Lauren Hagans

LAUREN’S STORY
Lauren, like many runners, started as a middle distance runner in her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. She remained an 800- and 1500-meter runner throughout college and into the beginning of her post-collegiate career. It was when she tried the 5,000 meters, however, that she finally found out she was a distance runner. In her first professional try at the distance she won the 2016 Mt Sac Relays in 15:20.44.

PRO STATS
After graduating from Baylor University in 2008, Lauren chose to focus on the 800 and 1500, eventually setting personal bests of 2:02.97 and 4:09.86. In 2016, she switched her focus to the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, and has had an enormous amount of success in those events. She qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials in the 5,000. In 2017, she finished third at the Cork City Sports meet in the 3,000 meters, running a then best of 8:56.99. In 2018, she finished fourth at the USATF Championships in the 5,000 and ran an outdoor personal best of 8:48.65 in the 3,000 at the London Anniversary Games. In 2019, she came within two tenths of a second of her best at 5,000 meters, running 15:14.64. Lauren joined HOKA NAZ Elite in January of 2020, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, was unable to race until July. She finished third at the KT Tape St. George Showdown over 5,000 meters in her first competition as a member of the team. Then, in late August, she won the Sunset Tour 5,000 in a new PB of 15:10.01 and followed that up with a 31:53.72 over 10,000 meters at the HOKA Distance Carnival.

Lauren’s 2021 got off to a rough start with a hamstring injury that derailed her spring but she still gutted out a seventh-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 5,000 meters. Her fall included a fifth-place finish at the USATF 5k Championships, a fantastic leg on HOKA NAZ Elite’s second place finish at the Michigan Pro Ekiden and a stellar half marathon debut time of 1:09:46–via a fourth-place finish at the USATF Half Marathon Championships. During that run she set team records for 15k and 10 miles en route.

After a difficult 2022, Lauren kicked off her 2023 campaign with a win, and a course record, at the Cardiff Kook Run in 31:53. Two weeks later she blasted out of the gates and eventually finished second at the USATF Half Marathon Championships to teammate Aliphine Tuliamuk. Then in June, in her marathon debut, she won the Grandma’s Marathon in 2:25:55–the fourth-fastest U.S. debut of all time. In the fall, she set a PB in the half marathon (1:09:41) en route to a 10th-place finish at the Valencia Half Marathon. Unfortunately, she was not completely healthy at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Marathon and was forced to drop out of the race before the 10-mile mark. She turned things around later in the year, however, and came back to finish 13th at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in a PB of 2:25:47.

NCAA STATS
At Baylor, Lauren set school records in the outdoor 1,500 meters (4:15.01), and 4×800 (8:28.48) and 4×1600 (19:05.8) relays. She had a stellar senior year in which she finished 35th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and won Big 12 Championships in the indoor distance medley relay and the outdoor 800 meters. At the NCAA Indoor Championships she was eighth in the 3,000 meters and anchored the Bears to an eighth-place finish in the DMR. She finished her collegiate career with a seventh-place finish in the 1500 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.