Relive high school sensation Sadie Engelhardt's incredible season, and see the data she used to reach new heights.
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By Matt Goeckel - COROS
In the world of high school track and field, few young athletes have made as significant an impact as Sadie Engelhardt.
The 2024 season marked a historic year for the rising star out of Ventura High School as she focused her efforts on the mile and 1,500 meters.
Along the way, she captured several major victories and even earned her place at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Her journey wasn't without its challenges -- primarily the rigorous demands of racing almost every week.
Yet, through it all, Engelhardt remained resilient and driven by a belief in her potential and supported by COROS' cutting-edge technology.
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A Preseason Breakthrough
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Engelhardt's 2024 journey began with cautious optimism. Her sophomore campaign in 2023 had been successful, resulting in a CIF outdoor state title in the 1,600m and a New Balance National Outdoor win in the mile.
However, her times were similar to the year before. Understanding that an upward progression of her times was not a given, she trained hard in the offseason and through cross country.
Early in the year, before any major indoor races, Sadie ran a 1,000m to test her fitness. The result was a major eye-opener to her true fitness and potential. She dropped an effort of 2:41, which in the record books would have been the fourth-fastest of all-time.
At that point, the thought of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials went from a dream to a realistic goal.
With her focus on a qualifying mark, Engelhardt's season was focused on hitting a standard. At New Balance Nationals Indoor, she felt the pressure of winning along with the need for a fast time.
She handled it well, winning in 4:36, but knew she needed a the time would come soon for her to go after a 1,500m mark.
A week later, in a completely different environment, she ran the 1,500m at The TEN, a professional outdoor meet.
As a high schooler in a professional race, there were virtually no expectations. Looking back on it, Sadie said, "I went from the most nervous I've ever been to the calmest I've ever been in a week. And I think it was mainly just because there's not a whole lot of pressure on me to do something crazy in a pro race."
With the pressure off, Engelhardt took down the entire professional field, finishing in 4:09.7.
What's more, she became one of the top Americans in the 1,500m on the season. The qualifying window was open for another two months, so she knew she may need to go faster to stay in that position.
Leveraging New Data
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Prior to the outdoor season, Engelhardt began using COROS. The PACE 3 provided cutting-edge technology and meaningful data and a colorful style.
"My first impression: I was super excited about the watch bands, and the variety," Engelhardt said. "Once I got the actual watch, I was pleasantly surprised with just how much data's on there. I'm super data oriented, very analytical."
Throughout her training, Engelhardt stayed attentive to her data.
"I am always looking at my heart rate," she said. She also kept a close eye on her intensity trend and training status.
These two metrics showed how her current training compared to her base fitness, which indicated how well her body could handle the current training load.
"I think those three things have been super helpful," she said.
Building Confidence
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After The TEN, Engelhardt started following a more typical California high school season.
She built up to a key midseason invite, had brief down training period, and then started her final build into the postseason.
"The season was a little different just because we were trying to get that time for the Trials pretty early," she said. "I'm pretty sure we started doing mile pace in January.
Engelhardt and her coach, Josh Spiker, replaced much of her early-season strength work with faster-paced workouts. One of these was a "Race Simulation" workout, where she completed two sets that each totaled to 1,500m at race pace.
The workout broke each set into three reps: 400m, 800m, and 300m. Her rest was 90 seconds between reps and 5:00 between sets.
Her pacing was impeccable, with splits of 65, 2:15 and 46 for the first set and 65, 2:15 and 47 for the second.
"Those 800s at mile pace are super tough" Engelhardt said. "Stuff like that, where I could do longer reps at mile pace, definitely gave me confidence. Doing it in practice made me feel like I could actually do that in races."
With that confidence, she went a perfect 8-0 in the mile and 1,600m during her high school season, winning the CIF State Outdoor Championship for a third time.
Despite the successful season of racing, though, she still had more work to do. Her time from The TEN had fallen off the qualifying list.
Despite being one of the best high schoolers in history, Engelhardt needed to go even faster.
| COROS Note: Sadie's season graph does not include race data, so numbers trend downward during periods of frequent racing. When accounting for her races, Sadie maintained fitness during the postseason. |
The Final Rally
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Engelhardt and her coach, Josh Spiker, had picked out three professional meets to make one last push for a qualifying mark in the 1,500m: the HOKA Festival of Miles on May 30, the Music City Track Carnival on June 1 and the Portland Track Festival on June 9.
"I seem to run my best times in June, so we just picked a couple races in June and late May" Engelhardt said. "I definitely wanted to put it all out there on those three races."
At the HOKA Festival of Miles, she split 4:11 for 1,500m en route to a close runner-up finish in the mile, thought she set a national record in the mile with a time of 4:28.46 and became the first high school girl outdoors to clock a time under 4:30.
Two days later, she ran a 1,500m effort of 4:10 at Music City. While both were excellent performances, she had yet to better her early-season mark of 4:09.
A week later, she was competing against some of the best in the world.
On the line with at the Portland Track Festival was 2019 world champion Sifan Hassan, only 14 years her senior. But in her final chance, Engelhardt pulled off a personal best 4:08.86.
"We actually were like 50/50," she said. "We didn't know if that was gonna get me in or not.
Engelhardt would have to wait for the accepted entry list to know her ultimate fate. Four long days later, she got a call from her dad. He told her two words she'll remember forever: "You're in."
At the U.S. Olympic Trials, Sadie described her experience as "a little chaotic." A new level of meet brought new challenges, but she settled in.
"As soon as I got warming up and, got kinda grounded, I felt good," she said.
In a packed stadium, Engelhardt got the full experience. "We did a stride towards the start line, and that was the most people I'd seen at Hayward in person," she said. "I think that was my favorite part."
Sadie only competed in the preliminary round, but she will take the valuable experience with her into the future.
"It definitely is something under my belt for the next Olympic Trials or USAs," she said.
The future certainly looks bright for the rising senior.
The NC State University commit has one more year to continue rewriting the history books before moving on to college. We can't wait to see what she has in store.
Related Information:
Sadie is a member of COROS NextGen, a program which aims to work with elite high school athletes as they push their boundaries and become the next generation of distance runners in the U.S.
NextGen athletes have won over 25 state championships in 2024 as athletes across the country gain better insights into their training. Sadie's historic season is the perfect example of what COROS NextGen aims to accomplish. For any high school athlete chasing their best, go to www.coros.com to learn more on products, training tips, and insights from athletes of all levels.
