Jane Hedengren first popped up on my radar almost three years ago, when she was just a high school sophomore.
At the time, I was covering the top prep track and field and cross-country athletes in the U.S. When I stumbled upon the Timpview (Utah) High School underclassman’s early-season cross-country performances at the top of the database rankings that fall, I had a hunch that she may be on an extraordinary trajectory.
In her first two races of the 2022 cross-country season, the Provo native destroyed a 3-mile course record at the UIAAA Invitational in Spanish Fork, Utah and won a state Pre-Region meet by 20 seconds. She not only ranked as the top sophomore in the country thanks to those performances, but she stacked up as one of the fastest high school girls in the country—regardless of grade.
But when I spoke with Hedengren on the phone for a story that fall, she didn’t talk much at all about her performances at the time. Instead, she had her sights set squarely on how she could challenge herself in the future. “The thing I love about running is how I can push myself and see what I’m capable of,” she told me for MileSplit. “I love the challenge and love how it can be hard and can learn lessons from it.”
So perhaps it’s no surprise that Hedengren has since pushed the boundaries for high school runners to new limits.
As a high school senior this school year, she rewrote the U.S. high school girls record books in the distance events. But the way she demolished them shocked even me.
Lately, Runner’s World readers can’t stop reading about Hedengren and her feats.
Just last week, she broke two high school records in the span of three days. She ran 4:23.50 to smash the mile record by nearly five seconds at Hoka Festival of Miles in St. Louis last Thursday and clocked 9:17.75 for the 2-mile record on Sunday at Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle. (And she wasn’t the only runner to run a record at Brooks PR. 16-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus took down the boys 800-meter high school record that had stood for nearly 30 years.)
To put those times into perspective, Hendengren’s mile record nearly surpasses the collegiate record set earlier this year, and her 2-mile time ranks her at No. 7 on the senior U.S. all-time list. She’s running at a level far beyond most 18-year-olds.
If you just became familiar with Hedengren and her talents this week, you’ll want to read more about the historic races she ran earlier this year.
A 14:57.93 5K at the Bryan Clay Invitational in California on April 17 made Hedengren the first U.S. high school girl to ever run under 15 minutes in the event. She also ran the mile and 5K high school indoor records in March, winning her races at Nike Indoor Nationals in 4:26.14 and 15:13.26. And we can’t forget to mention that before her incredible 9:17 performance on Sunday, Hedengren had already set the 2-mile high school record at 9:34.12 at the Arcadia Invitational in April.
Hedengren now owns American high school records across eight track events (including two en route marks), making her arguably the fastest girl to ever round the oval in U.S. prep history. She’s also won over a dozen Utah state titles and earned the coveted Nike Cross Nationals championship last December. It’s a collection of accolades that makes me think back to the days when a young Katelyn Tuohy similarly dominated the girls distance scene at the high school level. Hedengren even surpassed records set by Mary Cain back in 2013 that seemed almost untouchable.
The best part is Hedengren’s season isn’t over yet. She plans to race the 3,000 meters at Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon, on June 20. Once her high school season ends, Hedengren will join a BYU team in the fall that swept both the women’s and men’s team titles at the 2024 NCAA Cross-Country Championships in Madison, Wisconsin.
But like Hedengren told me three years ago, she doesn’t shy away from a challenge. So don’t be surprised if we’re reporting on another Hedengren record before summer’s end.
Ashley is Editor of Content Hype at Hearst’s Enthusiast & Wellness Group. She is a former collegiate runner at UNC Asheville where she studied mass communication. Ashley loves all things running; she has raced two marathons, plus has covered some of the sport’s top events in her career, including the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials and multiple World Marathon Majors.
