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…
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