2 mile High School girls showdown at Brooks PR: Hedengren, Engelhardt, Ritzenhein, Blade, Macchia, (more)

I wouldn't place Huyler, Ritz, Thomsen or Daily in the "second tier". This race has the most talented group of female HS distance runners in the country who stack up well even in a historical context. This is probably the deepest 2 mile field ever, particularly if you look at past races where there were maybe 2-3 runners at this level. Here you have 7-10 truly elite runners, particularly if look at mile PRs and 2 mile PRs taken together. There is one prohibitive favorite, one likely second place finisher and then a larger group where any one of them could come in third without it being a surprise.

I see I wasn't completely accurate in my description of your second tier. That said, the point is that there is one prohibitive favorite and one possible favorite for second and the rest is very much up in the air, which is typical in any big race. Incredible talent in the race in additional to the two favorites.

If everyone is healthy, which is a big if, 3 tiers at the top.

1- Hedengren - could win by 10 seconds. 9:30s

2- Blade/Engelhardt - 9:40s

I never get the "Engelhardt is an 800/mile specialist". She just ran a full xc season, including setting the all time Woodward Park record. Unless they changed it, they run xc over 5000m.

3 - Addie Ritz plus some surprise pb runner. - 9:50s.

Ritz just lost Penn Relays 3000 to an up and coming NJ soph. Nothing in 2025 to indicate she is ready for sub 9:50 yet.

Should be an interesting race.

It turns out Hedengren and Engelhardt are facing each other in the Festival of Miles HS mile just 3 days earlier, on June 5th in St. Louis, so that helps explain why they're both entered in the 2 mile instead here.

Should be a great race for second. And always fun to see how fast Jane runs.

Respectfully disagree. Looking at actual race times this year, not perceived reputation, there is one clear favorite, one possible favorite for second and then 5-7 going for third. Throw in peaking at the right time, trying to not get a cold right before race time, remaining completely injury free, and it is anyone's race for third, possibly second.

dont sleep on the Garmers. have two sisters ever gone sub 10 in the same HS race?

I don't see the Garmers entered. Big difference racing high stakes races.

Not an accurate post. Engelhardt has been injured recently and Hedengren has been healthy. What happened a year ago is irrelevant.

Blade's 3200 PR is actually 9:50 which she ran on the way to her 15:16 5K PR. Blade also just ran an easy 9:58 in extreme heat a few days ago. Blade should be able to run well under 9:50 at Brooks. No one knows what kind of shape Engelhardt is in.

That "up and coming NJ soph" is Blair Bartlett. I thought that Bartlett might be running at Brooks PR but her coach just posted her June race schedule and New Balance was on there but Brooks wasn't.

Bartlett will be at NON, not New Balance, according to rumors.

Apparently Sadie now healthy and plans a series of races with goal of running USATF in July. First one will be Sound Running.

Not sure how fit, but healthy, training, and looking forward to race schedule.

Engelhardt will be nowhere near Hedengren after two laps.

Hedengren will be trying to break her 2 mile national record, running at sub 9:30 pace. No way Engelhardt will try to stay with Hedengren.

I think Hedengren will win and Blade and Engelhardt will be duking it out for second- Engelhardt has been pretty active on Strava with cross training and she's been running again

Macchia and Ritz will be behind them

No way is Addy in the top 3. She’ll be over 100 yds behind them.

"Yards"? Who uses yards anymore when talking about a track race?

In any case, Jane Hedengren will probably win by such a large amount that Addy Ritzenhein could be "100 yards" behind and still finish in the top 3.

When predicting, its probably helpful to look at recent race times to see who is running well versus who ran well last year. They are all elite runners and there aren ebbs and flows to all of this, including peaking at the right time. Some on this list have been running much better than other recently.