Nevada cross country freshman Tierney Wolfgram and a native of Woodbury, who graduated high school a year early before joining the Wolf Pack this summer, has broke the women’s U.S. junior marathon record over the weekend.
Wolfgram, 17, set an American junior record in the marathon on Saturday (7), running 2:31:49 at the Parkway Marathon in Sacramento, California. The record was previously held by Cathy (Schiro) O’Brien, who ran 2:34:32 in 1984 before going on to make the 1988 and 1992 Olympic teams in the event.
Wolfgram’s time was the 13th fastest of the year by an American woman and tied for the 64th fastest in U.S. history. It was a race specifically organized for her record attempt and included only Wolfgram and two pacers who ran the course with here.
“There are no words to describe the mass of my gratitude for these two guys,” Wolfgram said in an Instagram post of pace runners and Wolf Pack teammates, Adam Sjolund and Carson Leavitt.
“They trained for weeks doing harder and longer workouts just for 2 hours 31 minutes and 49 seconds this morning. They kept me in line and controlled me in the early miles, broke the wind for me the entire way, and lent me strength during the tough parts. Never once did I feel the lonlieness that running a marathon brings and it’s all because of them.
“They didn’t just help today though. While being in various states training out of the smoke and harm of COVID, watching their workouts come through on Strava kept me not only accountable but gave me faith in myself to grind through the hard efforts leading up to today. Flashback to just 14 days ago, I was beginning to cave to the isolation of running alone. By the first run back with them, I was so overcome with happiness. I had forgotten what it had felt like.”
DiscernSport