UPDATED: Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018 at 9:30 p.m.

Editor’s note: Prepare yourselves for the spring seasons of Syracuse Athletics with our 2018 season preview series, which will spotlight senior runner Danielle Delgado, next-in-line hurdler David Gilstrap, former freshman tennis standout Miranda Ramirez and Syracuse softball’s sophomore ace, Alexa Romero.

David Gilstrap jogged the short way from the locker room to the football field at Marist (Georgia) High School for his first football practice at his new school. Before even running one play, though, his coaches pointed him in the direction of Marist track and field head coach Eric Heintz, who was waiting along the track surrounding the field.

Lacrosse was his plan for the spring, not track. But when the track coach, whom Gilstrap had never met before, informed him he’d be jumping over hurdles instead of scoring goals, he hesitantly agreed.

“(Heintz) comes up to me and he’s like ‘Hey, I heard you’re supposed to be playing lacrosse. That’s a cute sport and all, but you’re going to be running track for us,’” Gilstrap said. “So that’s how I got on the team.”

Gilstrap has often found himself in spots he didn’t expect to be in. As a frequently unknown and unassuming competitor, Gilstrap has consistently found his way to the top. Now, as a senior at Syracuse, Gilstrap is expected to lead one of the nation’s top hurdle groups in the country — and his team — to another Atlantic Coast Conference title.

• • •

As a middle schooler, Gilstrap’s main sports were football and lacrosse, the latter being his favorite. He planned on playing both in high school, but when he began his high school career at Daniel McLaughlin Therrell (Georgia) High School, those plans had to change.

Daniel McLaughlin Therrell did not have a lacrosse team, something Gilstrap had desperately wanted to join. The southwest Atlanta public school was “one of the worst schools in Atlanta,” Gilstrap said, leading him in search of a change of scenery. Until he could switch schools, he had to find something to keep him in shape.

He continued playing football in the fall, but switched to track in the spring. He was one of the best hurdlers on the team, competing in the 110-meter hurdles.

Then, when an opportunity to transfer to Marist arose before his junior year, he took it.

Alexandra Moreo | Staff Photographer

Gilstrap was lucky. Marist is one of the most difficult schools in Georgia to get into, Heintz said. It’s an independent Catholic high school, but better fits the description of an athletic prep school, Heintz said.

“If you don’t get in in ninth grade, you just normally don’t get in,” Heintz said. “Being a transfer is incredibly uncommon. It almost never happens.”

Gilstrap wasn’t accepted to Marist for his athleticism, he said, but come that fall, Gilstrap was jogging out for his first football practice when a random man with a thin beard and glasses told him he would he would run track instead of playing football and lacrosse.

“I honestly had no clue what I was supposed to be,” Gilstrap said. “I came out and they were like, ‘The track coach is looking for you and I was like ‘Why man? I’m playing lacrosse anyway.’”

For as confused as Gilstrap was though, Heintz was just as puzzled. Earlier that year, a stranger had approached Heintz about Gilstrap.

“He was like ‘You’re getting one of my boys next year,’” Heintz said. “And I’m like, ‘I have no idea who you are, what are you talking about?’”

Heintz had no idea who Gilstrap was, and all he could figure was that the man standing in front of him was a track coach. He turned out to be Daniel McLaughlin Therell head coach Tony Rambo, Gilstrap’s first track coach, who made promises of great potential to Heintz. But with no knowledge of the athlete or the coach, Heintz struggled to believe the narrative then, particularly when he met Gilstrap in person.

At that time, Gilstrap stood about 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighed 145 pounds, with the build of a distance runner, not a top-tier hurdler.

“What I saw was this pretty scrawny guy trying to play football,” Heintz said. “I was like, ‘This can’t be this superstar.’”

• • •

Marist is a distance-running powerhouse. Of the 50-plus individual track state champions Marist had produced, none were hurdlers. Gilstrap aimed to change that. During his junior season, Gilstrap lowered his 110-meter hurdle time by nearly 1.5 seconds. Heintz has coached at Marist for 12 years, and has yet to have any other hurdler run below 15.5 in the event. Gilstrap ran it in 14.8 seconds in his penultimate meet that season.

Marist captured the 2013 Georgia state championship during Gilstrap’s junior season and looked primed to do so again in 2014. He opened his senior season the same way he closed his previous one, running around 14.8. But during the state meet that year, he exceeded everyone’s expectations.

There were two teams in heavy contention for the “Georgia Olympics”: Marist and Carrollton High School. Marist specialized in long-distance, and Carrollton in field events. But one of the big crossovers was the 110-meter hurdles.

