The 2008 DyeStat National Athlete of the Year and 2007-08 CalHiSports.com State Athlete of the Year gets senior season off to flying start at 61st Mt. SAC Invitational.

By Harold Abend, Special to CalHiSports.com

Note: Remember, we are looking for those student-athletes who had a standout performance in their sport from the previous week, but we also are looking for a balance between athletic achievement, academic work in the classroom, community service or overcoming adversity. Send nominations to mark@studentsports.com.

To say big things come in small packages would be an understatement when it comes to Jordan Hasay, our Girls State Athlete of the Week, who is also being honored as the ESPN RISE National Girls Athlete of the Week as well.

Even before the 5-foot-2 phenom's first place finish at the Mt. SAC Invitational in Walnut, Calif., on Oct. 24, her first race of the season, Hasay had won just about every prep race she's competed in. In fact, she's won at Mt. SAC all four years of her high school career.

This year at the 61st Mt. SAC, Hasay's winning time of 16 minutes, 27 seconds made her the Individual Sweeps Champion, with a time 21 seconds faster than her next nearest competitor.

It was also the second fastest time ever for a girl on the challenging 3-mile course, one of the most famous in cross country racing.

Amongst her many accomplishments, Jordan is also one of the few high school athletes to compete in the Olympic Trials which she did last summer.

In July, Hasay attended the Trials held at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field basically as a spectator with her family. Then after someone withdrew from the 1500, USA Track and Field invited her to compete.

Not only did she compete, but after she finished fifth in her Independence Day semi, and set a national high school record of 4 minutes 14.50 seconds to qualify for the final on time, the folks from USA Track and Field had to assist her in rearranging her schedule so she could delay leaving for the World Juniors in Poland. That allowed Hasay to run in the July 6 final.

In that race won by former Sacred Heart-Cathedral of San Francisco star Shannon Rowbury, and with the top middle-distance female runners in the country competing, Hasay finished in 10th place.

She went on to a fourth-place finish in Poland, the first top-eight finish ever for an American girl.

Because her 2008 track season basically went into mid-summer, personal coach and assistant at Mission Prep, Dr. Armando Siqueiros, a local San Luis Obispo medical doctor specializing in internal medicine, held her out of competition until last week's Mt. SAC Invitational.

"Jordan could easily have won all her races," said Siqueiros, who helped start the track team at Mission Prep in 2004. "But since her track season went into August, she needed a little rest, so Mt. SAC was her opener.

The win at Mt. SAC to kick off Hasay's senior campaign is just another notch in a long list of racing accomplishments and awards for the 17-year-old.

In fact, the awards are piling up so fast; Jordan is having a hard time keeping track of every one of them. "Sometimes it can be overwhelming," Hasay told CalHiSports from her home in Arroyo Grande in an early evening interview this week. "I found out about a lot of awards this week and it seems like I was in the local paper every day."

This week, besides being the state and national athlete of the week as named by CalHiSports.com and ESPN RISE, respectively, Jordan was honored by Track and Field News as its Athlete of the Year, USA Track and Field as its Athlete of the Week, and Dyestat.com as its Athlete of the Week. Like CalHiSports.com, Dyestat.com is also a member of the ESPN RISE family of high school sports web sites.

When CalHiSports.com asked Royals' cross country head coach Leslie Monaco to send us a list of Jordan's accomplishments, what arrived by email was a four-page document that could easily be the length of an entire story itself.

It would be impossible to list every award, honor and record, so we'll give you a summary of Jordan's most recent significant accomplishments other than those previously mentioned:

•    USA Track and Field 2008 Youth Athlete of the Year
•    Dyestat.com 2007-08 girls' track and field athlete of the year
•    USA Today girls' 2008 high school track and field athlete of the year
•    CalHiSports.com 2008 State Athlete of the Year
•    Dyestat.com 2008 story of the year
•    Gatorade 2007 California Girls' Cross Country Runner of the Year

There are a lot more awards, victories and milestones in Hasay's career coming into this high school year. We actually figured that into this week's honor because we do have a policy of no one repeating as an athlete of the week during the same school year.

