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Dow's Jensen Setting Pace as Freshman
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 26, 2016
Anna Jensen opened her freshman cross country season at Midland Dow by taking second in the Pete Moss Invitational at Benzie Central, finishing in 18 minutes, 9.9 seconds.
In her second meet, she won the Lancer Invitational in Midland with a time of 18:37.7.
Before her third meet, she went to the doctor, because she didn’t feel right while running in the previous two.
There she received a diagnosis that wasn’t pleasant, but also could be what vaults her to the type of season she knows she’s capable of having.
“I was kind of disappointed with how I was doing at the very beginning of the season,” Jensen said. “But I just focused on running for my team and not getting down on myself. I was going to keep working and hoping my times would eventually come.
“Then I got my iron tested and found out my ferritin levels were low. It’s not a good thing, but finding out that I did have low ferritin was a relief, because it was an explanation for why I was running poorly.”
Poorly, of course, is a relative term. If the 18:09.9 from her first meet was still her season’s best, Jensen would rank as the 17th fastest runner in the state this year, all divisions.
But Jensen is used to going even faster.
Ferritin is a blood cell protein that contains iron, and a low ferritin level indicates there is an iron deficiency. Fatigue is a major symptom of an iron deficiency, and Jensen's mother noticed during those early races that her daughter didn't seem to have the same type of endurance she once did. Now that it's being treated, and her levels are coming back to a normal level, her times are more in line with what she expects from herself.
In each of her last three races, she has broken the 18-minute mark. At the Heritage Invitational on Oct. 8, she ran 17:40.7, which has her ranked seventh in the state.
“She handled it better than I would have expected,” Jensen’s mom, Lara, said. “She didn’t get upset. She was a good sport and she always ran hard and always tried to do whatever she could for her team. I was thrilled and I was pleased because she didn’t get down on herself.
“I could tell when she was running that she wasn’t right, because I could tell she was struggling to catch her breath. Now she looks much more like I’m used to.”
Jensen has been turning heads on tracks and 5K courses since well before she put on a Dow uniform.
As an 11-year-old, she won the women’s division and placed fourth overall out of nearly 1,500 competitors in the Dow Run/Walk. The next year, she ran 17:18 to repeat as women’s division champion, and took second overall.
Her personal bests in the 800 (2:12), 1,600 (4:50) and 3,200 meters (10:33) – set while she was in middle school – would make her an all-state runner most years, and an MHSAA Finals champion in some.
Following Dow’s 2015 Division 1 Regional meet, she ran in an open race on the course and recorded a time that would have won had she run with the high schoolers.
Midland Dow coach Jed Hopfensberger has had some fast runners come through his program over 16 years. But anyone like this?
“Not this fast,” he said. “I have a school record based on who runs the fastest time at the state meet, and that’s 18:09. We’ve had some pretty good kids, too.”
So what’s the secret? Besides a good amount of natural foot speed and the time she’s put in, it’s Jensen’s other sport, swimming, that may have contributed the most to her success.
“My guess is it’s because swimmers develop pretty good lung capacity, so part of it is that fitness level, having that lung capacity,” Lara Jensen said. “You’re working really hard and doing it for hours. Also, I think swimming is good overall conditioning for your whole body with very low impact.”
Lara Jensen swam for two years at Purdue University, and said the family had Anna in the pool at a young age swimming competitively. She’s good at that, too, but the decision to run cross country rather than swim this fall at Dow wasn’t as difficult as the Jensens thought it might be.
“It seemed like it would be a tougher decision before the track season had started,” Anna Jensen said. “I had a lot of success in the winter in indoor track and I just kind of knew that running was my passion. I love swimming, but running was the thing I love to do the most. It’s such a stress reliever. I love everything about running, and that’s what I knew I wanted to do in high school.
“I will actually be swimming for my boys high school team this winter, so that’s going to be really fun.”
Jensen will compete with a strong Dow team Saturday at the Division 1 Regional meet at Delta College. Dow enters as the favorite based on simulations by Athletic.net. According to those, teammates Maija Rettelle, Emily Wall and Anastasia Tucker join Jensen to give Dow four of the top five runners at the meet.
The MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals will be held Nov. 5 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
As she still has yet to qualify for that meet, looking too deep into the future may seem premature. But Jensen’s times already make her a Division I college prospect. While coaches can’t directly contact her yet, they’ve made it known to others that they’re interested.
“I would love to be in a position where I could get some scholarship money to run for a Division I college,” she said. “Depending on how fast I can get, I would love to run after college, maybe professionally.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Midland Dow's Anna Jensen runs through a fan-packed stretch during a cross country race this fall. (Middle) Jensen passes a flag during one of her races. (Photos by Craig Adams.)
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Olling Irons Out Health, Wins Again
November 3, 2012
By Bill Khan
Special to Second Half
BROOKLYN — Kirsten Olling couldn’t understand why the fast times she was running all summer weren’t translating to the cross country course in the fall.
The Breckenridge junior, whose personal best of 17:17.54 was set in last year’s Regionals, failed to break 18:06 in her first five races of the year and barely dipped below 18 minutes only three times all season.
A visit to the doctor three weeks before she was set to defend her title in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 meet revealed an iron deficiency, which was quickly corrected with an iron supplement and a diet of hamburgers.
With the problem corrected, Olling won her third straight championship Saturday at Michigan International Speedway with a time of 17:59.6.
“A lot of coaches thought I had (an iron deficiency) at the beginning of the year, but nobody really said anything,” Olling said. “They just figured I was having bad days.”
Frustration began to mount for Olling, who figured she was ready for a huge season after running well all summer.
“I was really upset,” she said. “This summer during road races, I’d be running 17:17, 17:20s consistently. I was like, ‘Oh, yes, this should be like the best cross country season.’ No, I jinxed it. So, I’m never going to say, ‘It’s going to be the best cross country season ever.’ You’re going to jinx it.”
With her health turned around, Olling had to only tackle the mental side of running. Even having two MHSAA championships to her credit didn’t completely calm her nerves entering Saturday’s race as she won by 22.1 seconds over runner-up Holly Bullough of Traverse City St. Francis. Tessa Fornari of Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes was third in 18:38.8.
“I was actually worried I was going to lose it,” said Olling, who was never threatened Saturday. “I was really worried today.”
One of the mental tricks Olling used to push herself was basically to have teammates lie to her during the race.
“I told everybody to tell me someone’s right behind me,” Olling said. “That way when they tell me that, I’ll go faster. I had four different teams tell me that. They made me run faster.”
Homer, which made the top 10 for the first time with a sixth-place finish last season, won the team championship by a 118-142 margin over Bear Lake.
Homer placed three girls in top-30 all-state positions, with sophomore Jessica Reagle taking ninth in 19:26.3, sophomore Bailey Manis 19th in 19:59.6 and junior Amanda Reagle 23rd in 20:04.9. Rounding out the scoring were freshman Kayla Kline (45th, 20:37.3) and senior Johnica March (70th, 21:01.4).
PHOTO: Breckenridge's Kristen Olling leads the pack again on the way to her third MHSAA championship. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)