What in the world has gotten into BYU’s Jaslyn Gardner? After six years of collegiate competition, after competing in meets all over the country since 2019 and never qualifying for the NCAA championships, she has suddenly produced world-class times in the final two weeks of her collegiate career. Overnight, Gardner, a senior from tiny Enterprise, Utah, has taken a quantum leap forward.
“I’m sure there are multiple factors, but basically just preparation meeting opportunity. It’s been there waiting to come out. Glad she picked now to unleash it.”
— BYU sprint and hurdle coach Kyle Grossarth of Jaslyn Gardner's performance at the NCAA prelims
At the Big 12 Conference championships, she was no better than sixth place, with a solid, but hardly spectacular time of 11.35. Two weeks later, she delivered perhaps the most surprising performance of the NCAA West Preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In the first round, she clocked a time of 11.03, the fourth-fastest time of the day. Two days later, she won her quarterfinal heat and hit the finish line in 11.00 seconds, third-fastest of the day.
A year ago, she placed 37th in the same meet, with a time of 11.63. Times of 11.63 and 11.00 aren’t just far apart — they’re different ZIP codes.
Her latest performance qualified her for the 100-meter dash at the NCAA championships, which will be held Wednesday through Saturday in Eugene, Oregon. Her quarterfinal time would have met the A standard for the U.S. Olympic trials and the Olympic Games — if not for the wind.
Both of her performances in the NCAA prelims were wind-aided, which means they can’t count for record or qualification purposes. Gardner’s first-round time had a 3.0-meters-per-second wind aid — 2.0 and under is “legal” (every heat was wind-aided that day and Gardner’s heat had the least wind of all of them).
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The quarterfinal race had a wind aid of 2.1 — a mere one-hundredth of a second over the allowable mark. Otherwise, it would’ve made her the 15th-fastest sprinter in the world so far this year. According to online conversion calculators, a time of 11.00 with a 2.1 wind aid converts to the same time with a 2.0 wind. In other words, that one-hundredth of a second wind aid made no measurable difference.
Gardner’s official personal record is 11.22.
Where did 11.00 come from?
“I’m sure there are multiple factors, but basically just preparation meeting opportunity,” says BYU sprint and hurdle coach Kyle Grossarth. “It’s been there waiting to come out. Glad she picked now to unleash it.”
‘Never in my wildest dreams’
Grossarth’s reaction to Gardner’s performance was about what you might expect: “I thought, holy cow, never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d coach someone who would run 11 flat. I felt bad for her that it was wind-aided. The difference between 11.22 and 11.00 is night and day.”
Grossarth thinks there is more to come. “It wasn’t a perfect race. Her first 30 wasn’t her best.”
For her part, Gardner says, “I was a little surprised, but my execution felt really smooth. When I saw the time, I thought, ‘Oh, that makes sense.’ I think I always had the potential if I put a race together.”
That has been the challenge. After setting 2A state records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes (11.69/23.75) and long jump (19-2 ¼) at Enterprise High, she continued to progress during her first two years at BYU, but her trajectory flattened the next two years and her performances were erratic.
She has experienced a variety of injuries — hamstring issues or a foot injury (the latter cost her the 2022 outdoor season) — but even those didn’t account for the up-and-down nature of her performances.
Grossarth took over Gardner’s training two years ago after coach Stephani Perkins moved to Southern Illinois. As the men’s coach, he had already observed one problem that he addressed with her immediately.
Home cookin’
“She was amazing at home meets, but get her away from home and, for whatever reason, she wasn’t very good,” he says.
As a freshman, she ran times ranging from 11.74-11.96 on the road, but popped an 11.38 in Provo to break Windy Jorgensen’s 22-year-old school record. She followed that up with races of 11.75 and 11.88 the next two meets — both on the road — to finish the collegiate season. As a sophom*ore, she dropped her school record to 11.35 during a meet in Provo, but followed that with a wind-aided 11.58 on the road. That was the pattern.
“That’s one of the first things I addressed with her,” says Grossarth. “I told her, ‘You’re obviously capable of running fast, but you have to be able to do this away from our track and the environment you’re used to.’ It was a matter of instilling a belief that she’s capable of this.”
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It was a work in progress. In 2023, she ran a superb time of 11.23 with a 2.5 wind aid in Provo, and in the next two weeks she ran wind-legal times of 11.62 and 11.63 at two competitions on the road.
This year, she finally performed well on the road. She broke her own school record in Provo with a time of 11.22 and broke Mindy Neeley’s 14-year-old school record in the 200 with a time of 23.10, but she also ran 11.23 and 23.33 in Texas this season, as well as the 11.0 performances at the NCAA preliminaries in Arkansas.
‘Two different speeds’
Last fall, Grossarth addressed another issue with Gardner — her intensity in workouts. “She’s been more consistent this year for sure,” says the coach. “I attribute that to being more deliberate with what she’s doing daily. There was practice Jaz and meet-day Jaz. She had two different speeds.
“She had these big goals of running 11 flat or 10 something. I said, you’re capable, but you can’t have practice-day Jaz and meet-day Jaz. Meet-day Jaz needs to be more intense and deliberate in what she does at practice. You could see a change right away. She recognized it when I pointed it out and she made an effort to bring that race intensity to practice.”
Having sorted all of that out, Gardner is hoping to repeat her West Preliminaries performance at the NCAA championships and achieve the A qualifying standard for the Olympic trials of 11.07. The competition will be intense. Twenty-three of the 24 qualifiers have run 11.19 or faster, 19 of them under 11.10.
“She’s going to have to go, go, go,” says Grossarth.
At a crossroads
The NCAA meet will bring Gardner to a crossroads. She had thought these were the last two weeks of her long track career — her collegiate eligibility will end this week — but then came her big breakthrough at the West Preliminaries.
“It gave me hope that I could maybe run a little longer (as a pro),” says Gardner.
“This has opened her mind to possibilities,” says Grossarth.
One of those possibilities, he believes, is bobsled competition, if not professional track.
“She would be incredible,” he says. “She’s super powerful. In the weightroom, she is putting up numbers and weights that are crazy. She is stronger than every guy on our team, and my guys are strong. She squats 415 (pounds). She could do more but the strength coach shuts her down, tells her that’s enough.”
Gardner is uncertain about what she will do next. She has already been running competitively for 14 years. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she was adopted by Kurt and Ramona Gardner at the age of 3 months and raised in Enterprise (population 2,200), where she spent her youth immersed in sports. Recognizing Jaslyn’s speed, Ramona made the 40-minute drive to St. George several times a week so Jaslyn could participate in a track program headed by Justin Redfearn, who is now the coach of Snow Canyon High’s powerhouse track program.
“We tried a lot of sports,” Gardner says. “I knew I was fast.”
She has been running ever since then, but has many interests — she draws, paints, plays piano by ear, writes songs and plans a career in personal training and coaching, the focus of her degree in exercise and wellness. She indicates there are other things she would like to do beyond running.
“I could keep running, maybe contact someone (an agent) about it, or I could start my career in personal training and coaching,” she says. With her collegiate eligibility winding down, she notes, " I feel like I’ve been here long enough. It’s time to move on from track either way. Time to move on to the next thing.”
