Jhanelle Thomas focuses during the 300 hurdles at the Nashua North Invitational last month. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – In the beginning, Jhanelle Thomas went the distance.

Now, she takes an incredibly successful shorter route, hurdling over every obstacle.

That’s the way the Nashua High School North senior’s athletic career has gone, and she couldn’t be happier. Thomas has parlayed her indoor and outdoor track success with the Titans – she was The Telegraph’s 2024 Girls Track Athlete of the Year – into a spot next fall on the High Point University track team.

Ability galore.

“She was just born with it,” Titans coach Renee Archer said. “She’s just sheer talent. And she takes it a step up by putting in the hard work. She’ve driven Very driven, and she’s fortunate to be born very athletic as well.”

The journey has had a couple of twists and turns. Thomas started running cross country in elementary school, then began to take track seriously in middle school at Pennichuck. “My Mom (Florence) got me into it, she convinced me to start doing something different, and it went from there.”

The Nashua native was successful right away, as she went to the Junior Olympics in cross country as an elementary school student. “I got into it more, and saw the potential,” she said.

In fact, the first race she ever won came in the city championship cross country meet held right at North. But eventually, in eighth grade, Thomas chucked the distance. How come?

She realized there were times during a cross country race she could put on a burst of speed. So she realized, why huff and puff when the shortest distance between two points is a straight line?

“The long distance, I was was like, I could see myself do something fast and quick, I got into it, and I turned out to be good at it, so I went with that.”

At first, Thomas leared from a track club coach Selena Rashad, who taught her how to get a better start, hurdles, etc.

“It was mostly speed mechanics, because I had been a distance runner,” Thomas said. “She helped me make the switch better.”

And then, since she wasn’t running cross country any longer – much to Archer’s dismay – Thomas played soccer in the fall of her freshman year for North.

“It was fun, I liked it, but I had to give it up,” Thomas said. “I finally made the switch to just doing track. It was better for me, so I could focus on my main sport that I’m going to college for.”

Archer, who will miss this senior class when it’s all over, knew what was ahead for Thomas. “Her reputation preceded her,” she said. “And I watched her play soccer; I knew the girl had jets.”

Soccer helped her stay in shape and was good for endurance. Thomas hit the limelight a couple of years ago at the annual Kiwanis Freshman-Sophomore Meet in Salem, when she was named the event’s Girls Outstanding Athlete (fellow Titan Darius Smith won the boys award).

And then, back at Salem, Thomas anchored the 4×400 relay win that vaulted the Titans into a third place finish at the Division I championships.

She had arrived. And last year the Titans repeated the title with a state record.

And the relays are something she feels is what the sport of track is all about – individual effort to be part of teamwork. All four runners depend on each other for the success of the unit.

“It shows how much everyone’s working,” Thomas said. “I’m always the anchor, so I see everyone run, I see how the race starts, and I see how it ends, because I end it. It just shows how everyone works together as a team, and it that’s what shows how everyone cares everyone is working hard to make everyone else proud. That’s what makes it more emotional.”

“She’s a nice kid, she’s so great to her teammates,” Archer said. “She’s come a long way as far as that teammate thing. I don’t think she knew exactly how to navigate coming to high school.”

But Thomas bonded with her teammates, such as Tiana Brown and Laura White, and that’s helped make the North track experience a family affair. “It’s fun, it’s like a family, it’s fun, they’re afraid to ask each other questions. She’s just been a really good leader and teammate.”

Thomas says she feels the pressure of the anchor spot, but also welcomes it. “I watch the whole race, so I know what needs to happen,” she said. “It’s like a little bit of pressure but it’s not anything we’re not all used to. It helps a lot (behing the anchor), because then I get to see what I need to do.”

Her favorite event is the 300 hurdles. That’s something Archer got her really involved in her sophomore year, and Thomas can’t get enough of that race. How come?

“For me, personally, if you hit one hurdle, the race isn’t over, you still have time to make it up,” Thomas said. “That’s in the 300 hurdles. In the 100 hurdles if you mess up once, it’s over.”

“She really wasn’t resistant to it,” Archer said when she first introduced hurdling to Thomas. “Indoors she doesn’t like the 55 hurdles as much, but she loves the 300s. College will be fun for her, she’ll love the 400 hurdles.”

And that’s why Thomas feel she’s best, she thinks, in the 400 meters.

“It’s the same thing as the 300 hurdles,” she said. “It’s long enough where even if you don’t get the best start, you still have time to catch up. It’s a different race. It’s one lap.”

Thomas enjoys the track community and the bonding that takes place, as she sees people from different places all on one spot. In a few months, however, she’ll be headed to a different community, one in North Carolina. High Point, who she committed to nearly three weeks ago,has its perks.

“Definitely the environment,” she said, “and it seems like a good team environment, I can see myself contributing, scoring points at conference (title meets), things like that. And also the family aspect, because my sister (Monique) lives in North Carolina right now, so I have someone there, too, so it’ll be nice.”

Nashua North’s Jhanelle Thomas gets a hug from her coach, Renee Archer, as well as teammate Rosalie Neveu, right, after the Titans’ 4×400 relay team won in record time in the final event in last spring’s Divsion I championships at Portsmouth High School. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

Archer feels Thomas will do great at the next level. “You see her, this is the easy stuff for her,” she said. “She’ll have more competition, and obviously some better training, more consistent training, and I hope she just explodes. The sky’s the limit for her if she wants to put in the work. It’ll be hard, a little bit of an adjustment, college sports always are. But if she can hang in with the training, there’s no limit to what that girl can accomplish.”

She’s already shown the work ethic, Archer said Thomas has put in a lot of time in the weight room, something she hadn’t done when she was younger.

Thomas wants to major in political science as a path to pre-law. And in track, she wants to contribute heavily. ”

Not just be there,”she said. “Make an impact.” And High Point, she said, came hard after her. The recruiting process was pressure in itself, she said.

“It’s a lot sometimes,” she said. “But at the end of the day, it’s all worth it. And it’s over now.”

But certainly not her track career, which is just taking off. Thomas studies and tries to learn by watching hurdler/world record holder Sydney McLaughlin, “because of the way she runs the hurdles. I can see myself (doing it). I like the way she does it. I take notes sometimes.”

Now that is a serious athlete. But Thomas admits that before every race, she’s usually calm.

“I’m calm, but I’m always thinking of what I need to do,” she said. “It’s a mix of emos (emotions). The pressure sometimes is high, but I know what I need to be when I go on the track, and sometimes it’s laid back so I can have fun.”

And that’s why she has the goal to do both in the next month.

“Win states,” she said, “and end it with all my friends.”

See, even though the races are shorter, Jhanelle Thomas is still going the distance.