^ did she not run 5k XC in 16:55 her sophomore year.
That doesn't change the fact that her 3200 PR was 10:35 just 2 months ago, and now she is the national record holder in the 2 mile, which is insane. That's never happened before. Not even close.
Fitting to see her celebrating with Parker Valby at the finish line... two ultra-aggressive frontrunners who the fans can't get enough of. Amazing race!
^ did she not run 5k XC in 16:55 her sophomore year.
That doesn't change the fact that her 3200 PR was 10:35 just 2 months ago, and now she is the national record holder in the 2 mile, which is insane. That's never happened before. Not even close.
That’s fair.
I’ve been following Zang & Sophia Szolosi of Athens, Ohio who was also in this race & finished 9th in 10:11.
Zang always had the talent and I’m not that surprised that she did this. The only reason that Szolosi was consistently better than Zang is because she didn’t have the injury issues. Szolosi is also going to be 9:50 or better this spring.
I still can’t believe that Henes missed out on Zang. The only thing I can think is that Laurie thought she had too much “personality” for the team.
That doesn't change the fact that her 3200 PR was 10:35 just 2 months ago, and now she is the national record holder in the 2 mile, which is insane. That's never happened before. Not even close.
That’s fair.
I’ve been following Zang & Sophia Szolosi of Athens, Ohio who was also in this race & finished 9th in 10:11.
Zang always had the talent and I’m not that surprised that she did this. The only reason that Szolosi was consistently better than Zang is because she didn’t have the injury issues. Szolosi is also going to be 9:50 or better this spring.
I still can’t believe that Henes missed out on Zang. The only thing I can think is that Laurie thought she had too much “personality” for the team.
Zang's personality wasn't the issue. Zang choose her college last spring when she was still a 10:35 girl. Do you have any idea how far down the list a 10:35 girl is?
Henes looks for girls who are top 10 in the country in the 1600, 3200, 5k and/or cross country. Zang wasn't even in the ballpark of being top 10 in the country until last week.
Zang's speed rating in xc was:
9th grade - not ranked
10th grade - not ranked
11th grade - 80th
12th grade - 72nd
Evan megastar Sadie Engelhardt was only the 5th best runner on the NC State xc team this past fall. A 10:35 3200 girl wouldn't even be close to making NC State's top 7.
In any case, I have no idea if Zang will spend 4 years at Indiana University. She is a hot commodity right now. She could still end up at some other college, like NC State for example, either fall 2026 or fall 2027. When you run faster than Mary Cain and Jane Hedengren, every college coach in the country all of a sudden would be happy to have you on their team.
I am trying to make sense out of this performance!
I could not locate anything to suggest this performance was remotely possible. This is taking into account the things I don't know much about like injuries. Her mile split would have put her next Jane Hedengren in this race last year. Btw, finally getting healthy means being able to compete at your baseline, not perform magnitudes better than you ever have. Also, coming back from injury means getting better and better each time you race. Knowing that, Zang, should have a performance at least in the 9:50s somewhere leading up to this race -or it means she is just getting started and will run in the 9:30s in her next race. With all of that said, great performances always leave you scratching your head...that's what makes them.
I’ve been following Zang & Sophia Szolosi of Athens, Ohio who was also in this race & finished 9th in 10:11.
Zang always had the talent and I’m not that surprised that she did this. The only reason that Szolosi was consistently better than Zang is because she didn’t have the injury issues. Szolosi is also going to be 9:50 or better this spring.
I still can’t believe that Henes missed out on Zang. The only thing I can think is that Laurie thought she had too much “personality” for the team.
Zang's personality wasn't the issue. Zang choose her college last spring when she was still a 10:35 girl. Do you have any idea how far down the list a 10:35 girl is?
Henes looks for girls who are top 10 in the country in the 1600, 3200, 5k and/or cross country. Zang wasn't even in the ballpark of being top 10 in the country until last week.
Zang's speed rating in xc was:
9th grade - not ranked
10th grade - not ranked
11th grade - 80th
12th grade - 72nd
Evan megastar Sadie Engelhardt was only the 5th best runner on the NC State xc team this past fall. A 10:35 3200 girl wouldn't even be close to making NC State's top 7.
In any case, I have no idea if Zang will spend 4 years at Indiana University. She is a hot commodity right now. She could still end up at some other college, like NC State for example, either fall 2026 or fall 2027. When you run faster than Mary Cain and Jane Hedengren, every college coach in the country all of a sudden would be happy to have you on their team.
