The first time Ashlyn Jacobsen entered a race, she insisted on wearing it.
The sixth annual Strawberry Chase 5K run was on the family calendar. The 8-year-old put on her favorite blue tutu and hit the road with her father, Keith, close behind. He even remembers her time: 33 minutes, 47 seconds. It was enough to win her age group, but she went home with two awards.
“When I was little all those other sports I was doing, I was really, really bad at them. I was horrible. I am very uncoordinated. But my first little 5K I won two medals, best dressed in a tutu, and first for my age group. I had never won anything before. I was like, wow, this is something that I can win,” she recalled.
Jacobsen turned the corner that day in the green, idyllic countryside of Ridgely, Md. She never looked back, aside from an occasional visit.
“It’s on the Eastern shore. Very rural, a farm town,” Keith Jacobsen said. “Every holiday we would have a local 5K. Pay your 10 bucks. It was an easy way to introduce kids to running. It was fun. The kids would dress up.”
After Ashlyn’s eighth grade year, the Jacobsen family moved to Hawaii. Within the next two years, Ashlyn’s development as a runner created a vision.
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“I really hadn’t thought about running in college until my sophomore year in track season,” she said.
Keith still does his 2 miles or so every day. Just enough to stay in shape. Just enough to keep up with his oldest child as she warms up.
“She’s taken it to a different level. I never ran in high school. I would casually go out there and run. On our trip back to Maryland, she said, ‘We’re going to an eight-minute pace, not even looking at her watch,” he said. “She was spot on. It was an easy run for her and I struggled.”
Campbell cross country coach Mark Inay remembers a freshman who absorbed everything.
“She was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She had decent ability, but as a freshman she wasn’t the top runner. She wasn’t the top runner in her class. She was behind a soccer player and another girl,” he recalled.
Track and field is where Jacobsen became a two-time state champion in Hawaii, but cross country is where she began to build bonds. She starts her senior year coming off a second-place finish last year at the cross country state championships. She finished seventh as a sophomore.
“Her progress as a runner is just her maturity. If you look at her now from when she was a freshman, the running style, the maturity is there now,” said Inay, who has coached boys cross country since 2016 and girls cross country since 2019. “She found what she was good at and decided to work hard at it.”
Inay leans on Jacobsen and classmate Ian Eugenio as co-captains. Her low-key personality is a good fit as a leader at practice. The competitive fire, however, is not extinguishable.
Her first 3,000-meter run at states was in 2023 as a freshman. She placed a very respectable 17th.
“I remember I was pretty upset. It was after I’d been already injured, but it was the last meet of the season, so I told myself just hold on. It definitely wasn’t my best time,” she said. “I’d just gotten DQ’d in the 1,500 for taking three consecutive steps off the track.”
A month-long layoff allowed the 5-foot-7 runner to heal. In the fall of ’23, she placed seventh at the HHSAA cross country state meet with a time of 20:33.
“I remember being super happy. CORP (Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park) is a course that I know well. I really worked it. I remember going downhill and passed people,” Jacobsen said.
It was the day when fires in Waipio created a spike in the air quality index, which reversed just before the race began.
“You could notice the smell on the back uphill stretch,” she recalled.
Seven months later, in May of ’24, Jacobsen earned her first state title, winning the 3,000 run in 10:39 at Mililani’s John Kauinana Stadium.
“I remember starting that race with a vengeance. In the 1,500, I was first for the whole thing and someone passed me in the final 5 meters,” Jacobsen said.
In the fall of ’24, junior year began. Jacobsen ran the cross country state championship race in 18:19, second to Moanalua freshman Sadie Krueger (18:04).
“I felt confident going into it. I knew I would have to fight off (Hilo senior Kekaihulali) Halpern and Sadie,” Jacobsen said.
Every detail counts, but sometimes fate has a cruel way of compromising an athlete.
“I was sick the week before and then I had an allergic reaction to the medicine. I was OK by the day of the race. I felt OK during the race, but when Sadie started moving faster, I felt like I couldn’t move my legs.”
The maturity that Inay talks about isn’t just preparation, training, proper nutrition and sleep.
“I felt like I had achieved enough that season. I went under 18 minutes,” she said of her time at the Rose City Invitational in Portland, Ore. “It just wasn’t my day and I was fine with it. I just couldn’t feel my legs and I was trying to stay conscious.”
