Myers lands on two top runner lists as Athena Award winner

Senior earned 10 varsity letters at Jefferson

Maren Myers already owns two of the top-10 all-time cross country and track and field times at Jefferson in addition to a state Nordic meet appearance.

The South Dakota State-bound runner can add Athena Award recipient as she joined the other 2024 Athena Award winners from the Minneapolis chapter area for the annual luncheon on Friday at the Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center.

Each school nominates a deserving senior based on scholastic, athletic and community service.

Myers owns 10 varsity letters and six Metro West Conference honors as a three-time captain for the Jaguars cross country, Nordic skiing and track and field programs.

When asked to describe an earliest or favorite sports memory, Myers wrote about an ADHD diagnosis in her junior year. “While I saw this as a negative or something to be embarrassed about, my coach [Sean Faulk] helped me to find some positivity in the situation. He helped me use it as a tool in competition which helped me to make the improvements that I did during my junior track season and got me to the point that I am at today.”

The point she is at today includes the ninth quickest 1,600m run in Jefferson track history – 5 minutes, 20.59 seconds set at the Section 3AAA True Team meet in May 2023. She placed sixth in the event at the Section 2AAA meet in 5:29.00.

So far this spring, she placed second in the 1,600 at the Edina Invite on Friday in 5:24.39. She was third in the 800 on the same day in a season-best 2:35.25.

Myers helped two Jaguar relays win including the opening leg of the 4x800 at the Armstrong Invite on April 12 in a time of 10:31.17 and the third leg of the 4x400 at the Spartan Invite in Richfield on April 18 in 4:32.86.

She won the 1,600mat the Spartan Invite in 5:33.25 and set a season-best time in the 3,200 run at the Lakeville North Mega Meet on April 27 to place seventh in 12:00.33, beating her previous best time by almost 23 seconds (12:23.20 at the Armstrong Invite).

In cross country, she owns the sixth-best 5,000 time of 19:23.3 coming at the All-American Invitational at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Myers finished seventh in a loaded field with runners from across the Midwest. She went even lower at the NXR Heartland Regional Championships finishing eighth with a personal-best time of 19:17.0, but not affiliated with Jefferson High School.

A four-year member of the Red Cross Club’s Jefferson branch and one year as an officer, Myers is a small group leader at St. Stephen Lutheran Church with the Imagine youth group and Jubilation youth choir.

Myers plans to continue to run cross country and track at South Dakota State University majoring in exercise science and minor in psychology on a pre-occupational therapy track.