Some of the best Ohio girls to go to NC State recently weren’t in the top 10 in any of those events in high school either. Look at Clairmonte, Bush, Seymour, Hartman, Scheffler, and Chapman coming in next year. None of them were ever close to the top 10 in any of those events though they were all damn tough & gritty.
I am trying to make sense out of this performance!
I could not locate anything to suggest this performance was remotely possible.
You couldn't find anything to suggest that Katy Zang's performances the past 2 weeks were remotely possible because I already looked and there isn't anything to find. Her 9:42 3200 and her 9:37 2 mile came out of nowhere.
Cain - Made the finals of the World Championships as a 17 year old. Katy Zang is faster.
Leachman - Only girl to ever qualify for the Olympics Trials in the 5k. Katy Zang is faster.
Touhy - Only girl to ever win NXN 3 times. Katy Zang is faster.
Somehow a girl that many track fans didn't even know existed until last week just ran a faster indoor 2 mile than Hedengren, Cain, Leachman, and Touhy. It's unexplainable. That's not supposed to happen.
I just watched the Dyestat / Runnerspace interview that Katy Zang did after today's race.
She attributes her massive recent success to:
1. Avoiding injuries
2. Training harder
3. Getting better sleep
4. Improving her diet
5. Having fun
Of course, anyone who has followed track for any length of time knows that those are very basic things that lots of runners do, and not what causes someone to go from pretty good to a national record holder in an extremely short period of time. So it's still unclear what made her get so good so fast.
For XC, her freshman year she was running 5k’s in over 22 minutes. Sophomore year she dropped almost 4 minutes from that. Junior year she dropped another 2 minutes
That doesn't change the fact that her 3200 PR was 10:35 just 2 months ago, and now she is the national record holder in the 2 mile, which is insane. That's never happened before. Not even close.
That’s fair.
I’ve been following Zang & Sophia Szolosi of Athens, Ohio who was also in this race & finished 9th in 10:11.
Zang always had the talent and I’m not that surprised that she did this. The only reason that Szolosi was consistently better than Zang is because she didn’t have the injury issues. Szolosi is also going to be 9:50 or better this spring.
I still can’t believe that Henes missed out on Zang. The only thing I can think is that Laurie thought she had too much “personality” for the team.
Katy has only qualified for 2 Ohio State meets in her entire career. She was 30th this year in XC and 5th in the 3200 last year. I’m sure no big time D1 school offered her anything. Indiana hit the lottery signing her. I’ll bet she didn’t even get much money from Indiana. This is the coolest story I’ve ever witnessed. This much improvement from a senior….a one-time All-Ohio performer in her first 3 years…to the fastest 2 miler in indoor history…is unprecedented.
I just watched the Dyestat / Runnerspace interview that Katy Zang did after today's race.
She attributes her massive recent success to:
1. Avoiding injuries
2. Training harder
3. Getting better sleep
4. Improving her diet
5. Having fun
6. Improvement in her mental health
🎯
She probably cross trains more than anyone else I’ve ever met or seen, and her racing style is unique in the idea that it looks like she’s just taking it out and hoping her body can adapt to going out that hard. If you go watch the outdoor state meet 3200 replay from last spring it’ll make sense.
Obviously as the saying goes for some, “you know you’ve made it in the running world when people on letsrun think you’re doping for being fast.” As much as I do believe that some of the top stars (all levels) are on some sort of performance enhancer; Zang will be one of the very few that I’m confident in that is not on such nor intends on. Think it just took her time to click past injuries and now it’s clicked. Not the first time I’ve seen someone put up consistent breakout performances, relatively speaking.
I am trying to make sense out of this performance!
I could not locate anything to suggest this performance was remotely possible. .
This is still needs time to process. This was Mary Cain stuff, without the buildup that Cain had when she set that record in a race running with pros at the time. Cain had already been a known outstanding talent. Few here had even heard of this current gal a month ago. wowsers
She probably cross trains more than anyone else I’ve ever met or seen, and her racing style is unique in the idea that it looks like she’s just taking it out and hoping her body can adapt to going out that hard. If you go watch the outdoor state meet 3200 replay from last spring it’ll make sense.
Obviously as the saying goes for some, “you know you’ve made it in the running world when people on letsrun think you’re doping for being fast.” As much as I do believe that some of the top stars (all levels) are on some sort of performance enhancer; Zang will be one of the very few that I’m confident in that is not on such nor intends on. Think it just took her time to click past injuries and now it’s clicked. Not the first time I’ve seen someone put up consistent breakout performances, relatively speaking.
Judging by the definition in her thin muscles of the upper back and shoulders, she appears to have a very low fat %; shredded.