The Hayley Jackson Show: It's been another outstanding season for Hayley Jackson, who is right with Maria Coffin in the discussion for best female distance runner in the state. She won her first state championship in the 2014 cross country season and has been racking them up ever since (she has six: two in cross country and four in track). She will have the opportunity to add a few more to her impressive resumé at this year's 2A State Championships. She was victorious in the 1600, 3200, and 800 at the 2A East Regional Championships and has a chance to possibly become the first girl in state history to win all three events at the 2A indoor state championships.
Jackson has the fastest 1600 time in the state, 4:57.49, which came in the mile at the Montgomery Invitational in which she defeated Maria Coffin. Jackson ran away from Brit Lang in the final 400 meters at the 2A East Regional Championships and could use the same strategy at the state championships. She will have plenty of challengers: Lang, Julien Webster, Sarah Coffey and Reilly Caldwell have all run 5:20 or faster this season. However, they could all find themselves in a tight battle for second place if Jackson turns in another dominating race. Lang nearly defeated Jackson in the 3200 at the 2A East Regional Championships, but Jackson has doubled off the 1600 plenty of times in her career and is still the heavy favorite in the 3200.
The 800 is always the hardest of the three events in the distance triple. Jackson ran a strong one at the 2A East Regional Championships, but she will have strong competition from the 2A West Regional Champion, Molly Offstein. Offstein is sitting out the mile (which she finished third in at regionals) to be fresh for the 800 against what will probably be a tired Jackson. However, just to be considered the favorite in all three events at the state championships is quite an accomplishment, and it's going to be awesome to see just how many state titles Jackson can capture going forward in her career.