RENTON, WASHINGTON, June 08 — Just 3 days after her most recent rewrite to the prep recordbook at the HOKA Festival of Miles, Jane Hedengren made history again in dazzling fashion, this time over 8 laps.
Hedengren, the senior from Provo, Utah who last week demolished the mile record with her 4:23.50, this time crushed a solid field of some of the nation’s best with a nearly unbelievable 9:17.75 in the 2M. Running in the first high school elite race of the day, Hedengren quickly left her opponents behind, covering the first circuit in 71.86. That’s for 418.68m, as the differential from 3200 to 2M all came on lap one; figure about a 68.7 clip. Laps of 70.09, 69.90 and 69.32 brought her through the mile-plus mark in 4:41.17. That gave her a 20-plus-seconds lead over New Yorker Zariel Macchia.
Moving like an unstoppable force, Hedengren never had an off lap. She covered the next few 400s in 69.98, 69.90, and 69.04. Then, with her lead an astonishing 200m-plus, she finished off her effort with a 67.66.
“I knew I just had to grind it in,” Hedengren said. “I think I was in a good spot to go sub-9:20.” Her 9:17.75 cut more than 16 seconds off the 9:34.12 standard she set at Arcadia 2 months ago and also makes her the No. 8 American of all-time. She won by nearly 40 seconds over California’s Rylee Blade (9:57.10).
On the way, she passed 3000 in 8:40.99 for another HSR; that also shattered the previous American U20 best 8:54.18 that NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy ran indoors in ’21.
While records lists tend not to forget about the obscure 2000m, It’s likely Hedengren will also get credit of sorts for her achievement at that obscure distance, as she passed 2018m in 5:51.15, significantly faster than any other American teen has run for 2K.
“I knew I was in a good spot, training’s been going well,” Hedengren said. “The sky’s the limit. I was just trying to see what that was today.”
The girls 800 produced a more surprising victor, as undefeated national leader Emmry Ross was upended by New Jersey soph Paige Sheppard, who came in with a 2:03.84 best. Ross went out hard, her usual MO, and had a 9-meter lead at 400 (58.02). Sheppard, meanwhile, was well back in 7th at 61.08. At 600, Ross still maintained her lead as she passed in 1:29.9, while Sheppard moved up through the pack. She charged after the Michigander on the final turn, passing Ross with 100 left and taking the win in a soph-class record 2:01.50 as Ross ran 2:02.83.
“There was definitely a lot left,” said Sheppard. “I felt like I could do another lap.”
The girls mile went to Hedengren’s junior teammate Lily Alder, who took command before 800 and produced a 65.44 final lap for a 4:37.35 win over Tennessee’s Claire Stegall (4:38.45). Just a quarter-hour before in a middle-schoolers mile, 7th-grader Susan Hedengren, younger sister of you-know-who, had placed 5th in 4:57.67 to set up another family finishline celebration. The winner of that race was South Dakota’s Brianna Reilly, also a 7th-grader, in 4:47.96.
The most notable of the sprints came from Mia Maxwell, who blitzed an 11.04 in the 100 with a 1.2 wind at her back. That matched her winning time at the Texas 6A meet that made her No. 6 all-time among preps. It was her first 100 race since middle school against her twin, Mariah, who hit a PR 11.28. The runner-up had concentrated on the 200 for her school, winning the Texas title in that event at 22.93.
BROOKS GIRLS RESULTS
100(1.2): 1. *Mia Maxwell (Humble TX) 11.04 =PR (=6, =9 HS; =12 x AJ); 2. *Mariah Maxwell (Humble) 11.28; 3. Taylor Nunez (Universal City TX) 11.44; 4. Ryan Jennings (Erial NJ) 11.44; 5. Kylah Woods (Missouri City TX) 11.45; 6. Keelan Wright (Temecula CA) 11.51.
400: 1. *Natalie Dumas (Voorhees NJ) 52.40; 2. *Maddison Brister-Wesley (Grovetown GA) 52.89; 3. *Angel Brefo (Midlothian TX) 52.90; 4. *Ashtyn Lewis (Iowa Colony TX) 53.27; 5. Kinzlee Riddle (Herriman UT) 53.57.
800: 1. **Paige Sheppard (Scotch Plains NJ) 2:01.50 (soph class record—old 2:02.26 Sophia Gorriaran [Brown Prep, Providence, Rhode Island] ’21); 2. Emmry Ross (Onsted MI) 2:02.83; 3. Oluwatosin Awoleye (Austell GA) 2:03.99; 4. Elyse Wilmes (Columbia MO) 2:04.42; 5. Makenna Herbst (Carlsbad CA) 2:04.50; 6. Clemmie Lilley (Rumson NJ) 2:04.76.
Mile: 1. *Lily Alder (Provo UT) 4:37.35 (4:20.60); 2. Claire Stegall (Nolensville TN) 4:38.45 (4:20.46); 3. Sophia Bendet (Universal City TX) 4:41.82 (4:23.38); 4. Alexa Matora (Kirkland WA) 4:44.40 (4:25.82); 5. ***Elin Latta (South Texas) 4:44.82 (4:25.71); 6. **Sophia Thompson (Scotch Plains NJ) 4:49.28.
2M: 1. Jane Hedengren (Provo UT) 9:17.75 HSR, AJR (old records 9:34.12 Hedengren ’25) (8:40.99 HSR, AJR—old records 8:54.6 Hedengren ’25) (8, x A)
(71.86, 70.09 [2:21.95], 69.90 [3:31.85], 69.32 [4:41.17], 69.98 [5:51.15], 69.90 [7:01.05], 69.04 [8:10.09], 67.66);
2. Rylee Blade (Corona CA) 9:57.10 (9:20.62); 3. Hanne Thomsen (Santa Rosa CA) 10:00.41 (9:22.19); 4. Chloe Huyler (Lake Oswego OR) 10:01.07 (9:22.29); 5. **Sophia Rodriguez (Mercer Island WA) 10:07.83 (9:27.66); 6. *Addy Ritzenhein (Niwot CO) 10:08.87 (9:26.63); 7. *Calysta Garmer (Knoxville TN) 10:10.92 (9:28.70).
100H(-0.3): 1. Anisa Bowen-Fontenot (San Diego CA) 13.19; 2. *Jasmine Robinson (Kennesaw GA) 13.23; 3. Taylor Cox (Scotch Plains) 13.39; 4. Kyndall Spain (St Louis MO) 13.42; 5. *Rebekah-Jhade Garre (Phoenix AZ) 13.45.
