High school phenoms on the women's side do not have a particularly glorious history in the NCAA ranks. One of those obligatory letsrun posts that emerged every time someone speculated how good Jordan would be in college (when she was running great times in high school), or later how her chances were for a title (based on some of the marks that she ran in college) was that Foot Locker Girls champions simply did not replicate their success at the NCAA level. I won't profess to be a physiology expert here, but obviously there could be something going on with girls' maturity and changes to their bodies. Whatever it is, there was a fair amount of cynicism that Jordan could not take the next step in her running and become a college star.Another rub on Jordan, which had followed her since her high school days was that she did not have finishing speed and was better-suited to time trials than to races. Although she ran some fantastic times in high school, she did have a few losses in the late stages of races that led to some speculation that she could be beaten once she faced athletes of a similar caliber. In college, she ran great times and performed well at NCAA's. Oftentimes however, her last lap or the last stages of her races was what separated her from a third or fourth place finish and a championship. Much like Galen Rupp, fair or unfair, going into this year's indoor championships there was some question if Jordan had the finish to win a championship race. There also was the inevitable response to the hype she'd received since she was an age-group star, which was to assert that wasn't as good as advertised and did not have what it took to win the big one.
Those criticisms were bolstered after her first race final of the weekend, the Distance Medley.
Earlier in the day (approximately four hours before) Hasay had won her preliminary mile race in what, from a quick scan of the results, appears to be a ho-hum 4:39. However, the splits of that race (2:26/2:13) were likely reasonably taxing and the effect very well may have been felt as Hasay lined up for her second race of the day. In that race, Jordan received the baton in first place with a fresh Villanova anchor in Cross Country champion Sheila Reid less than two-tenths of a second back. The Oregon and Villanova teams had gathered decent separation from third place, and Hasay knew that the relay had now evolved into a one on one battle. Unfortunately for her, she was in the worst possible position- narrowly in first place. (*expect more on this, in my next post when I talk about everything else at NCAAs, including the men's DMR)
That might sound counterintuitive, after all Hasay's teammates tried as hard as they could to give her the lead. Surely, their 800 leg did not have the following conversation in her head: "Uh-oh I'm too far ahead- I better let everyone else catch up to me!". The reason I say it is because with minimal time advantage, the chasing runner (in this case Reid) can time exactly when to strike and in the meantime comfortably draft behind the leader. The advantage is even more pronounced in outdoors when wind (not Bekele "wind") comes into play. Hasay, meanwhile, really had no choice, but to take out her race pretty hard to try and force Reid out of her comfort zone and clinch at least second place. As Michael Coe of California learned a couple years back, being allergic to the lead and slowing the race to a crawl has its risks as it allows other teams back into the race. The separation that Oregon and Villanova had also worked to Hasay's disadvantage, as it meant that Reid didn't have to deal with any of the perils of chasing. There were no athletes to pass her, spike her, push her into lane 2, or force her into unnecessary mini-moves and battles.
Reid, thus did the smart thing and patiently ran behind Hasay who, it should be known, was running brilliantly. Hasay's PR up to that point was 4:34.75 on an oversized track. In the DMR, Hasay methodically clipped off sub 34 second 200s on the 200 meter track in her second race of the day and made Reid's job as daunting as she possibly could. However, Reid played her hunter role perfectly and seized the lead before the bell lap, forcing Jordan to exert too much energy trying to take it back. In the end, Hasay faltered a little in the last 100 meters after a failed pass on the penultimate straight. Her split? A stellar 4:30.47 in which she exclusively set the pace and ran the fastest she ever had for the 1600/mile distance. Her reaction? In the immediate short term, tears and heartfelt apologies to her Duck teammates. In the slightly longer term, an absolutely perfect second day of competition.
While the conditions were difficult for Hasay to win in the distance medley, the stars aligned themselves much more favorably for a win some twenty plus hours later in the mile. After a reasonably easy first 440 yards (70 plus with a 36 second 200), Hasay's teammate Zoe Buckman brought the pace back down to a steady 35 flat and 34 second plus tempo for the next half mile. Hasay positioned herself right on Buckman's shoulder, and was aggressive when necessary in maintaining her prime position.