And with so many more championships and honors to come, some that will be admittedly more prestigious than even national athlete of the week, we simply decided to get Jordan's national and state weekly award out of the way quickly.

Even before entering high school, Hasay twice set USATF Junior Olympics records in the 1500 meters as well as the 3000.

Hasay also won the Division V cross country state title in her frosh season as well as the 3200 meter race at the 2006 California State High School Track Meet in a time of 10:13.55.

At the 2006 Golden West Invitational track meet, Hasay won the mile in a time of 4:42.21, just .21 off the all time high school freshman mile record of 4:42.0 set by Mary Decker in 1973.

At the 2007 Golden West Invitational, Hasay won for the second straight year in a time of 4:43.34. She also won the 1500 meter race at the 2007 USATF Junior Championship in a meet record time of 4:16.98, the fourth fastest prep 1500 of all time, the fastest ever by an American 15-year-old, fastest ever by a sophomore, and the fastest high school time in 25 years.

Finally, this past season as a high school junior, Hasay won her third straight CIF state cross country title in a time of 17:05 as well as the USATF Cross Country Championships Junior Women's 6K with a time of 20:32 at Mission Bay Park in San Diego.

Hasay's love of running began early in grammar school. "I've always loved running, but I started to really get interested in the 4th grade when I beat all the boys in PE class," she said with a bit of a giggle.

She started taking the sport seriously when as a middle-schooler; Hasay made it to the Junior Olympics.

"The real secret to Jordan's success is she's able to apply herself and she's not into instant gratification," Siqueiros told CalHiSports.com. "She's been disciplined for a long time and she has aerobic development many kids don't have. Plus, even at 5-2 Jordan is plenty big. She doesn't have to carry around that muscle mass."

"I think Jordan was born to run", added Monaco, in her 12th year coaching the Royals team with 10 consecutive CIF Central Section D5 cross country championships. "Physically she has such a gift, and also the perfect amount of intensity. She a tenacious competitor willing to do whatever it takes.

With all her work on the track, and the hills and dales of cross country, one might think Hasay doesn't have time for other things. In fact, it's the exact opposite.

First off, in the classroom, Jordan is carrying a 4.53 GPA at the Catholic co-ed college preparatory school. She also plays piano, and pretty well.

If that's not enough, Hasay is also involved in youth group activities, assisting the elderly, charity fund-raising, and helps feed the hungry in the "people's kitchen," all at her local parish. She also finds time to tutor other students and work with Special Olympics.

Jordan also occasionally accompanies Monaco to her 2nd grade class at the Old Mission elementary school where she talks to the kids and answers questions about running. "Jordan is just a sweetheart and has a heart of gold," said Monaco. "The kids adore her."

According to Monaco, so do all the students at Mission Prep, including teammates like Annie Mooney, currently ranked No. 2 in the state for Div. V in cross country.

To do what she's doing in running and all the other aspects of her life takes a big support system and Hasay has a strong supportive family and home life. Everyone in her family is also athletic so that helps too.

Her father, Joe, the president of United Paradyne, a fueler of rockets at nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, played basketball in high school in Pennsylvania. Her mother, Teresa, who manages the household and a good portion of Jordan's career, was a runner and swimmer growing up in England.

Younger brother Jedd, 15, plays football at Mission Prep.

As for her future plans, Hasay is still sorting out her college choices which began with multitudes of offers. "I've narrowed it down to Arizona, Arizona State, Washington and Stanford," said Hasay, whose favorite subjects are chemistry, math and science.

Eventually, when her competitive running days begin to take a back seat to a profession, Hasay says she'd like to do something in sports. "I plan on majoring in kinesiology and sports medicine," she said. "Maybe become a personal trainer."

Quite often, elite runners have gigantic egos, but with Jordan, we found her to be a delightfully charming, bright, well-spoken young woman.

Jordan Hasay may be diminutive in size but in her sport she's a giant. Her track accomplishments on a national and international level speak for themselves.

After everything she's achieved, we wonder what Jordan will do for an encore this remaining cross country and upcoming track season.

Hasay didn't make it to Beijing this year but don't count her out when the 2012 games are held in London.