The break between cross country and track seasons is everything. Jacobsen was in a comfort zone, finding the right balance between pushing harder and listening to her body. In the spring, she ran a 9:55 in the 3,000 run at the state championships in Keaau for her second gold medal.
“It was nice and cloudy, never was super hot, so that was pretty good. I knew that this one I had stronger competition. They were close to me. They wanted it more than they did last year,” Jacobsen said. “Lap one, me and Sadie were running together and we went out pretty fast, which is something she does, but I went out with her. I was feeling good. She got tired — she does all three long-distance races.”
Krueger had already run the 800 and 1,500. Simply fantastic, simply human.
“I was definitely in the zone here until I had a lap left, and someone told me the time. I did the math in my head,” said Jacobsen, who calls AP Calculus her favorite class. “I knew I could do a sub-10 (minute).”
The notion of easing up to the finish never occurs to her anyway.
“You never know what people have in their tank. You have to do what’s best for you. I was able to stay focused, especially when I was in the last 100 (meters), and they have a clock up there you can see. I could see I was nowhere near 10.”
A personal record of 9:55.16 was more than eight seconds faster than her time at the OIA championships.
She also earned a silver medal in the 1,500, clocking a 4:38.42, trailing Krueger by more than six seconds. It was her second silver in the event.
The seasons pass, and the inescapable reality of graduation looms. With a 4.125 grade-point average, the dream of running in college is nearing. Growing up as a high school scholar has been joy shared. Many of her teammates were in the same AP Calculus class.
“I definitely am proud. I’ve had to work to maintain my GPA and maintain sports,” Jacobsen said. “AP Calculus is one of the first classes that I had with a lot of my friends. They challenged me in a way that I could work with. It was figuring out and understanding with some of my close friends.”
The connections she has made near and far are deep. Jacobsen and her mother still keep in touch with a sixth-grade teacher back on the East Coast. Savannah Pate, Ashlyn says, is her favorite teacher of all time.
“I still have a window hanging Ashlyn made that says ‘Save the Sharks’ in my classroom to this day,” Pate said. “So to say that she was the only one impacted by our relationship would be a lie. She is a student that it was truly an honor to teach. I often reach out to her mom on Facebook to congratulate Ashlyn and cheer her on. The hardest thing about her success, and this being her senior year, is that she is in Hawaii. Cheering her on happens through a phone screen. One thing is for sure, if she continues on the path she is on and continues unapologetically to be herself, she will go far and make waves in this world.”
Jacobsen’s younger brothers, Ryan and Evan, are runners too. Ryan is 6-4 — 9 inches taller than his sister. Evan is an eighth grader who plays soccer. With the family spending time running, Danielle Jacobsen got back into it. She was a pole vaulter and relay runner as a track athlete in high school.
Before the children were born, all she could do was hope. She earned a master’s degree in childhood education and became a teacher.
“We had a difficult time getting pregnant. Ashlyn was the most wanted baby ever. It was 18 months we were trying to have her,” she said.
Once they got the good news, Danielle did her part and more.
“I had to make sure that I didn’t have any caffeine. No fake sugar. Everything I ate was to fuel her, to make sure she was healthy and had the best chance of surviving pregnancy.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing yet.
“My body wasn’t producing enough progesterone,” she said of the doses the was prescribed. “Once I was strong enough, they took me off it.”
Ashlyn was a fairly simple delivery. Her brothers, not so much.
“They were both over 9 pounds,” Danielle said. “Teenage boys saw me and said, ‘There’s two or three of them.’”
The nest is far from becoming empty, but mother and daughter have a bond that is irreplaceable.
“Ashlyn’s my little built-in bestie. She’s going to college and leaving me with all the boys. They won’t do the same kind of girlie stuff we do together,” she said. “She will be completely fine. She can cook, do her laundry. She knows how to navigate the airport.”
ASHLYN JACOBSEN
Campbell cross country, track and field
Senior
Top 3 movies/shows/books
1. “Gossip Girl”
“There’s six seasons. I’ve seen most of the series and I know who the ‘gossip girl’ is because it was spoiled for me. It came out the year we were born, 2007. I kind of associated spending time with my best friend (Kelly Taylor) with this show. She lives next door.”
