West Chester Henderson senior Jenna Mulhern ran a different cross country route this fall

West Chester Henderson senior Jenna Mulhern, winner of the Daily Local News All-Area Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award in 2018, 2019 and 2020, decided to take a different competitive running route this past fall.
Instead of competing in cross country meets for the Warriors this fall, she focused on training and running at more of a college level, concentrating on competing in three meets, the Florida State Invitational in October, the Garmin RunningLane Championships in Alabama Dec. 4, and the 42nd Annual Eastbay Cross Country Championships National Finals in San Diego Dec. 11.
In the Eastbay Championships last Saturday, Mulhern finished a commendable third place with a clocking of 17:20, just behind winner Natalie Cook of Flower Mound, Texas (17:16), an Oklahoma State commit, and Angelina Perez, a senior from Ringwood, N.J (17:19). Cook’s mother, Melissa Gulli, finished 23rd at the 1997 Foot Locker Nationals Finals.
Mulhern said, “I’m beyond excited, I wasn’t expecting to place that high, racing against the best 40 high school girls in the country. I got out to a good start, I was in the top 10 early in the race. The course was pretty tough – you go up a steep hill twice – the second time near the end of the race, and that’s where I saw a lot of runners struggle and was able to pass them.”
One week earlier, in the Garmin RunningLane Championships, Mulhern placed fourth in the Girls Gold Division with a clocking of 16:29, the fastest time run by a Pennsylvania high school girl on a 5K cross country course in the United States.
And in October at the Florida State Invitational/NCAA Pre-Nationals in Tallahassee, Fla. Oct. 15, Mulhern went 20:49 for 6,000 meters to place second in the Women’s Open Race against some college competition.
The Florida State Invitational was Mulhern’s first-ever 6K race – she competed as an unattached runner – and she finished runnerup to University of Tennessee sophomore Sydney Seymour (20:41).
Last summer, Mulhern committed to run cross country for Furman University, where she plans to major in exercise science. Mulhern chose Furman from a number of interested colleges, including North Carolina State, University of North Carolina, Notre Dame and University of Pennsylvania.
“The coaches at Furman, Robert and Rita Gary, fit my training style best,” said Mulhern.
Mulhern spent last summer in Florida training for cross country, and decided to compete this fall as an unattached runner.
“In high school, you have to run a certain number of meets to qualify for States, and I wanted to spend more time training and less time in meets,” said Mulhern, who finished first in the PIAA 3A state cross country championships as a freshman in 2018, just two years after she took up the sport.
“I started out as a swimmer when I was about 5 years old, and swam competitively for seven years,” said Mulhern. “I started running just as cross training for swimming. I definitely did not love it at first. I decided to do cross country in seventh grade for cross training to swimming and that’s when I really started to enjoy it. I ended up quitting swimming later that year and focusing all my attention on running.”
Mulhern’s upcoming indoor track season will be focused on two events (as an unattached runner) in March – the Adidas Nationals and the New Balance Nationals.