Redshirt freshman track and cross country runner Max Benoit crossed the finish line at the 2015 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships, immediately went to all fours and laid on his back. He was exhausted.

There are a lot of events at a typical college track meet, but none are quite as unique as the one Benoit had just completed — the 3,000-meter steeplechase, where runners are subject to jumping over a series of steeples several feet off the ground in a race that spans nearly two miles around the track.

And to top it all off, in addition to four barriers located around the track, competitors have to jump over a fifth one with a giant water pit on the other side.

It sounds downright brutal to the average person, but for Benoit, all the challenges it entails are exactly what drew him to the event in the first place.

“I always wanted to do something that was different,” Benoit said. “And the steeplechase satisfies that need. It’s such a cool race. All the barriers — it’s like the perfect mix of everything.”

At times, it can be hard to find someone willing to put themselves through this kind of race, but MSU director of Cross Country and Track and Field Walt Drenth said when he and his staff do look for someone, they’re on the lookout for the best athletes.

“We do a lot of work over hurdles, the entire team, we do hurdle mobility,” Drenth said. “So we try to pick out athletes. We’re trying to pick out people that manage and aren’t afraid of the hurdles ... when we’re doing that, it sort of starts there.”

Drenth said there are still times, however, when an athlete seeks out the steeplechase simply out of their own curiosity, and it usually works out they just so happen to be distance runners with a competitive edge.

Benoit fits all those attributes. As a lifelong hockey player before he got to college — with past hurdle experience as well — when Benoit heard Drenth was holding a meeting for those interested in steeplechase, he didn’t think twice about attending. And he’s never turned back, most recently clocking a 8:51.32 for a fourth place finish at the Big Ten Championships.

For senior Leah O’Connor, she didn’t even know what steeplechase was when Drenth told her he thought she could be good at it. And the first time she tried it, she remembers it taking her somewhere in the ballpark of 12 minutes to complete.

“I thought I was going to die,” O’Connor said.

Since then, though, the rest is history. After five years of hard work, O’Connor has gone on to four consecutive Big Ten titles and the 2014 national championship in the event.

“Luckily, Drenth just kind of encouraged me along in it and I kept practicing my hurdling,” O’Connor said. “It wasn’t honestly until (2014) that I actually started to figure out how to hurdle correctly. I could never finish my trail leg. I feel like (Drenth) was beating me over the head trying to get me to get this down and he’s been very persistent and patient at the same time.”

As for fellow Spartan steeplechase juniors Katie Landwehr and Chris Collier, who finished third and eight in their respective Big Ten steeplechase races, they came into college at a bit of an advantage over Michiganians Benoit and O’Connor. Hailing from states that compete in the steeplechase in high school — Landwehr, Ohio; and Collier, New York — both had prior experience in the event.

In the case of Landwehr, she always wanted to participate in steeplechase all through high school, but her dad and coaches never let her for fear she could get hurt. But one day she asked her coach anyway, and to her surprise, her coach said yes.

Despite Landwehr and Collier’s prior experience, they also commended Drenth for how much they’ve been able to improve in college.

“I wasn’t very good at it (in high school),” Collier said. “But Coach (Drenth) helps us all along and if he’s sees a little bit of decent hurdle form, he’ll work with you real well.”

As for training for the event, Benoit said it’s not a whole lot different from the training regimen of a typical distance runner, with some hurdle and steeple practice sprinkled in on the side.

“Once a week, we’ll do some hurdle stuff, like hip mobility and hurdle mobility,” Benoit said “We’ll practice running over hurdles ... every once in a while we’ll do a track workout where we actually go over the barriers, but it’s just pretty much do what we’d be doing if we weren’t doing the steeplechase.”

But in the end, those who do it, do it because they love it.

“I’ve really fallen in love with steeple,” O’Connor said. “It’s totally different than any other event ... it’s really tough, but it’s really fun.”