Buckman, to her credit, ran intelligently from the front and slowly eased the pace down while saving a healthy amount for the last quarter mile of the race. After a 34.15 circuit in the sixth lap of the race, Buckman poured it on with a 32.28 lap. The change is speed as well as the stage of the race resulted in some havoc behind Hasay with plenty of shuffling in position. Hasay's tactics paid off and she was in the perfect spot to make her move on the backstretch with 150 meters to go. This time, Hasay was able to get by the leader and she had steady reserves once she did. I would be remiss not to note that Jordan's pass was a tad dicey. It was surely not close to grounds for a DQ, but Buckman was somewhat impeded by Hasay's pass. Judging by Buckman's fade to third place, she might have overextended herself fighting to hold off the pass by Hasay.
With Buckman and the rest of the field in her rear mirror, Jordan easily won her first national championship in a 4:33.01 personal best. Her 30.94 second last lap off of a quick pace showed that she can finish with the best of them, and her savvy race showed that she is comfortable running in the pack and taking care of her position. After the redemptive moment for the Ducks (Anne Kesselring finished fourth giving Oregon 21 big points and a 1-3-4 finish, Duke's Kate Van Buskirk was second) and Hasay, I thought there was little chance that Hasay would compete later in the day in the 3000 race in which she was entered. The big mile performance and some other good results had sewn up the team title for Oregon. Hasay had her title, and in my view seemingly very little to prove. Four races of at least a mile in a two day period is a brutal task, and to me it seemed it was not worth undergoing any longer.
A fiercely competitive Jordan Hasay had different ideas.
She appealed to her coaches to give her another shot at Reid in the 3,000. The field was stocked with a wide range of excellent athletes. Dominant 5,000 meter titlist Jackie Areson* was in the field, Lucy Van Dalen was there with a scorching 8:56 3,000, and of course a far fresher Sheila Reid was there. As the race went off, Jordan had 3 high quality efforts in her legs including a mile championship that was a mere hour and forty minutes before. Reid meanwhile had last run the night before in her distance medley triumph.
The pace in the 3000 was modest, but not overly slow. Hasay and Reid's objective was clear- to stay at the front and wait until the last two or three laps. As simple as that plan might seem, the race was completely congested with 16 athletes running within 2 seconds of eachother for the first twelve laps. At three laps to go, Hasay, Reid, and Van Dalen had successfully navigated the mine field and began to build some separation from the field. Van Dalen took the reins first at 600 to go and dropped the pace down to 34.77. Hasay struck the next lap and snatched the lead with less than two laps to go. Her second-to-last lap was a fast 31.73 and the stage was set for a blazing last 200 battle between the leading trio. This was the ultimate test for Hasay's finishing speed and her aptitude in a championship race. She was in the driver seat 200 meters from a second national championship.
In contrast, Reid found herself in the exact position that Hasay had been the night before. She needed to make the pass on the backstretch. She fought valiantly to do so, but Hasay accelerated as she did knowing it was coming, and held her off. Reid thus would have to run some extra distance to take victory in the last fifty meters. Hasay moved out ever so slightly to force Reid a little extra wide. Hasay had just enough to pull it out- capping a spectacular second day with a 30.30 last lap. Reid was a game second with a 30.31 closer of her own (much of it from the second lane), but Hasay's aggressiveness in striking for the lead earlier than Reid did paid off. Van Dalen, meanwhile could not quite contend with the other two's kicks, but was well ahead of Areson for third place a few tenths adrift of Reid and Hasay.
After watching Hasay's weekend come to a close with that exciting finale, I didn't bother to watch the obligatory interview with the triumphant two-time national champion.
All of the questions had been answered.
*I actually have met Areson. When I was a senior in high school, thanks to Charlie Krasnow I got to sit in some excellent seats (aka gold section bench space) for the Boston Indoor Games. Charlie sat on my left and there was some room next to me in our prime location. Anyhow, about an hour after the high school girls invite mile, a girl from the race sat next to me. She still had her bib on and I could read that it was Jackie Areson. As we all know, track meets have substantial dead time and I decided that I should chat her up just to see how great it was to compete in the meet and to hear about all of the stuff the meet promoters did, the pro runners she'd met and just running in general etc. I can't remember a whole lot of specifics, but she was very nice and humble. What I do remember is that she was distinctly not just happy to "be there". I don't mean that in a negative way. I mean that she'd had a poor race, and she'd wanted another shot to be more competitive and beat the same girls. She was definitely not satisfied with the "experience" and I could tell it was bugging her that she didn't run her best. Being a competitive person, this resonated with me and I'm happy to see her win her first title that should set her up well for a pro career.
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