KOC & 5Star Preps 2025 Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year — Calysta Garmer, Webb

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BY DAVE LINK

Talk about a wild race.

Calysta Garmer hasn’t raced anything like the 5,000-meter run she ran at the New Balance National Outdoors in Philadelphia in June.

Garmer, rising senior at Webb School of Knoxville, endured a rain delay and a crowded field of 46 other runners, surging to the victory and national championship.

And even better, Garmer’s identical twin sister, Jazzlyn, was fifth in the race and earned All-American honors along with Calysta.

“I feel like me and Jazzlyn, we have mutual respect for each other,” Calysta said. “We both know that we’re really hard workers. It’s awesome to have someone who is equally competitive as me and as talented as me to help push me every day, even on just easy run days. It helps keep the pace accountable. We keep each other very accountable, and I feel like it’s really helped us, especially in the longer races this season.”

Their combination of work ethic, talent, and determination make the Garmer twins elite runners. The Furman University commitments played big roles in the Webb girls’ clinching another state championship in Division II-AA track and field in late May.

Calysta, the 5Star Preps Girls’ Athlete of the Year, won state championships in the 1,600-meter run and the 3,200-meter run in Murfreesboro on May 21 and was fourth in the 800-meter run.

Jazzlyn was second in the 1,600 and the 3,200 and sixth in the 800.

Webb’s Carolina Areheart, a Vanderbilt commitment in the Class of 2026, won the 800-meters at state.

“We were going for the team championship that day and we got it,” Webb coach Dan Murray said. “At that point (before the 800), both Jazzmyn and Calysta were pretty gassed. They’d run a 2-mile race in the morning really fast, and the mile really fast, and whatever they had left in the 800 (would do). It might not have been something we did if we weren’t in the hunt for the team podium, but they were willing to do it.”

Webb won with 130 points, ahead of second place Lipscomb Academy (81 points) and Brentwood Academy (56 points).

“Winning the state title just shows that we were a pretty deep and talented team in all areas,” Calysta said, “so it’s definitely exciting for next year, just going for state again for one last year and really enjoying it. Even our sprinters and distance runners, I feel like we have a very strong connection with one another and we respect one another, and I’m definitely really excited for next year.”

Their trip to the University of Pennsylvania for the New Balance Nationals was the culmination of this outdoor season.

The Garmer twins weren’t newcomers, either, making their fourth run in the nationals.

It paid off when adversity struck before the 5,000-meter championship race.

Two weather delays postponed the start of the race, which officials even considered delaying until the next day.

Instead, it started at almost 10 p.m., more than two hours later than scheduled.

And instead of being run in two heats, the 5,000-meter was combined into one heat, meaning there were 47 runners competing.

“Whenever they combined the two heats into like 50 girls in the same race,” Calysta said, “I was talking to my coach, and we were pretty worried about the start because we hoped for no falls or anything and that it would be pretty clean.

“I was definitely pretty grateful that the start, it went pretty clean with no falls or anything. It was pretty chaotic at the start just since there were so many people, but it definitely got easier as the race started to string out.”

It certainly didn’t look easy to Murray.

He watched the twins work their way through traffic and stay with the front of the pack.

And when it was time for a push, Calysta Garmer found the openings.

“We thought there would be a front group of five or six that broke away,” Murray said, “which is exactly what happened, that if she just hung tight and let others do most of the work and stayed invisible till go-time that she had as good or better chance than anybody because of her 800 time.

“She has a solid 800-meter time, and some of the people that raced did not. So that’s exactly what she did, and she used some savvy at the end to sort of (move in front) and keep it. It was really her middle-distance background that paid off in the longer-distance race.”

Her winning time was 16:18.14, ahead of Natasza Deduk (16:18.78) and Mia Sirois (16:22.88).

Jazzlyn’s fifth-place time was 16:31.22.

“Definitely going into the season, I’d never even put that in my cards, like potentially winning nationals,” Calysta said, “because I’d never even won like a state meet, so it was just kind of crazy that all my hard work paid off on a big stage like that. It was really exciting, and it was all so rewarding to see all my hard work pay off.”

A couple days later, the Garmer twins ran the 1-mile race at the New Balance Nationals with Calysta finishing 35th and Jazzlyn 73rd.

“My legs were pretty fatigued after the 5K,” Calysta said, “but I still ran like (4:52.01). It was still faster than any time I ran last year, so I was pretty happy with it to end the season.”

Garmer also was the 5Star Preps Runner of the Year last fall when Webb repeated as state cross-country champion.

Not long after the Foot Locker Nationals in June, the Garmer twins went to the beach for some family time.

And they got running again after some time off.

“Me and Jazzlyn just came off our running break,” Calysta said from the beach. “We’re starting back into some easy running to kind of ease back into summer training, just to get ready for cross country season.

“It’s going to be a pretty long season, so we’re trying not to take summer training too hard, but just putting in the mileage and getting a good base for some hard work later in the season. I’m really excited for it.”