Jenna Hutchins Runs 15:34 at Five and Dime To Break Katelyn Tuohy's 5000 US HS National Record

I'm pretty sure Jenna could get the Olympic Trials standard (and break the HS record) in the 10k this spring if she wanted to. But at her age, probably best to make the 3200/2mile the focus this spring.

Not Me! wrote:

rojo wrote:

You raise a very interesting point. I'd say 100% true if he was on a normal schedule.

Saw that he ran 4:05.70. Did we ever figure out why Harrison is running a mile on December 12th?

Probably because he thinks itself his best event. That's the easiest answer. It would be like Brazier running an 800. When I was that age 10k was my main, and best, event. I would certainly run one in December and did.

What do you figure he 'should' be doing. One guy suggests easy jogging. Is that the ideal? Doesn't seem Centro is 'easy jogging' this time of year, at least not up until two weeks ago.

To bad Victor Palumbo put that kid into the dirt in his sub 4 debut

astro wrote:

Tuohy's stride is perfect. When people first compared her it was to Zola Budd's stride.

If she overstrides early in races it was because she was simply running. She never used pacers or pacing aid and generally was just trying to run fast.

Hutchins stride is clipped. It does not lend itself to getting much faster. That can be adjusted but none of the top 5k runners run with such a clipped stride.

No Tuohy's stride is not perfect. She looks great on post cards, but not so great on video. Its does look nice, but no. I love to watch her race, but she will need to be more efficient early as she steps up to higher level competition. I'm a fan.

Hutchins stride is interesting. I didn't like it at first but she did get better when she got a little "tired" and was forced to become more efficient. And she is still a kid and learning.

Clearly a fast leg rate isn't terrible in a runner

LOLL. You just gave as example one of the worst dopers in track history.

From Runners World:

Hutchins credits much of her incredible year to her work with her coach, Joan Hunter, who is the mother of pro runner Drew Hunter. The two were connected this year by pro running agent Ray Flynn, who is a family friend. In preparation, Hutchins also worked with Julie Stackhouse, a running coach who has worked with Hutchins on improving her strength and conditioning this season.

“I started working with Joan at the beginning of my sophomore season, and she learned my personality and we experimented with some workouts and found what worked best for me,” Hutchins told Runner’s World. “This past season, we started working on strength training, and working with Julie, I’ve worked on more running dynamics along with more weights and mobility. It’s made a huge difference.”

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a34962671/jenna-hutchins-u20-5k-record/

This was my impression. The vast majority of high school runners work with their high school coaches, run the normal slate of races, are not running special invitationals with pacers and pacer lights, etc. Hutchins however is working with two professional coaches and is running with all the trappings that the typical high school runner does not bother with. Tuohy ran in paced race once her entire high school career, and that at the Dr. Sanders with much faster runners, and never sought out a special invitational race specifically to break records. She was just a normal high school runner with an immense amount of talent and that is all she cared about being. If she had been working with Salazar or someone like that I would not have been as much of a fan. It is professionalizing high school running in a way. Runners in high school sports with professional coaches seems off and perhaps privileged, although it certainly happens. I have had family members do it in other competitive sports, but in those it was more of the norm. In high school running it didn't work out for Cain that well. But as always, how knows? Do other high school runners typically work with professional coaches and I did not know about it?

The Flotrack podcast today talked about her making the trials in the 5k or 10k and maybe going pro if she gets there. That seems pretty likely with her trajectory. If she can get into a race at Stanford where several women run 15:10-15:15, the sky is the limit for her.

Coach Hunter is the obvious choice to be working with. She has experience with her own son taking the professional path.

What high schoolers run the 10K?

Running in the trials is all well an good but it accomplishes little if you get there and get outclassed. Right before Covid there was talk about Tuohy running a pro 5000m in Boston. She wisely decided to get off the merry-go-round and enjoy becoming a college runner. Even if she ran 15:10 which in high school is a very tall and frankly unrealistic order half the field was beating it and three runners went sub-15. What would that have proven?

Now Hutchins never had the type of notoriety Tuohy achieved and never had stories in the NY Times about her doomed future. But a bit of realism would be very helpful. When Tuohy set the 5000m record she did it in a regular high school race on a slower 200m track without pacers and pacing help at all running the first two miles at kamikaze pace and breaking the existing record by almost 20 seconds to the point where she did not have to kick for it at all. Even there if she went in actually targeting a lower record such as 15:35 there is no reason to think that she would not have had a damn good shot at it even soloing on that track with all that traffic. All it would have taken is a bit more care with her splits and a specific target to kick for. Now place her on a 400m track with a pacer (it matters significantly), no interference, a pacing light and with a preplanned goal to run below 15:34 and there is no reason to think that would not have happened. Her last two xc races in 2017 had SRs of 172 and she was approaching a season where she would run up to 177. But it is impossible to target a record before it is first set and she never ran the 5000m again.

