All-American Aggie
Jennifer Twitchell is now among an elite, small group of USU women runners.
Running the mile at the NCAA Indoor Track Championships in Fayettville, Ark. March 9 and 10, Twitchell finished fifth with a time of 4:44.93 among a group of 10 runners.
With the finish, Twitchell became one of only seven USU women to ever receive All-American indoor status.
But at first, the feeling of being All-American wasn’t what Twitchell thought it would be. That’s because of the slow start of the race.
“My first thoughts weren’t as positive just because the way the race went,” Twitchell said. “But in championship races, that’ll happen a lot of times.”
Twitchell said the pack of runners she was with started out slow, and it wasn’t until the last 200 meters of the race that things picked up to what she said was an “all-out sprint.”
Because of all that, she wasn’t fully satisfied with her finishing time.
“It was a pretty good time, but I didn’t feel like I had given it my all,” Twitchell said. “I was kind of disappointed that I hadn’t taken it out and made them run faster and run it honestly rather than it be a sprint at the end.”
After Twitchell finished the race, Head Coach Greg Gensell and Twitchell’s husband Vance were quick to congratulate her with her new All-American status.
Her response?
“I’m like, ‘I don’t care right now,'” she said. “(But) by Sunday, I was like, ‘Fifth in the nation. That’s good.’ It’s OK.”
Twitchell, a senior in dietetics and native of Sandy, Utah, said when she began college track she had never set a goal of achieving All-American status.
However, the road she has traveled has seen many improvements and challenges.
Her freshman year she said she had one good race and made it to regionals. That was followed up by a sophomore year, where she said she “stayed flat” and made little progress.
Last year she finished 25th at the NCAA Track and Field Championships with a 4:27.07 time in the 1,500-meter run.
“It’s a lot of people’s goal (to become All-American),” she said. “I know goal setting is important, but I like to set little goals. I just want to improve and get better. I never really said I want to be an All-American. (But) as it became clear that it was actually a possibility I said, ‘Yeah. I want to do that. That would be really neat.'”
Twitchell said her next achievement will hopefully come at the UCLA Invitational, which will take place April 5.
So far, the chances of that happening are looking good.
This past weekend she placed first in the 1,500 with a time of 4:32.33.
After she qualifies for regionals, Twitchell said she hopes to simply proceed by strengthening her ability in the steeplechase, 5K and the 800 to be better prepared for Nationals when they come around again.
“I’d like to have good times so that when I get to Nationals again I can have the confidence that I can go out and lead the whole race and make them run it honestly (and) make it be a good race.”
-sbhislop@cc.usu.edu