Taylor Werner | Ste. Genevieve, MO | SENIOR
No. 6 ranked Taylor Werner is a veteran of these championships. The senior from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri qualified for both NXN and Foot Locker Nationals as a freshman (40th/13th) and sophomore (5th/10th). As a junior, she cut her junior post-season due to a stress reaction in her pelvis. She was back on track in the spring, though her times were far from her best. But a healthy summer seems to have cured all, as Werner is running the fastest marks of her career and enjoying an undefeated run.
Most notably, she destroyed her own course record at the Missouri state championship by 17 seconds (17:14.22 for 5K). Then, instead of going for broke at both NXN and Foot Locker, she chose to focus solely on San Diego -- and with optimal results so far. The Arkansas recruit became just the second prep behind two-time Foot Locker Nationals champion Anna Rohrer to break 17 minutes on the University of Wisconsin-Kenosha course for Foot Locker Midwest with a 16:57.3, No. 2 All-Time performance. The victory secured a 'W' over top ranked prep Judy Pendergast, who owns the nation's fastest three mile time this year (15:53).