Jane Hedengren won the women’s 5000-meter race at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 13, clocking a time of 15:00.12 at Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The BYU freshman finished more than three seconds ahead of Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, who was the defending champion.
Hedengren’s victory marks her first NCAA title and sets a new facility record. She led for the final 4400 meters and closed with a final lap of 64.43 seconds. With this win, she also earned First Team All-America honors. This is BYU’s first indoor individual national title since Courtney Wayment won the same event in 2022.
The BYU distance medley relay team—Taylor Rohatinsky, Sami Oblad, Tessa Buswell, and Jacey Harkins-Farmer—finished sixth to earn First Team All-America honors with a time of 10:52.14. Rohatinsky started with a split of 3:22.09 in the 1200 meters, followed by Oblad’s 53.70 in the 400 meters, Buswell’s fastest-in-field 800 meters at 2:03.12, and Harkins-Farmer anchoring with a closing leg of 4:33.24 in the mile.
Zoey Bonds placed tenth in the pentathlon to earn Second Team All-America honors after scoring a total of 4,100 points. Bonds took second place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.25 seconds and finished seventh in the high jump by clearing a height of 1.72 meters (5-7.75).
Riley Chamberlain qualified for Saturday’s mile final after running a time of 4:28.96 as NCAA No.1 miler, while Oblad earned Second Team All-America honors by finishing twelfth in preliminaries with a time of 51.88 seconds.
BYU currently sits fourth overall with thirteen points behind Illinois (thirty), Oregon (twenty), and Florida (fourteen). The Cougars will return for the final day of competition on Saturday, March 14, where Chamberlain will compete in both the mile final and join Hedengren and Jenna Hutchins in the women’s 3000-meter race.
