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As Elaine Feeny picked up her daughter from kindergarten, other moms told her that when the boys chased the girls, they could never catch Sarah.

The list of people who can catch Sarah Feeny has been shrinking ever since.

The Utah freshman set state records in cross country and the 1600 and 3200 meters last year as a senior at Ogden High, and over the summer established herself as one of the best young runners in the nation over 1 mile.

Up next: the Pac-12.

In 2013, led by then-juniors Rebekah Winterton and Susannah Hurst, the Ute cross-country team finished eighth in the Pac-12, its best result since joining one of the nation's elite women's running conferences.

Feeny has the potential to take them further.

"She's unique," said head coach Kyle Kepler. "There's no doubt about it."

Feeny won her first and only collegiate race, the Montana State Invitational, despite having fought a weeklong sore throat and following Kepler's orders to hang back for the first mile.

Once she made her break, though, she never trailed again.

"There were a lot of people cheering for the girl behind me, and it helped me push myself," Feeny said. "They were like 'You can do it!' And I was like 'No, you can't!' "

Her first exposure to racing came in a jogging stroller, as her mother — herself a competitive runner — did the hard work.

At age 9, Feeny joined the Ogden Track Club, founded by family friend and Ogden High coach Alydia Barton.

"It became obvious very quickly that she was very talented," Barton said. "She had natural leg speed."

Few 9-year-olds relish distance training, Barton said, and Feeny was no different. But she was trusting. She wanted to be the fastest, and if you told her to do something that would help her accomplish that, she was game.

By high school, Feeny started to enjoy it. Running on the local trails — one, with rolling hills, recalled her first love, roller coasters — became a reward in itself.

And, of course, it helped that she was the fastest.

At the Adidas Dream Mile and the Brooks PR Invitational, in June, she twice ran a 4:39 to best a field of some of her top U.S. peers.

She chose the U. over out-of-state powerhouses like Stanford because she believes the cross country team can qualify for nationals and because the school's mechanical engineering program will allow her to pursue her dream of designing roller coasters.

Ever since visiting Lagoon as a youngster, Feeny has read roller coaster books, played roller coaster games, memorized roller coaster stats and drawn roller coasters everywhere, Elaine said.

She doesn't want her life to become a roller coaster, though. Kepler said she "loves routine, as most distance runners do," so she's trying to find one that balances her lofty career goals with her running goals — which he hopes to temper somewhat.

"I want her to think big and dream big, and think NCAA championships, but I don't think that should be an expectation for a kid, especially as a freshman," Kepler said. "An expectation would be to get to the NCAA championships and fight for one of those All-American spots in cross country, and then we'll worry about track."

Both Kepler and Barton credit Feeny for caring as much as anything else about the success of her team. That's evident by her actions, Barton said.

"In high school, even though she was the best of the best on her team, and in the state, that usually breeds jealousy with girls, but because she was more happy for other people's success than her own, you had to love her."

Given that she's among the best for her age at an Olympic event, the obvious question is whether Feeny sees the Olympics in her future.

People ask her that all the time, she said, but she's simply working hard and seeing where it takes her.

Elaine said her daughter's goals can be a mystery even to her. "She has an inner determination that she doesn't share with a lot of people."

If that's on her agenda, we may only know because she will have done it.

mpiper@sltrib.com Twitter: @matthew_piper