As Jenna Hutchins embarks on her final semester of high school, the awards are still rolling in from her sensational junior season.
Hutchins was recently named the national female cross country runner of the year by US MileSplit, and USA Today also named Hutchins as its national female cross country athlete of the year.
The BYU signee has been a standout her entire career, but last year Hutchins found another gear and rewrote the record books in the process. Last fall, Hutchins set a national record by breaking the 16-minute barrier in a cross country race.
Hutchins hasn’t lost an outdoor race in over a year and won the TSSAA state title in dominating fashion last fall before coming away victorious in the RunningLane National Championship in Alabama, where she set the national mark.
Her huge junior season caught the attention of every major cross country program in America, and Hutchins eventually settled on BYU.
The Cougars were coming off a national championship, but Hutchins said the decision had as much to do with the culture of the program as it did with BYU’s recent success on the national stage.
Hutchins will look to defend her state cross country championship this fall before embarking on her next chapter. The senior will graduate early and plans to shadow her strength coach Julie Stackhouse during the spring semester to see how she enjoys working in the exercise and wellness field before she starts taking college courses at BYU.
All that remains now is for Hutchins to write the final chapter of a running career that is unparalleled in the history of Science Hill.
