Hasay earns national Athlete of the Year honors

Most distance runners' seasons are characterized by peaks and valleys.

Jordan Hasay's 2008 track and field season had no valleys.

The Arroyo Grande resident and Mission Prep senior-to-be didn't lose a track race her junior year. Afterward she successfully defended her USATF Junior Nationals girls 1,500 meters title, set the prep girls national record at that distance with a 4:14.50 in the semi-finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials at the University of Oregon, then became the highest finishing U.S. girl ever in a 1,500 at the IAAF World Junior Championships with a fourth place at Bydgoszcz, Poland a week later.

Yet another honor rolled in for Hasay this week. DyeStatCal, the prestigious national Internet running site, chose her as its Girls Athlete of the Year. Hasay added to her summer honors haul, which includes the USA Today Female Track and Field Athlete of the Year honor, and voters at DyeStatCal.com choosing her national record at the Olympic Trials as the site's Story of the Year.

Her Olympic Trials and World Juniors exploits took place in July. Has there been an August letdown for Hasay?

Forget about it.

“I'm definitely looking forward to my senior year,” Hasay said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I'm probably looking forward to it even more,” than she's looked toward the next season in the past.

“I'm just excited to get back into training. I was just kind of taking it easy for two weeks. This week I'm starting to go a little harder, up my mileage a little more. I'll go back to baby (training) steps, won't forget all the hard training that got me to where I am now.”

A big finishing kick had been the one thing missing from Hasay's repertoire. Until this past season.

Hasay's goal is a spot on the 2012 team for the London Olympics. She knows as well as anyone that Olympic distance runners typically don't win running in front wire-to-wire. “When you get to that level, you have to know how to finish,” she said.

Hasay ran down Christine Babcock in the last 100 meters to win for the third time at 3,200 meters or two miles at the renowned Arcadia Invitational in April. “After Arcadia, that kind of opened my eyes that I could out-kick people,” Hasay said. Babcock, who just graduated from Woodbridge High School in Irvine, set the national 1,500 record that Hasay broke the next month with Babcock in the same Trials heat.

“Even at the state meet when I had 100 meters to go I was kind of thinking I could do that,” Hasay said of her finishing kick. Hasay used it to hold off Laurynne Chetelat in the 3,200 at the state meet in May. Hasay won in 9:52.13 to Chetelat's 9:52.51. Both broke the old meet record.

Her kick nearly got Hasay a top three finish and a medal at the World Juniors meet. As it was, she scored points for the U.S.

Hasay passed her first test in rounds running. She made it through the preliminary round at the U.S. Trials on a Thursday, then set her national record the next night to qualify for the Sunday final.

“I'm really pleased about that,” she said. Mission Prep competes in the CIF Central Section. The Southern Section is the CIF's toughest track and field one. Hasay said, “I haven't doubled much and some people have been saying I couldn't run in the Southern Section because they have to run,” in dual meets late in the week and then often in invitationals on Saturdays.

“This shows I could if I had to.”

Hasay ran some of her fastest times early in her freshman and sophomore seasons. Not her junior year. “We definitely got the peaking down this year,” she said. “I was able to run all those 1,500s in that short a time.”

Choosing a university is coming up on Hasay's to do list. “I've spoken to people from Stanford, Oregon, Arizona State and Harvard,” she said. Hasay said those schools are on her short list of preferences, though, “I'm still open to others I haven't spoken to yet.”

Sports writer Kenny Cress can be reached at 739-2237 or by e-mail to kcress@santamariatimes.com

August 06, 2008