The 5000m record is obviously a great accomplishment but you are doing Hutchins no favors by wanting a high school distance runner to get a participation badge in the Olympic trials assuming she would be able to make it. She is a terrific talent and deserves recognition as a great high school runner but she is not better than other recent high school greats. And she still would get outclassed at the trials no matter what.

And btw yes and for last time Runninglane is a very fast course. Everyone including the course designers said so. That is why her run SRed to 166. And why the second place runner in her race PRed by over 40 than ran over a minute slower at AAU. If she has a season like Tuohy's junior year than you can start waxing about future greatness. Hopefully with the knowledge that nothing is guaranteed in this sport and your guess is as good as mine where it ends.

Hutchins and Tuohy have posted amazing 5000 meter times for hs, but a better indicator of their true potential as elite distance runners would be to know what they can run for the 400m and 800 m if they tried. The under weight girls with amazing aerobic motors tend to fade fast during or soon after hs for all of the reasons stated in other posts. If you look back at our top 5000 meter runners when they were in high school, their sprint and middle distance times often suggest a level of maturity, strength and speed that is a more reliable indicator of sustained progression and future success. For example, Houlihan ran 55.5 and 2:07 in hs, Rowbury ran 2:08, Cranny ran 58 and 2:04. I could not find these times for Huddle or Flanagan. Schweizer is a bit of an anomaly, but she did run 2:12 for 800 m. All of these athletes did not run much better than 17:00 for 5k in hs, if that. I see that Hutchins has run a 61.3 400 m . Can she do better?

I don't think that factor is any more likely to be predictive of future success. In 2014, Mary Cain was a high school senior who was a professional runner with a 1:59 800. She burned out as quickly as less elite runners who had much slower times. Also in 2014, an Iowa girl much faster than Schweizer named, Stephanie Jenks, ran the second fastest 3000 time in the country. She was a 4 time NXN qualifier and 3 time Footlocker qualifier and finished 3rd in the Dream Mile. She ran 2:09 in HS. She never ran one college race at Cal. On the flip side, Molly Seidel is the only American to win Footlocker and the NCAA XC titles. She may be the about the smallest winner ever. She only ran 2:22 in the 800 in high school and still can't break 65 in the 400. But she qualified for Olympics. I don't think high school sprint speed indicates future distance success.

Does anyone know if the track they used at Columbia International University was measured to be used with or without a curb?

What is your complete obsession with Tuohy. It's extremely creepy.

Great high school athlete who was a complete team runner. And a good point of comparison. You comment is particularly laughable given that this is a thread created to focus on another high school athlete. Creepy?

Anyway once you get to the pros the sport goes down the toilet.

Pro speed in the 5000 is a function of cadence and stride length. Just look at the WR holder (hopefully she is OK). High cadence/short stride may not be sustainable for a good pro career. Short term vs long term.

But Hutchins wiped out Tuohy's records at only 16 years old. She even wiped out the US Junior record meaning she is faster than any American ever at less than 20 years old. Many of those women were in college running high mileage with pacers at high level meets. None of those details matter though. The record books don't care about what other people could have done, only what people accomplished. I am rooting for her to smash the US Junior 10k time and go to the trials and go pro. If she makes the trials, I predict that she will get a Drew Hunter type contract which will be hard to pass up. But part of me wants her to stick around for her senior year in order to set records that will be unbeatable for a very long time.

Racewalk to Obscurity wrote:

But Hutchins wiped out Tuohy's records at only 16 years old. She even wiped out the US Junior record meaning she is faster than any American ever at less than 20 years old. Many of those women were in college running high mileage with pacers at high level meets. None of those details matter though. The record books don't care about what other people could have done, only what people accomplished. I am rooting for her to smash the US Junior 10k time and go to the trials and go pro. If she makes the trials, I predict that she will get a Drew Hunter type contract which will be hard to pass up. But part of me wants her to stick around for her senior year in order to set records that will be unbeatable for a very long time.

That is just terrible advice. Going pro out of high school is never a good idea for distance runners. They need to go to the NCAA and learn to race against runners that are as good or better than they are.

Funny then that all of the top distance runners in the world, male and female, skipped college.