When Brenley Goertzen qualified for the NCAA DI Cross Country Championships last fall, she was the first Texas Christian University athlete to do so since Agnes Kemboi in 2012.

Since then, Goertzen has rewritten the TCU school record books in three different events by a cumulative 52 seconds: indoor 3K (9:19.21), indoor 5K (16:02.8), and outdoor 5K (15:51.78), the latter of which ranks the sophomore No. 15 in the NCAA this year.

Her marks are even more impressive when you consider her progression in barely a year's time: She posted a 5:10 mile best indoors and 4:46 for 1500m last spring as a freshman.

In February, Goertzen won the Big 12 Indoor Championship title in the 5K, TCU's first since joining the conference in 2012, and this weekend, the Woodbury, MN, native looks to add the outdoor title to her collection.

Watch the 2017 Big 12 Outdoor Championship LIVE on FloTrack

Brenley Goertzen reacts to winning the 5K at the Big 12 Indoor Championship:



"A picture-perfect race would be a win and a PR," she says over the phone on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the outdoor conference championship. "I've built a lot of confidence in different areas of my training [in the past two months] and developed tools that I don't think I necessarily had when I ran at indoor Big 12s."

After missing the indoor national meet by just two seconds, she is also keen on qualifying to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, OR, this June. Her first nationals appearance in cross country culminated with a 108th place finish in Terre Haute, IN.

Key to Goertzen's confidence was her first sub-16-minute 5K, the school record-setting 15:51 effort at the Stanford Invitational in the first week of April. She was seeded in the second-fastest section in Palo Alto, CA, and grew concerned when the pace wasn't as fast as she and her coach had envisioned. But instead of surrendering to the fickleness of the pack, Goertzen took things into her own hands (or legs) at 2K to go and ran stride for stride with Oregon All-American Samantha Nadel, as both cracked 16 minutes for the first time in their careers.

Though Goertzen was the first to ratchet up the pace, Nadel was the stronger kicker and came away with the win, 15:49.26 to 15:51.78. 

"My coach [Jennifer Fazioli] definitely thought I was capable of going sub-16, it was just a matter of if the field was feeling it that day," Goertzen says. "During the race, I had to make an adjustment pretty quickly once I realized the field was not pushing the pace. My coach is really good at communicating that stuff to me, and Sam Nadel and I just really decided to push the pace and go for it."

Since then, Goertzen has run three 1500m races, including a PB of 4:27.36, and Fazioli has designed Goertzen's workouts -- which she often completes with the men's team -- to focus on improving her closing speed.

One workout that had her reeling was a 9x800m session at 5K race pace with the closing 200m at her finishing speed, which she estimates is "30 to 31 seconds."

​Watch Brenley Goertzen battle with Oregon's Samantha Nadel to sub-16-minute 5Ks at the Stanford Invitational:



But, wait -- how did she go from a 4:46 1500m runner to a woman capable of running well under 16 minutes for 5K?

For starters, she spent the majority of her freshman year fighting off-and-on injuries. The graduate of East Ridge High School in Woodbury was an 800m specialist in her prep days, boasting a PB of 2:14.76. Her top placement at the Minnesota state meet was an eighth-place effort in the 800m her sophomore year, but she did not compete during her senior outdoor season due to injury.

"My freshman year was pretty frustrating," she says. "I could never got a solid block of training in. I was always disturbed by these annoying injuries going on. I have really just tried to work on the things I'm weakest at and accept that I am changing and evolving all the time with my training and my races.

"My high school coach would say to me, 'You're an 800m runner who's just running cross,' so getting out of that mindset and accepting that I have this newfound strength in running long distances took some time. Before, I always liked to do short, fast stuff on the track, but now I really enjoy doing my long runs."

​Watch Goertzen win her debut 5K at the 2017 Big 12 Indoor Championship:



Even so, Goertzen is actually running less weekly mileage this year than she did last year. She estimates she hit over 55 miles per week on average during her freshman year but regularly put in 50-55 miles during the cross country season and hovers around 45 miles per week right now for track. 

"I just realized the slow mileage was wearing on my body and wasn't benefitting me at all," she says, thanks in part to observations from her mother, who, while not a runner, set the foundation for Goertzen's athleticism.

Goertzen is actually first-generation American, as both of her parents are Canadian and matriculated at the University of Manitoba, where her mother competed in gymnastics. Goertzen, the oldest of three children, grew up playing soccer and hockey -- often, on the ice rink that her dad builds every winter in the family's backyard.

In another world -- or, maybe Canada -- perhaps Goertzen would be a hockey star. 

"I have hockey on the television when I'm doing stuff at home," she says. "It makes me feel less homesick."

Despite any homesickness, Goertzen planned to attend college in Texas ever since falling in love with the state while traveling to Houston for a USATF summer track meet. Her mother took her on a tour of local colleges that included Rice, Baylor, and the University of Texas, though Goertzen says she knew TCU was the perfect fit as soon as she stepped foot on campus.

"I knew I wanted to go somewhere different for these four years of my life and learn how to live on my own," she says of her decision to move from Minnesota to Texas for college. "But also... probably the weather."

​Goertzen after her breakout third-place finish at the Big 12 Cross Country Championship:

How to Watch The 2017 Big 12 Outdoor Championship

On TV: Available on Roku and Apple TV 4 -- download the FloSports app now.
Streaming: Only on FloTrack with a PRO subscription. A yearly PRO subscription provides access to ALL FloSports sites. JOIN NOW