Hedengren ran to no fewer than 8 absolute HSRs. Outdoors, she got started at Arcadia with a lowering of Mary Cainâ€s 2M standard by 4½ seconds. She later obliterated that time. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)
YEARS IN THE MAKING. The most dominant distance runner in prep history, Jane Hedengren, cannot be characterized as an overnight success. It was a long process, starting in elementary school, that ultimately forged the record-breaking season that gave the Utah prep our High School Girls Athlete of the Year honor.
Hedengren was born into a running family. Her father, John, a professor at BYU, was the Mountain West cross country champion for the Cougars in â€99, and in â€00 finished 37th in the NCAA harrier race. He and his wife Sarah boast a 5-runner brood. Both Eric and Isaac were all-state athletes at Timpview. Isaac now runs for BYU; his 8:30.01 steeple PR placed him 3rd in the Big 12. Peter ran last year for nearby Mountain View High in Orem, and Susan, now an 8th-grader, placed 5th in the Brooks PR junior mile with her PR 4:57.67.
Into that environment, itâ€s natural that Jane started early, racing on the USATF Junior Olympic circuit in 5th grade. By 9th grade, she had broken 5:00 for the mile. The next year she became a force nationally. After winning the first of three Utah state 5A cross country titles, she captured the Brooks PR mile in 4:35.69 and the Nike Outdoor 2-mile in 9:54.38. As a junior, she took 2nd in the 2-mile at both Nike Indoor (9:49.45) and Brooks PR (9:48.77).
That Hedengrenâ€s senior campaign for Provoâ€s Timpview High School would be something to behold became obvious to the world at the NXN Championships last December, when she set off alone on a rainy, muddy day, winning by more than 200m and smashing the course record set by Katelyn Tuohy back in 2018 with her 16:32.7. (Continued below)
2025 HS Girls Athlete Of The Year Voting
In rewriting the record book for the distances, Jane Hedengren stamped herself as the overwhelming choice to be our 48th High School Girls AOY. The 18-year-old (she turned 19 in September) set a total of 8 absolute HSRs at major distances, 6 of them outdoors. Thatâ€s not including marks at 1600, 2000 and 3200 that she set en route. Hers were the only HSRs of the outdoor season. Last yearâ€s AOY, Sadie Engelhardt did not run for her school and had some injury issues, but still ended up 6th in the voting.
This yearâ€s 15 vote-getters, with their All-Am events (* = junior; ** = soph; ***=frosh):
1.
Jane Hedengren
(Timpview, Provo, Utah)
mile, 2M, 5000
210
2.
*Natalie Dumas
(Eastern, Voorhees, New Jersey)
400, 800, 400H
174
3.
Dana Wilson
(Day, Greensboro, North Carolina)
100, 200
132
4.
Jessica Oji
(Livingston, New Jersey)
shot, discus
125
5.
Morgan Herbst
(Carlsbad, California)
300H/400H
117
6.
Sadie Engelhardt
(Ventura, California)
800, mile
109
7.
Yuliya Maslouskaya
(IMG, Bradenton, Florida)
heptathlon
64
8.
*Jasmine Robinson
(North Cobb, Kennesaw, Georgia)
100H, 300H/400H
51
9.
Elise Cooper
(McDonogh, Owings Mills, Maryland)
200
50
10.
*Mia Maxwell
(Atascocita, Humble, Texas)
100, triple jump
42
11.
Anisa Bowen-Fontenot
(San Diego, California)
100H
22
12.
*Sydney Sutton
(Bullis, Potomac, Maryland)
400, 300H/400H
21
13.
Emmry Ross
(Onsted, Michigan)
800
18
14.
**Paige Sheppard
(Union Catholic, Scotch Plains, New Jersey)
800, mile
15
15.
Destini Smith
(Area, Souderton, Pennsylvania)
triple jump
5
Click here to see our complete list of girls AOYs, starting with â€77.
She told interviewer Elise Cranny after the win, “I was just running out there with Christ today and had strength beyond myself.â€
Later she added, “I was really running inspired today, happy to be out there healthy.â€
On the track, Hedengrenâ€s â€25 dominance was nothing short of jaw-dropping. Her season started indoors, with an oversized-track 1600 of 4:36.23 at 1380m of altitude in Kearns, Utah. Two weeks later she won the 3200 at the Simplot Games in 10:33.31 (altitude 1361).
