Heidi Nielson announced via instagram that she has verbally committed to the University of Arkansas, the 2019 NCAA National Champions in women's cross country.
The Cinco Ranch senior has put together a decorated high school career so far and has another fall and spring to continue to add to her high school career. That enabled her to gain the attention of top programs across the country and allowed her to make a decision in these new and untraditional recruiting restrictions.
The class of 2020 had their all-to-important junior track season taken away by the season shut down due to COVID. That took away a chance to peak and compete in major invitationals, district, regionals, and state championship meets, impacting their college recruitment.
Nielson had been able to create an impressive resume throughout her career going back to her freshman season. As a freshman, she placed fourth at the UIL 6A State Cross Country Championships by running a 17:26. Later that season, she went on to qualify for the Foot Locker Nationals.
Nielson would continue to qualify for and medal at state meet competitions as well as national and international competitions.
In just her sophomore season, she competed against mostly collegiate competition in the USATF Cross Country Championships, where she finished sixth place. That qualified her to compete for the Team USA junior team at the 43rd IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.
Later that summer, Nielson also qualified to represent the Team USA Junior Track and Field team at the Pan Am U20 Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica where she competed in the 5,000m.
Nielson becomes the latest Texas girls distance runner to commit to Arkansas, joining London Culbreath - McKinney North, Adoette Vaughan - Hockaday, Isabel Van Camp - Keller, Quinn Owen - Marcus, Ashton Endsley - Abilene, Abby Gray - Alamo Heights, Devin Clark - Smithson Valley, and Maddy Reed - Marcus.