When he was called upon, Gilstrap settled into his blocks and cleared off a puddle. The sound of the gun rang through the air and by the fourth hurdle, Heintz knew his runner had won the race. Gilstrap doesn’t remember it.

“Your mind goes blank until maybe hurdle eight,” Gilstrap said. “And you’re like, ‘Wow, no one’s even close. I might actually win the state championship.”

He did win. And Marist did, too. By one point. If Gilstrap finished in second, his team would’ve lost to Carrollton. Gilstrap became the fastest hurdler in Georgia and earned his way onto the Syracuse track team.

“So many kids will say something like ‘I want to be a 4:20 miler but I could never run 4:15,’” Heintz said. “I never heard David say anything like that.”

• • •

Syracuse very quickly rose to dominance in hurdling in the Atlantic Coast Conference with All-Americans like Jarret Eaton and Freddie Crittenden.

Coming off a state championship, Gilstrap felt confident entering his freshman year at SU. But that mindset quickly shifted during the Syracuse hurdlers’ fall competition, King of the Hill.

The competition takes place every year on the tallest hill in Thornden Park. SU assistant coach Dave Hegland sets up two cones, one at the bottom of the hill, and one at the top.

“It’s the steepest hill you’ve ever seen in your life,” Gilstrap said. “If you’re at the cone at the bottom of the hill, you can’t see the top. It kills you.”

In the event, all the hurdlers are seeded in two opposite brackets and have to run to the top of the hill. After every heat, one runner is eliminated until there are four runners left on each side of the bracket. Then, those eight compete against each other, while one runner is eliminated until two remain. Then, the two square off for the title.

Gilstrap was “obliterated” his freshman year.

“I was like, ‘Holy crap,’” Gilstrap said. “’What is this?’”

Despite a strong freshman season, when it came time for King of the Hill his sophomore year, Gilstrap wanted no part of it.

On a cold, cloudy October Saturday, Gilstrap was seeded No. 11 and he didn’t expect to do any better. But as the event progressed, other runners kept dropping off. Eventually just two remained for the title: Gilstrap versus No. 1 seeded and reigning All-American Crittenden.

“No one was expecting me to win,” Gilstrap said. “I wasn’t expecting me to win. Freddie wasn’t expecting me to win. Coach wasn’t expecting me to win. No one was expecting me to win.”

But when Hegland snapped a photo at the finish marker, Gilstrap finished a half step ahead of Crittenden. The photo became Gilstrap’s phone screen for the remainder of the season.

Courtesy of David Gilstrap

“It’s good to see Freddie get beat and keep him motivated,” Hegland said, “and for David to get a little belief in himself.”

“I was mad at all the trash-talking that coach and the team gave me,” Crittenden added. “But I could only be proud. I see way more potential in him than he sees in himself.”

• • •

In the winter of 2016, when the indoor season started, Gilstrap reached a new level. At the Ramapo College Season Opener, Gilstrap captured his first win in a collegiate race with a personal record time of 7.87 in the 60-meter hurdles. It seemed he could potentially be a top-three finisher at the ACC Indoor Championships.

Then, he hurt his right ankle.

In practice, Gilstrap was finishing up a 200-meter workout, when his ankle gave out and he fell hard, scraping up his whole side. But when he tried to get to his feet, his ankle failed him.

“I was honestly thinking ‘I need to get off this track,’” Gilstrap said.

Gilstrap crawled off the track and, with the help of his teammates, made it to the trainers. After MRIs, he was diagnosed with a badly sprained ankle and was required to use crutches. Even in his first week back in training he remained on crutches with ACCs just two and a half weeks away.

Slowly, Gilstrap could put more pressure on his ankle, but still not enough for his typical training regimen. He practiced on anti-gravity treadmills to decrease running impact, and did everything in his power to heal his ankle enough for ACCs.

On an injured ankle that he admittedly shouldn’t have run on, Gilstrap placed 10th in the conference in the 60-meter hurdles.

“It shows how much he wanted to sacrifice for the team,” Crittenden said.

Alexandra Moreo | Staff Photographer

Rather than continuing to train on an injured ankle after ACCs, Gilstrap opted to redshirt his outdoor season and focus on recovering.

Now Gilstrap is senior at the start of the indoor season. And without Crittenden, he’s the “glue” of the team, junior hurdler Chevis Armstead said.

“David’s a great leader,” Hegland said. “He’s a professional guy.”

A 14-year-old Gilstrap never expected to be jumping over hurdles for the Orange, but he and everyone knows exactly what he can do now.

“If anybody follows in his footsteps,” Crittenden said, “they’ll do great things.”

Published on January 22, 2018 at 9:45 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu