SHE ONLY RACED three times this winter, in two meets, but the quality of Jane Hedengren’s indoor season far surpassed the quantity. After producing the second-fastest 3200/2M of all-time (at altitude, no less), Hedengren (Timpview, Provo, Utah) lit up the Nike Indoor Nationals at NYC’s Armory with prep records in the mile and 5000.
Indoor track isn’t an official sport in the Beehive State, so Hedengren headed to Idaho to open her mini-season at the Simplot Games in Pocatello on February 22. There, at an elevation of 1357 meters (c4450 feet), she covered 3200 meters in 9:37.50. That puts her No. 2 on the absolute all-time lists behind Mary Cain’s 9:38.68 indoors for 2 miles in 2013.
“Good information and feedback from this race,” she told DyeStat at the time. “I’m looking forward to building on this.”
And indeed she did. On March 13, on the opening night of the Nike Indoor Nationals, she won the 5000 (her first ever on the track) in 15:13.26, chopping almost 12 seconds off the previous absolute HSR (Elizabeth Leachman’s outdoor 15:25.27 from last year) and more than 7 seconds off the U.S. U20 record of Wisconsin’s Sarah Disanza (15:20.57 indoors in ’14).
She was pushed all the way by Rylee Blade (Santiago, Corona, California), who briefly took the lead with four laps to go and finished 2nd in 15:16.72, also well under the previous records.
“From the beginning I felt pretty rhythmic, but just trying to stay patient through that race,” Hedengren told National Scholastic Foundation content manager, and T&FN correspondent, Ricky Quintana. “I think I executed it well with what the plan my coach and I had coming in, which was to stay very patient through that first 2 miles because sometimes … I go out hot and then I like am just trying to hang on for dear life. So we were like, let’s just chill a little bit and like come through maybe 4:55 or so and just keep clicking off those laps because there’s quite a few in this 5K.”
Such is her talent that an opening mile in 4:55 is considered “chill,” and sure enough, she followed that plan perfectly, with 1600 splits of 4:54.08, 4:55.88 and 4:49.97 before closing in 33.33 for the final lap.
Hedengren was back on the Armory’s blue oval three days later for the mile, bolting to the front immediately. This time there were no challengers, and the race essentially became a glorified time trial. She crossed the line in 4:26.14, winning by more than 14 seconds and improving on the 4:27.97 indoor prep record run by Sadie Engelhardt (Ventura, California) at February’s Millrose Games. It was also another absolute HSR, toppling the converted value of Addy Wiley’s outdoor 4:26.16 for 1600 meters in ’22. (Hedengren also split 4:07.68 at the 1500 mark, which is also an indoor HSR.)
“I was just trying to go out fast because I didn’t want to be having to make up in those later laps,” she told Quintana. “That was my plan coming in. I wanted to go out fast and hopefully hold it. And just really focus on my form and driving it home and competing.”
She wasn’t specifically aiming for the record as much as trying to find her own limit. “The plan for me usually isn’t [that] I wanna hit these certain splits, but rather this is the rhythm I want to feel in my legs, this is how a mile looks and feels and hurts,” she said. “And that last 400, you can’t really feel your legs… I haven’t run that fast in the mile before, so I was just going out fast and seeing how long I could hold on, and if I blew up I would’ve been OK with that because I wanted to just really see where that mark was that I could hit.” (Continued below)
Hedengren had, of course, already established herself as one of the top distance runners in the country. As a sophomore in ’23 she won the Brooks PR mile in 4:35.69, followed by the Nike Outdoor 2-mile title in 9:54.38 (a class record). In her junior year she finished 2nd to Leachman in the Nike Indoor 2 mile in 9:49.45, then during the outdoor season she lowered her PR to 9:48.77 (No. 7 all-time) behind Allie Zealand at Brooks. She finished the spring with a Nike Outdoor win in the mile (4:38.50). (She also boasts an 800 PR of 2:07.85, set while winning her second consecutive state title in the event last May.)
Coming into her senior season last fall, Hedengren dealt with a series of health issues that had her struggling in workouts. “It was very challenging. Like I was feeling horrible for a span of months. I didn’t know what was happening and it was frustrating at times,” she said. “But I just had to come back into myself [for] some reflection and mindfulness and be like, OK, let’s gain some perspective here: It’s only been a few months. Like it’s weird that you feel terrible, but I was confident that things would be OK regardless of the outcomes and that I just needed to continue to be patient and endure through those rougher times.”
As the cross country season picked up, she started feeling better and eventually rallied in time to score her third straight Utah 5A harrier championship before winning the Nike Cross Nationals by 40 seconds — a spectacular performance in the rain against top competition, Hedengren’s time bettered Katelyn Tuohy’s NXN course record by 5 seconds.
She’ll stay in Provo for college, having committed to nearby BYU, where she is set to join Diljeet Taylor’s impressive roster of distance stars. But first Hedengren hopes to finish off her high school career with more fireworks. She plans to continue entering prep races (including the Arcadia and BYU invitationals as well as Nike Outdoors) but looks to test herself against older competition, including at April’s Bryan Clay Invitational, where she will line up in the 5000.
