{"id":349868,"date":"2026-06-06T20:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T20:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349868\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T20:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T20:40:08","slug":"sdsu-heptathlete-beats-injuries-will-compete-for-ncaa-track-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349868\/","title":{"rendered":"SDSU heptathlete beats injuries, will compete for NCAA track title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>San Diego State heptathlete Jenna Fee Feyerabend, a two-time NCAA All-American.(Photo by Chris Swann)<\/p>\n

Two and a half years ago, San Diego State senior heptathlete Jenna Fee Feyerabend was running and tripped over a large nail left in the grass by maintenance workers, severely spraining her ankle.<\/p>\n

To keep training and competing, Fee Feyerabend began compensating on her right side. The
adjustment eventually led to a stress reaction in her spine, triggering a chain of injuries that
lingered over multiple seasons on the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was horrible, because the only reason I moved to the U.S. was to continue running track
while earning a degree,\u201d Fee Feyerabend, a native of Gro\u00df-Gerau, Germany, said. \u201cFifty percent of my identity and purpose was suddenly stripped away. There was also the sadness and everything leading up to the accident that I try to remind myself I couldn\u2019t have done anything different about. It was an accident, but it was definitely hard for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fee Feyerabend capped her comeback in May by winning her third Mountain West heptathlon title and setting a meet record with 5,905 points.<\/p>\n

Heading into next week\u2019s NCAA Outdoor Championships<\/a> in Eugene, Oregon, Aztec track and
field<\/a> head coach Sheila Burrell was blunt when reflecting on Fee Feyerabend\u2019s early years in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some crying,\u201d Burrell said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy. It wasn\u2019t always pleasant. There was
pushback: \u2018This is what you\u2019ve got to do. This is what I want you to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrell pointed to a cultural divide, noting that Fee Feyerabend arrived in San Diego with an
approach to track and field shaped by European sensibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropeans approach sport a little bit differently than Americans do,\u201d Burrell said. \u201cBeing able
to acknowledge that and bring her into my way of thinking, while also respecting her
perspective, has been part of the process. In the United States, in Division I track and field, you compete whether you feel good or not. It\u2019s a very intense, cutthroat environment. Europeans tend to be more technical and more selective about when they compete. Here, we have so many good athletes that it\u2019s more like, \u2018just go run.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Fee Feyerabend said the demands of the seven-event heptathlon have shaped how she thinks
about performance and resilience. She described mental strength as partly innate, but it\u2019s also an aspect of her training that she approaches with the same seriousness as her physical preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heptathlon is one of the craziest events that there is in the track and field world,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause it consists of seven different events that are completely different from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a mental coach and I work with a psychologist,\u201d she said. \u201cThat takes the awareness
that mental strength has to be built and taken seriously, just like physical strength. Sometimes
it\u2019s hard, but I\u2019m building that experience. When I show up every day, I can get better. If I don\u2019t
show up, I don\u2019t give myself that chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A two-time NCAA All-American, Fee Feyerabend holds school records in both the indoor
pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon. Her best events are the high jump and javelin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the most aesthetic,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the same time, they just seem the most natural to
me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the NCAA Championships starting Wednesday, Fee Feyerabend will line up against the top
heptathletes in the country, but she said her focus remains on competing against herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never try to go against another person, because that seems a little uncontrollable,\u201d she said.
\u201cYou never know what someone else is going to do. What if they have a bad day? Then you
can\u2019t really go against them anymore. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think it\u2019s just you against you. I like to say it\u2019s me with me. It\u2019s about being in my own bubble and taking that experience in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fee Feyerabend will return in the fall as a graduate student for one final indoor season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego State heptathlete Jenna Fee Feyerabend, a two-time NCAA All-American.(Photo by Chris Swann) Two and a half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9591,74,76,75,301,81425],"class_list":["post-349868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-ncaa","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-state-university","tag-track-and-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}