BYU's Superstar Freshman Has A Chance To Win Individual And Team Championships At Gans Creek; Defending Champion Doris Lemnogole Of Alabama, No. 1 North Carolina State Have Other Ideas

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Photos by Will Nelson and Tavan Smith

One year ago this week, Jane Hedengren was getting set for Nike Cross Regionals Southwest, and in some ways, it touched off an incredible year of athletic achievements for the BYU freshman. 

Hedengren ran 15:50 for 5,000 meters that day at Toka Sticks Golf Course and it was topic of considerable conversation in the afternoon following the race: What could Hedengren have done at NCAA's today in Madison?

What followed, obviously, was a course-record tour of Nike Cross Nationals and a string of record-breaking track performances that spanned the indoor and outdoor seasons. 

Hedengren, who grew up in Provo, Utah and attended Timpview High, made what appears to have been a seamless transition to life, and running, at Brigham Young University. 

In three meets so far, Hedengren has dominated fields at Pre-Nationals, the Big 12 Championships and the Mountain regional. Last Friday in Salt Lake City, she defeated New Mexico's Pamela Kosgei, the NCAA 5,000 and 10,000 champion, by 42 seconds. 

Head-spinning stuff, yes, but that's the qualify she has shown for an entire year. 

On Saturday at Gans Creek Course in Columbia, Mo., Hedengren gets another opportunity to show what she can do. 

It might be a much tougher contest. Kosgei, after all, may have decided to hold her spot and simply qualify for nationals. 

Defending champion Doris Lemngole of Alabama is also looking to make some history of her own.  She can become the first back-to-back winner of the NCAA women's cross country title since Sheila Reid of Villanova in 2010-11. 

Lemngole, 23, placed fifth in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase in Tokyo at the World Championships in September after becoming the first collegiate woman to break the 9-minute barrier in June at the NCAA Championships. 

She entered the cross country season at the SEC Championships, which she won, and then rolled to a time of 18:43.8 for 6 kilometers at the NCAA South regional. 

Last year, Lemngole ran 19:21.0 on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis., defeating Kosgei by nearly seven seconds and third-place finisher Hilda Olemomoi of Florida by eight. 

The top five from last year's race are all back. Amy Bunnage of Stanford was fourth and Grace Hartman of N.C. State was fifth. 

North Carolina State, which won the NCAA team title in 2021, 2022 and 2023, moved to No. 1 in the latest (and final) coaches' poll. The Wolfpack jumped ahead of BYU, which lost to New Mexico last Friday in the Mountain Regional. 

N.C. State's lineup includes Hartman, World steeplechase finalist and ninth-place finisher Angelina Napoleon, Hannah Gapes, Bethany Michalak and freshman Sadie Engelhardt. 

BYU's top five at the Big 12 meet were Hedengren, Riley Chamberlain, Nelah Roberts, Taylor Lovell and Zariel Macchia. Of that group, only Chamberlain was on the championship team last year. 

The team battle between the reigning champion Cougars and N.C. State figures to be every bit as gripping as the individual race. In addition to those two, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 New Mexico, No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 6 Oregon are all hopeful of putting together a winning combination on Saturday.