Then came Nike Indoor Nationals. On Thursday she obliterated the prep record for 5000, her 15:13.26 slashing more than 15 seconds off the best ever. Then two days later she ran the mile, her 4:26.14 taking down a Mary Cain HSR by more than 2 seconds.
In April Hedengren ran the 2-mile at Arcadia, producing a 9:34.12 that cut 7.64 from the High School Record. Five days later she raced some of the top collegians in a 5000 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. She didnâ€t hesitate to lead mid-race and finished 3rd behind Pamela Kosgei, who would later win the NCAA 5/10K double for New Mexico, and Lexi Halladay-Lowry, the eventual USATF steeple champ, Her time was a barrier-breaking 14:57.93, a HSR by more than 27 seconds.
In early May, Hedengren ran a 2:05.96/4:32.61 double at a high school invitational in Provoâ€s altitude. She returned to that track mid-month for the Utah state championships, taking the 3200 in 9:48.73 and coming back for 2nd behind teammate Lily Alder in the 800 in 2:08.49 (her only loss to a prep). In her last race for Timpview, she lost her shoe after taking the stick on the third leg of the 4×4 but brought her team from 4th to 1st.
Then came the big post-season races. On June 5, she topped a pro field at the HOKA Festival of Miles. Her 4:23.50 demolished the prep record and took the world lead. Her en route 1500 of 4:04.68 missed the HSR by a mere 0.06.
Three days later at the Brooks PR meet, ramping up her speed as the race progressed, she crushed 2 miles in an astonishing 9:17.75, taking 16+ seconds off her own HSR and hitting a HSR 8:40.99 for 3000 en route. That left just one race, the 3000 at Nike Outdoor Nationals. She won by more than 40 seconds with her HSR 8:40.03. When the dust had settled on the season, she owned every prep standard from the mile to the 5000. She also had broken the American Junior (U20) records for those distances.
Her high school coach, Jamie Ribeira, said in a Nike promotional video, “Seeing her against the best runners in the nation, girls that are having full-ride(s), NIL deals, huge scholarships, and she is blowing them out of the water. She has done everything she needed to prove that she is the best at every distance…
“Jane has had one of the best and most historic high school careers in history and sheâ€s just getting started…. I think most people who are involved in sports would say it takes three elements to be elite in any sport. You have to have an incredible genetic makeup, you have to have an incredible mental capacity and an incredible work ethic. And Jane has all three of those to 100%.â€
Said Hedengren in the same video, “I like to think that the race is often won before the gun even goes off. Itâ€s the preparation in the months prior… I just love the process of the work and what goes into an event. Thatâ€s really exciting, being able to work up to something and want to show out on the day.â€
An obvious recruit to BYU, which has been the family school of choice to date (the campus sits some 2 miles from Timpview High), Hedengren figured to be a key cog in the future for the program that won the NCAA title last fall under coach Diljeet Taylor.
Said Taylor on a BYU talk show, “Weâ€re just going to have to find a place for her and sheâ€s going to have to figure out what that looks like and feels like and itâ€s going to be very different than being on a high school team… I want to be sensitive about making sure that we do the very best we can for Jane while doing the very best we can for the team.â€
Hedengrenâ€s debut collegiate race more than exceeded expectations, establishing her as an immediate force in the NCAA. At the Pre-Nationals on Missouriâ€s Gans Creek course, she stormed to 18:42.3 for 6K, cutting more than 24 seconds from the course record.
Hedengren, who is not doing interviews this season — and did not do them during her senior track season — was quoted in a BYU release as saying, “I am excited to keep working with the women. It has been a privilege to be on this team and get to work with the amazing staff, coaches and all that support the program and school. Iâ€m looking forward to all the years ahead of being a Cougar.â€
Jeff Hollobaugh is a writer and stat geek who has been associated with T&FN in various capacities since 1987. He is the author of How To Race The Mile. He lives in Michigan where he can often be found announcing track meets in bad weather.
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