If you've followed track and field around here, you're quite familiar with the name Chad Zallow. He was a star at Warren JFK, then an All-American at YSU. Friday, he's taking the next step in his career as a professional hurdler.

For Zallow, dealing with hurdles is no metaphor. He's making a career out of it, turning pro after putting his name all over the Youngstown State record book.

"With the Olympic year coming up, everything's outdoor-focused. One hundred ten hurdles is what my main focus is," said Zallow. "Making Olympic trials is my main goal."

It's a goal that's been planted in his head for a long time, even back when he first chose the hurdles as his main event thanks to a little sibling rivalry.

"My older brother Carl, we both ran on the same track team. He was a grade older than me. He was running the sprints as well as myself. We were super competitive. We would always get into arguments about who's faster and everything," said Zallow. "My dad said, 'alright, one of you has to choose another event.' So I went with the hurdles. Carl got the sprints, I got the hurdles, and it worked out pretty good."

"He's been ranked as top three in the nation. He's been number one in the world opening up the last two, three years," said YSU Track & Field coach Brian Gorby.

All that success came in college.

Now he's working on his own for the most part, trying to land a sponsorship deal in the process. Since he's still enrolled at YSU, though, not much has changed.

He still trains and the WATTS and still runs a lot of the same meets as YSU, just without the Penguins uniform.

"That was definitely weird for me, not wearing the red and white uniform that I'm used to wearing here at the track meet and running with my teammates. A little different feeling, but still felt great running at my home track with all my friends on the track team here," said Zallow.

The situation does have its perks.

Zallow says he's healthier than ever, solely focused on just one event: the 110 hurdles.

"The big plus is he doesn't have to race every single weekend. He can pick and choose. We're not worried about running three events for a Horizon League Championship. Sometimes you can get beat up by doing that," said Gorby.

He has to run a 13.45 this outdoor season to qualify for the Olympic trials.

His personal best is 13.37, so even if he matches that, he'll get his shot. That's what he's chasing.

"America track is probably the hardest Olympic team to make, so I kind of just focus on myself. Try not to psych myself out too much by looking at other people's times, so I just kind of focus on myself," said Zallow.

Taking it one hurdle at a time to reach his goal.

He's running the 60-meter hurdles indoors Friday at the Knights of Columbus Games in Saskatchewan. The finals for that event will be Saturday.

It's all a lead-up to what could be a very big outdoor season. Zallow plans to run three or four outdoor meets to get that qualifying time, then hit the Olympic Trials at full-speed in June.