Hasay’s goals within reach

Coming now, from one of the nation’s top female distance-running prospects, the statement wouldn’t prompt a second thought.

Coming then, from a relatively unknown eighth-grader on a fact-finding trip to a private high school, it almost seemed comical.

I want to run in the Olympics someday.

That was Jordan Hasay’s reply when Leslie Monaco, coach of the cross-country program at Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo, asked what her goals were.

“I remember seeing Leslie’s face,” recalled Joe Hasay, Jordan’s father. “She must have thought, ‘She’s a stupid little girl.’ ”

Little maybe. Hasay was a wispy 5 feet tall then and has grown only four inches since. But definitely not stupid. She has maintained a 4.53 grade-point average and is in the running to become her school’s valedictorian.

Hasay was right about her running talent too, even if she might have come off as a bit precocious.

“I look back and laugh at myself for saying that,” she said. “I really didn’t have any idea what going to the Olympics would take.”

Hasay nearly reached her Olympic goal in 2008, making the finals of the U.S. Olympic trials. Today, she will run in the 3,200 meters in the state high school championships at Clovis, trying to become the first four-time champion of the event.

Last year, she won the race in a personal-best time of 9 minutes 52.13 seconds, the second-fastest finish ever for an American high school girl.

Hasay already is a four-time Division V state champion, a two-time winner at Foot Locker’s cross-country national championship (in 2005 and 2008), and winner of two USA Track and Field titles -- in cross-country in 2007 and the 1,500 meters in 2008.

Those accomplishments, it seems, have only made her work harder. She trains by running between 40 and 60 miles a week, waking as early as 5 a.m. to begin her lifelong passion.

“I’m kind of a Type A personality, so it fits me well, the demands of running,” Hasay said. “Everything is nice and scheduled.”

The “rock-star attention” Mission College Prep track and field Coach Armando Siqueiros says Hasay attracts at meets suggests she already has legions of fans.

At the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at Eugene, Ore., Hasay recalls the “whole stadium clapping for me” every step of her race. And she didn’t disappoint them. To shouts of “Go to Oregon!” she set a national high school record of 4:14.50 in the 1,500 in a fifth-place semifinal finish.

“What was most remarkable was the amount of attention she was getting and how she was able to deal with it,” Siqueiros said. “She really had the mental capacity to deal with everything.”

Mastering the mental aspects of elite competition has been a group project between the runner and her coaches. As a high school freshman, Siqueiros recalls, Hasay was “a ball of energy that just liked to run” -- sometimes to her detriment.

For example, at the 2005 Stanford Invitational cross-country meet, one of Hasay’s first big high school events, she collapsed from exhaustion after speeding through the opening mile in 5:01. How to harness her natural competitiveness without stunting her growth became an important challenge.

“Running parallels life because there’s going to be good and bad parts of our training and racing,” Hasay said. “I learned throughout the years I can’t always have a good race. I’m not going to get a [personal record] every race.

“If I didn’t learn from those races, I would never get any better.”

More than poor races, Hasay has battled poor health this year.

The flu and a sinus infection forced her to skip the West Coast Relays, Arcadia Invitational and Mt. SAC Relays over three consecutive weekends in April. At Arcadia, she missed out on the chance to become the first runner to capture four consecutive titles in the 3,200.

“It was difficult to sit there and watch the race,” Hasay said. “But it made me appreciate how much I love being there.”

Her main focus now is a top finish in the 3,200 today and in the 1,500 at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Oregon this month.

Beyond that, she’s thinking about college -- and trying not to focus on anything too much further down the road.

The 2012 Olympics in London loom, but the naive eighth-grader has grown up.

“It’s kind of a long-term goal,” Hasay said of the 2012 Games. “It’s not like I think about it every day, because there are definitely certain steps that I need to take toward getting that goal.”

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mark.medina@latimes.com