One of the most storied careers in Kentucky track and field history is still unfolding, with its end chapter about to be written.

Abby Steiner was a dual-sport athlete growing up in Ohio, and only started to run track in the eighth grade in addition to her budding soccer career.

What followed was overwhelming success in both sports, despite having to recover from a torn ACL: In high school, Steiner was an All-American and state runner-up on the pitch while setting Ohio state records in four different track events and winning 16 state track titles.

It was enough to earn Steiner the rare distinction of being a dual-scholarship athlete when she arrived in Lexington in 2018, playing soccer and running track at UK.

But after one season in 2018 with the Kentucky soccer program — in which Steiner started all 19 games and scored twice — her focused shifted solely to track, a decision she credits with helping her become one of the fastest women on the planet in her events.

“Before, with soccer, I’d be training soccer in the fall, then I would come to track,” Steiner said. “I think really allowing myself to dive fully into the process of the periodization of training that we do, so fall training and then going into indoor and outdoor, it’s all really important in developing speed and getting to where you want to be.”

It’s hard to argue with the results.

During her time at UK, Steiner has been a perennial All-American in indoor events like the 4-by-400-meter relay, the 200 meters and the 60 meters.

Steiner, now a senior at UK majoring in human health sciences, has rewritten the collegiate and school records in those events, earning Southeastern Conference and NCAA championship medals in the process.

This month during a meet at Clemson, Steiner set a collegiate record in the 200 with a time of 22.37 seconds while also helping set a school-record time of 3:27.27 in the 4-by-400 relay, the fourth-fastest time in collegiate history.

Back in December, Steiner broke the 40-year-old collegiate record in the indoor 300 with a time of 35.80 seconds during a meet at Louisville.

In a track and field program that boasts Tokyo Olympians such as Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Sydney McLaughlin and Javianne Oliver among its alumnae, Steiner has carved out her own spot in UK history.

Why?

Kentucky track and field head coach Lonnie Greene said it’s because of Steiner’s focus.

“The beautiful thing about Abby, she’s disciplined. When you work the gift, success follows the gift if you work it. When talent prepares, it’s hard to beat talent,” Greene said. “She’s a student of her craft. She studies what she does. She knows her body, she rests. ... I think as a result of that, God honors that. He honors that obedience and the work she does.”

For someone whose performances have etched her name into state, national and international history, Steiner’s process for settling down and preparing for a race is startlingly simple.

Steiner’s pre-running routine includes listening to hip-hop and rap music (she likes old Kanye West, not new Kanye West), Facetiming her parents (she sometimes calls her mother, Mollie, 10 times in a day) and maintaining a gluten-free diet, which forces Steiner to prepare a lot of her meals featuring meat, rice and vegetables at home.

Looking back, Steiner said she could have envisioned this kind of track success for herself once she fully committed to the sport.

But with that said, she describes the feeling of holding two collegiate records as “surreal, but really exciting.”

“It is really individual, but you’re also working together with all of your teammates, so it’s really fun. We spend a lot of time in the fall building and working on technique and building that foundation,” Steiner said of the process to reach this level of track achievement. “It’s just making the most and being intentional out of every single practice because everything kind of builds off of each other to get ready for the season.”

Steiner has a pair of SEC titles and an NCAA title in the indoor 200, and since the 300 is not run at the NCAA championships, securing a gold medal in the 4-by-400 relay at the SEC and NCAA meets is one of the last things Steiner has yet to accomplish as a Wildcat.

That may change this year.

Steiner is a three-time indoor 4-by-400 relay All-American and the four-woman unit of Steiner, junior Dajour Miles, senior Karimah Davis and senior Alexis Holmes put together a school record indoor relay time this month.

This record-setting performance came without regular 4-by-400 relay runner Masai Russell, who was a First Team All-American in the event last year and is a UK track star in her own right.

Last year, UK finished second at the SEC indoor championships in the 4-by-400 relay and fifth in the event at the NCAA championships.

Why has this year’s relay unit in particular clicked so well?

“They’re talented man. ... I think the foursome that we’ll put out there could break the collegiate record,” Greene said. “I think we can run any combination of any four and be very, very effective. ... I have a lot of faith in those four young women.”

“I think it’s just our mentality going into it,” Holmes said. “We really take every opportunity to really do something big. We always want to win. So I think just having a group of people who are super competitive and really want to do something special, it just always comes together.”

“I think everything is kind of coming together at the right time for us,” Steiner added. “A lot of us are upperclassmen now, so I think the experience that we’ve gained as freshmen being on relay teams is paying off for us.”

This year’s SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships will be Friday and Saturday, and the two-day event will be hosted by Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

Greene refers to the meet as “the national championships, pre the national championships” and has prioritized Kentucky getting in and out of the meet healthy with an eye toward the NCAA indoor championships on March 11-12 in Birmingham, Alabama.

But the Cats still want to return to the commonwealth with plenty of hardware.

Greene anticipates that whichever school wins the 4-by-400 relay at the SEC meet will set a collegiate record.

What is Steiner focused on at the SEC meet?

“I’m kind of just looking at having fun. ... I really love running on (Texas A&M’s) track and focusing on the race plan for me,” Steiner said. “We definitely view it as like a dress rehearsal for NCAAs. The SEC is the best conference in the country for track and field. So, I think just viewing it as a dress rehearsal and focusing on the things that you’re going to focus on at nationals, while still having fun.”

Looking back at Steiner’s recruitment, Greene refers to her choice to come to UK as “a blessing.”

“Everybody and their momma tried to recruit Abby as a track and field athlete, but fortunately she committed to play soccer at the University of Kentucky,” Greene said. “As a result, the track and field program benefited from it.”

And in part thanks to the performances of Steiner and her teammates, the Kentucky track and field program will soon benefit from significant facility upgrades.

Recently announced construction and renovation projects for UK Athletics include a standalone indoor track and field facility.

Nutter Field House, which the UK track and field program currently calls home, will undergo football-focused renovations.

Building the dedicated indoor track-and-field venue will cost an estimated $20 million, and UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said the new facility will be constructed in part on the site where Cliff Hagan Stadium, formerly UK’s baseball stadium, currently stands.

The new indoor facility will have a hydraulic track, allowing for the raising and lowering of the surface.

This is the surface on which NCAA championships are contested, and by having a hydraulic track UK will once again be able to host the indoor SEC championships.

What do Greene and current UK track athletes think of this big-time investment in their sport?

“In terms of what it would do for us, you bring the number one kid in the country and say, ‘This is where you will train, this is where you will compete and this is dedicated specifically to you.’ The likelihood or the chances of us actually landing that young man or young woman is very high,” Greene said. “I’m a kid in the candy store. I’m excited. I can’t wait to see them put the first shovel in the ground.”

“I think it’s going to be really big for training every day as far as pounding on your body, just having a really nice track and facility,” Holmes said.

SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships

When: Friday and Saturday

Where: Gilliam Indoor Stadium at College Station, Texas

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)