Doris Lemngole Dominates, Wins Second Straight National Steeplechase Title

Alabama sophomore Doris Lemngole won her second straight NCAA national championship in the women's outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase on Saturday. In addition to that feat, she obliterated her own collegiate record with a time of 8:58.15.

Lemngole is already a 2025 NCAA national champion, having won the women's 5,00-meter indoor title. Her Saturday victory in Eugene, Ore., adds to her legacy as one of the most prolific collegiate sports talents on the planet, not to mention across the various Alabama programs.

She won the SEC steeplechase title this year with another record time. Lemngole was also the winner of the individual national and SEC cross-country championships in 2024. She has done all of this and more at the age of 23.

Her list of accomplishments further includes six of the top 10 times in school history, where she is first in two of them: indoor 5,000-meter and outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase. The Kenya native was the 2024-25 SEC Women's Outdoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year, for good measure.

Lemngole's college career has already risen above the level of what one might call decorated. On Saturday, she was the first collegiate athlete to break nine minutes in the steeplechase and the 14th woman to ever do it. Her time was the 11th-fastest in world history.

She won gold in Saturday's event by more than 10 seconds. The next closest competitor to Lemngole, BYU's Lexy Halladay-Lowry, checked in with a mark of 9:08.68. Three SEC athletes finished in the top 10, but Lemngole was the only one in the top three.