2. “Yellowjackets”
“Some of it is on Netflix, some of it is on Paramount. It’s kind of crazy, but this soccer team was flying to Nashville and the plane crashes and they have to survive in the wild. It flashes between present day and when they crashed. It’s a little bit of a violent show, sci-fi. I think it’s entertaining.”
3. “Mamma Mia”
“I had to include this. It’s my favorite movie and musical since fifth grade. I think my mom and aunt introduced it to me. They use the songs made by ABBA into a musical. One of the songs is ‘Mamma Mia.’ “
Top 3 homemade food
1. Chili
“My mom (Danielle Jacobsen) makes it once a month. We have a pretty good rotation.”
2. Buffalo chicken pasta
“It’s cheesy, kind of Buffalo chicken. Good for carb loading.”
3. Dirt cake
“It’s french vanilla pudding and Oreos, cream cheese and Kool Whip. You layer it it set in the fridge. It’s amazing.”
Top 3 foods/drinks (eating out)
1. EARL chipotle chicken cheesesteak or the old bay hot honey chicken sandwich.
2. Chili’s honey chipotle glazed chicken tenders with mac and cheese.
3. Foodland. “They have so much stuff. Poke bowls, sushi. The Hi Steaks.”
Top 3 music artists/ favorite song
1. Justin Timberlake — “My Love”
2. The Weeknd — “The Morning”
3. Childish Gambino — “L.E.S.”
Favorite athlete: Nikki Hiltz
“Nikki Hiltx is a mid-distance runner. She’s been here for the Merry Mile, so I’ve met her. It’s a 1-mile race and they’ll have some pros run on the road. She’s a pro runner who signed with Lululemon. Certain races that you run, they’ll pay you based on how well you do. The Olympics, they’ll pay her too. For me, preferably, 2 miles. That’s my sweet spot. If I can get to the pro level, that would be the perfect job. That’s not something that’s promised to me. My next step is college.”
Funniest teammate: Ava Balog
“She’s a sophomore. She’s pretty sarcastic and calm, quiet, funny. I feel like we have so many inside jokes with each other.”
Smartest teammate: Sebastian Sarpi
“He’s a senior. We’ve been in a couple of classes together and he always scores super well on tests, always knows what’s going on. He’s taken a bunch of AP (classes).”
GPA: 4.125
Favorite teacher: Ms. (Savannah) Pate (sixth-grade English, Lockerman Middle Schoo, Md.)
“I feel like she was very good at making a connection with her students. She was my teacher the year that COVID happened. It was kind of hard to keep up in doing stuff, but she made it easier to keep up and feel like I was connected. We were there for a little over half the year. By seventh grade, that’s the year I knew I would be moving to Hawaii. She was the teacher I came back to and said goodbye to before I left. I feel like she had such a big impact on me and introduced me to certain stories that I really like. There was one book we read, ‘Percy Jackson,’ which is on level and interesting to sixth graders.”
Favorite class: AP Calculus (11th grade)
“This was one of the first classes that I had with a lot of my friends. I was able to work with them. They challenged me in a way that I could work with. I’ve taken other AP classes where I don’t care to be challenged or take a lot of notes. In AP Calc, it was figuring out and understanding with some of my close friends.”
Favorite motto
“Every day above ground is a great day. Remember that.” —Pitbull
Hidden talent
New York Times mini-crossword puzzle.
New life skill
Independently navigating the airport
Bucket list
“I want to go on at least one cruise before I die.”
Time machine
“I would travel to 1979 and see ABBA in concert.”
Youth sports
Soccer, lacrosse, dance and gymnastics.
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
“I would tell my younger self to be patient, I got injured my freshman year (knee) and I remember being so angry that I was ‘slow’ when i started running again. I missed a meet and when I came back I went way too much. I think I started racing too quick, too fast, going and going and going. End of my freshman year I got serious about running and my progression going from cross country to track was too much.”
Shoutouts
“Shout out to Ian Eugenio, our other team captain, for being an amazing leader, Ei Tait for being an awesome friend since eighth grade. My family for being so supportive, and to Coach Mark Inay and Coach Andrea (Bowman) for giving me the tools to be successful in all aspects of my life even beyond running.”