Let's analyze Jane Hedengren's race

She had a good race and didn't win. That happens sometimes when you compete.

No one has any idea how much Jane will improve. Did Katelyn Tuhoy improve drastically? Improvement can never be assumed even with young phenoms.

We wanted her to be better, but reality is, she’s a freshman, Lemngole is more seasoned. let’s see what happens next year. In the mean time we should enjoy what we’re seeing.

Do we know what her current 200 or 400 top speed is? A big kick is almost a necessary weapon to have in your quiver to win at the top level these days, especially on the track, although there are examples of strength runners who have succeeded without super strong kicks, such as Jakob. I'd imagine that it will be hard for her to make huge improvements in top speed without adding some more muscle mass, but I'm curious about this.

She was only the second best 800m runner on her Timpview high school team as Lily Alder (still in high school) beat Jane in the state finals. Jane ran 2:06. She lacks any kick. Metronome runner.

She's not 15 pounds lighter ...that's insane lol

Let's compare her improvement to date vs the women she both beat and lost to in recent seasons in elite competition. Finishing position yesterday in parenthesis.

-Start with Rylee Blade (120th) who beat Jane in the Woodbridge XC Classic and is running at Florida State.

-Hanne Thomsen (102nd) who was on the podium with Jane last year and now runs at Stanford.

-Sadie Englehardt (51st) who is running at NC State.

-Allie Zealand (21st) who beat Jane at the Brooks PR Invitational 2 mile and now runs at Liberty.

Jane has massively improved at a greater rate than the elite women she beaten and lost to recently and perhaps only potential marginal gains remaining. You don't exponentially gain every season as an elite athlete. Jane's massive improvement spurt between high school and college may just leave marginal gains remaining as her ceiling.

I estimate 112 now. 122 HS

Honestly only thing I worry about with Jane is that she is riding that line of really fit or too lean. Coach Taylor is probably the best coach to help with anything that could pop up from this.

she had a great race I think we should all appreciate what we saw

I don’t see a massive improvement from HS to her college XC season. Based on the times of the people who finished not far behind her, her performance was comparable to her HS 5000m PR. People have been saying Lemngore is world class, but being so in the steeple doesn’t necessarily translate to XC. Rooks, for example, finished 35th in his one NCAA XC attempt and has a 13:27PR.

I also wouldn’t use rooks as the example because his great races are great and his bad races are bad. Also men’s and women’s steeplers compete totally different in cross. McCabe last year was a great example. I can’t even remember the top men’s steeple finisher.

There’s many other steeplers you could use as the example 😂 Napoleon at NC state being one, granted I think she’s cooked from Worlds but still gave great effort and helped her team. Doris is almost the complete package, mile speed comes into question for me but I’m sure with everything else she’s done she’s a 4:16-4:18 miler.

I'm not interested in arguing about improvement when you see two women who beat Jane in elite meets in high school who she now buries hence the results in parenthesis of yesterdays race.

Her improvement comps vs the elite women from high school show her massive improvement.

I didn't even use Leachman who has beat Jane as well in high school as she has had injury issues and is significantly younger than Jane and not even running XC this season.

Watching Hedengren run I am of the view she has certain limitations. She uses a lot of energy-expensive upper body movement when she runs - she looked to be working very hard next to the smaller Lemngole - almost labouring, and not gliding as the very best distance runners seem to do. She also appears to have only one cadence when she runs, which is determined by her extremely long legs. She probably expends quite a lot of energy, that is only enabled, I am guessing, by her exceptional aerobic capacity. She is undoubtedly a top athlete at collegiate level but none of the runners that I saw in that race - other than Lemngole - showed the form of a potential international athlete. I would be very surprised if Hedengren transitions to track at a world class level. She doesn't appear built for it or to run like the very best do.

Winning her conference and regional meets by as much as she did certainly took some pop out of her legs. Disappointed that her coach put the value of a couple course records over a national title. Jane will learn that a couple 5 second wins will give her fresher legs on the largest stage. Coach Taylor is phenomenal, but mismanaged this one. With that said, even with fresh legs, Jane still may have taken second to an "older than college age" "professional" runner.

There's always a bigger doper.

I think that might be the worst take on the situation ever. Jane's record 3 starts, 2 wins (both course records) and 2nd place at NCAA Championships with the entire field peaking for that event. One woman has beat her this season and she is world class results on the world stage. Take Doris out of the race and Jane would have broke the Gans Creek course record again despite worse conditions than when she broke it a few fortnights ago. Anyone criticizing Coach Taylor's handling so far of Jane is either naive or deserves a dunce cap. Jane has already shown massive improvement in just the several months since high school and you don't improve exponentially. She held her form and finished ahead of everyone despite going out faster beginning at 1k than she ever has in an XC race. The fact she distanced the pack for 2nd is a fantastic accomplishment and shows the coach managed her perfectly so far.

Yeah, check out the east german wulfpack.

These comments regarding Doris being “world class.” Maybe in the steeple? They didn’t run a steeple yesterday. Valby beat her 6/6 times head to head, and nobody here wants to say she’s “world class.” Doris is older than Valby. I’m sure Doris would obliterate Valby in the steeple.

Agree. She is an example of an American hs phenomenon that was/is highly motivated and healthy enough to go on a record tear that stands out in US history because its rare here to witness. Now everyone wants to compare someone just getting started with her post hs experience to older and more seasoned athletes. Rate of improvement and finding the right event(s), coach, plan to maximize performance/potential is not as linear as many here think it is. Then there's the idiots that compare her to the progress of men....good Lord.

Aside from the athletes, armchair coaches here want instant results and have no patience to celebrate a FRESHMAN pushing for a national championship which is obviously rare in itself being it hasnt happened in +/- 40 years.

I think it's pretty obvious that with her natural talents and work ethic, her best chances to succeed at the highest level is at 10k/Marathon. Combine that with good health and a lot of luck and we might get to see something special from her before she ends her running career. The fun for me as a coach and spectator is watching the process and story play out over time. Great things are worth the wait.