training sessions. Ariana Washington, an alternate on the 4x100 relay team at last year’s Olympics, thought she would be alone after former Duck Jenna Prandini turned professional in August 2015. Cunliffe’s transfer from Oklahoma, however, helped to push her in training sessions and dispel Washington’s doubts about lack of training partners.

“She’s a really, really hard worker, and sometimes I’m not,” said Washington, the 2016 NCAA outdoor champion in the 100 and 200 meters.

“To have someone near reminds me that I’m not by myself come NCAAs. She really helped me there.”

Cunliffe is roommates with Stevens, who finished seventh in the 200-meter final at last year’s Olympics. Stevens, who said she is best friends with Cunliffe, shared Cunliffe’s frustration when she pulled up at NCAA Outdoor Championships, which significantly affected Oregon’s chances of repeating as women’s team champions.

“Being around somebody and knowing how hard they’ve worked for something, and then seeing it almost being taken away from them is frustrating for all of us,” Stevens said. “She’s my competition in races, but she’s also my friend. We care about each other. I couldn’t not feel for her. It was heartbreaking for me to see her pull up.”

Now, Cunliffe is back with a vengeance, and she is raring to go for the indoor season, with her long-term focus on returning in June to the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field and ultimately the U.S. Nationals in Sacramento.

“I just want to go out and win races,” Cunliffe said.

The 4x100 relay title is on Cunliffe’s radar this year, and there’s little reason to doubt the Ducks will finally get their hands on the prize.

Last year, the Ducks led a podium sweep of the 100 and 200 at the Pac-12 Championships and mustered a bronze at the NCAA Outdoors, despite having to substitute two starters on the relay (Cunliffe was injured and Jasmine Todd departed from the team because of eligibility issues).

Along with the trio of Cunliffe, Washington and Stevens, there is freshman Makenzie Dunmore, Oregon’s newest addition to its already deep roster of sprinters. Dunmore clocked 7.29 seconds in the 60-meter dash at the UW Indoor Preview, just 0.02 seconds ahead of Stevens.

According to Washington, holding one another accountable is one of their keys to success.

“We all have that confidence and faith in each other. I think we hold each other to really high expectations,” she said

With the IAAF World Championships in August in London, Cunliffe has not ruled out the option of finally getting the chance to wear the nation’s colors for the first time at the senior level.

“That would be great,” she said.