Kentucky freshman Sophie Galloway had a personal best to reach the NCAA Championships. (Xavier Daniels/UK Athletics Photo)
Just two weeks after straining her hamstring warming up for the triple jump at the Southeastern Conference Championship, Kentucky freshman Sophie Galloway is now headed to the NCAA Championships.
The freshman had a personal best jump of 42 feet, 9 1/2 inches — fourth-best jump ever at UK — to earn her first trip to the NCAA Championship. And she did it with very little practice between the SEC and the NCAA regional qualification.
“I am very excited. I knew it was coming. It had taken a few meets to get my feet under me but the triple jump is my passion and I just did what I needed,” Galloway, a four-time Kentucky Gatorade Track Athlete of the Year at Calloway County and Marshall County.
She did admit her distance was “shocking” considering she had 12 needles in the hamstring area before her jump. Dry Needling is a therapeutic treatment used by a lot of athletes to enable them to compete with less pain.
“My hamstring was hurting so bad. I knew I needed just one good jump and knew I had one in me,” Galloway said. “The dry needles help stimulate blood flow.”
Does it hurt?
“I kind of halfway cried but every athlete gets it at some point. You can barely feel it to be honest. I actually have a sports therapist at home who introduced me to it as a freshman, so I know it helps. But it is still needles,” Galloway said.
If that wasn’t enough, UK assistant coach Kris Grimes had changed her approach. He had moved her back about 18 feet to 116-6 to give her a longer approach than she had ever used.
“He knew I had the maturity to handle a longer approach and it gave me more speed and I think it is kind of scary to think what I have done as a freshman. I shocked everybody,” Galloway said.
She was hoping to do that at the SEC Championships. She had transferred to UK from Arkansas in January and did not compete in the indoor season.
“I had already checked in and was ready to go. I was running one last sprint and my hamstring cramped. Coach (Lonnie) Greene pulled me. I told him I was fine but he said he was not letting me compete when I was injured. I cried but he still did not listen to me,” Galloway said.
That’s because Greene knows she has a special future just like he did last outdoor season when he shut star sprinter Abby Steiner down due to her injury.
Galloway originally committed to Tennessee but when the coach who recruited her left, she went to Arkansas. It didn’t take long for her to realize that was not the right spot for her and she’s thrilled to be at Kentucky now.
“I would not change any decision made and I ended dup where I am supposed to be,” Galloway, who was also on Marshall County’s state runner-up basketball team in 2021, said. “I love Lexington. I would not change any decision I made. I learned so much from the whole experience I had.”
Galloway has the potential to be a special heptathlon athlete and can do a little bit of everything. Coach Grimes put her into workouts with UK track members as soon as she got on campus but she was behind their training level.
“I have learned so much since I got here,” she said. “I ran with the cross country girls and they helped show me the way to practice and compete. No longer do I go into a quiet model and keep my headphones on at meets. I just have a good time because you never know what might happen.”
She never worried about hurting her hamstring more at the NCAA regional.
“I am competitive and Coach gave me a scholarship. I did not want to let him down. Trainers worked two weeks to try and get me right. I was not going to let months of work going to waste for a small hamstring strain. Unless it was torn, I was going to keep jumping,” she said.
She knows how to pace herself before the national meet next week. She’s getting daily treatments and limiting what she does on the track.
“I am in a really good spot. I don’t need to go to the track and jump myself to death,” Galloway said. “Triple jump is the one event I am really confident in. When Coach explains something to me, I know how to fix it. I can lay in bed, close my eyes and feel the triple jump happening.
“I don’t have to train all the time like I will in fall training. I don’t need to overdo anything with a lot of hard jumping right now. I know what I can do and how to do it.”
Galloway anticipated she must jump some this weekend and says her hamstring is not as bad now as it was before the SEC, so she considers that progress.
“I just wanted to make nationals so bad,” Galloway said. “I knew I had a lot to prove and I just bit my tongue and did it.”
