Published: Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009
Female High School Athlete of the Year Award: Hasay to learn Gatorade award fate today
Mission Prep graduate will run in Pan American Junior Championships later this month
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closeTuesday was a bit of a different travel day for Jordan Hasay. Over the past four years she’s equated long-distance car rides as the precursor to weekend meets. The former Mission Prep middle distance racing star has plenty of experience with this routine after traveling up and down the state to race. Like so many times before, Hasay again found herself traveling the California coastline, this time to Los Angeles, but something wasn’t the same. She’s not racing.
“It’s weird because we don’t normally travel to places (during racing season),” Hasay said. “We’re driving down and I’m getting nervous. I don’t have a race but being in the car, it feels like I’m racing, but I’m not.”
The destination doesn’t involve a track meet but it is race related. Hasay is one of 12 high school athletes gathering this morning at a luncheon where Gatorade will announce its Male and Female High School Athletes of the Year awards.
Fresh off another impressive cross country season, Hasay was surprised with an award ceremony at Mission Prep in late January. There she was named Gatorade’s Girls Cross County Runner of the Year, earning her a spot at today’s award ceremony and the opportunity to grace the red carpet at ESPN’s annual ESPY awards.
Hasay, who will end her racing season later this month at the Pan American Junior Championships in Trinidad and Tobago, is up against five other accomplished high school female athletes all vying for the same recognition.
“It’s definitely been quite an honor to be part of the Gatorade program, and family, you could call it,” she said. “Ever since I won the cross county award they kept in contact with me giving updates. It’s nice to be part of that.
“I go on their Web site and look at the other winners. It’s cool to be in such prestigious company and know the other athletes are at the top of their sports. Some of the things they’ve done are incredible. It’s definitely really tough competition.”
Don’t let Hasay fool you. She’s accomplished incredible feats as a cross country runner (and on the track, too).
This past winter as a senior at Mission Prep, Hasay became just the second four-time winner of the CIF State Cross Country Championships. Then, she became the first runner to win four Foot Locker West Regional titles.
She rolled right through December, becoming the sixth two-time champion at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships. She won the national title as a freshman in 2005.
Gatorade wasn’t the first or last to shower Hasay with national accolades.
She was named the Girls High School Athlete of the Year by Track and Field News magazine, USA Track and Field’s Youth Athlete of the Year and USA Today’s High School Track and Field Girls Athlete of the Year. Earlier this month, SI.com named Hasay as its girls athlete of the year.
That growing résumé is up against a few others but it’s not stressing Hasay.
“I’m not nervous. I’m just having fun with it,” she said. “I can’t really do anything about it because it’s a selection.
“With running I’m so used to having control over things and being able to run a race and think of strategy. Here I just show up. I don’t even know how they will announce it. It will be fun.”
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