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BYU freshman distance runner Jane Hedengren places her racing bib in a time capsule on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Provo.

Courtesy Nate Edwards/BYU

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BYU President Shane Reese shows off his sneaker set to be placed in a time capsule on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Provo.

Courtesy Nate Edwards/BYU

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People attend a time capsule packing event Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at Brigham Young University in Provo.

Courtesy Nate Edwards/BYU

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BYU basketball player Richie Saunders places a jersey in the BYU time capsule on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Provo.

Courtesy Nate Edwards/BYU

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BYU President Shane Reese and Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink placed items in a time capsule on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Provo.

Courtesy Nate Edwards/BYU

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Items to be placed in a time capsule are pictured Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at Brigham Young University in Provo.

Courtesy Nate Edwards/BYU

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Days after setting the NCAA record in the 10,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational last Friday, Jane Hedengren created history in another way Tuesday afternoon.

The freshman distance-running phenom from Provo stood atop a stage at Brigham Square on Brigham Young University’s campus and placed a bib and a jersey she wore while winning the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters in the NCAA indoor championships on March 13 into a time capsule.

The time capsule, a part of BYU’s 150th anniversary celebration, will be stowed away on campus and opened in 50 years at BYU’s 200th anniversary. The university previously opened a time capsule last October from 1976 that was placed to commemorate the 100th anniversary.

Hedengren, who many believe to be a generational talent, was honored to be part of a story that will be told about BYU 50 years in the future.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Hedengren told the crowd at Brigham Square. “I’m just so grateful to be here at this university and getting to represent a small part of what we’re doing here. And it’s been incredibly inspiring.”

Going inside the time capsule along with Hedengren’s jersey and bib are a number of items that were selected from more than 500 suggestions from students, faculty and alumni.

“We noticed when they created the centennial, they had categories, and we love the idea of categories,” Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink told the Daily Herald. “Things that represent the past, things that are distinctive about the celebration period itself and things that sort of speak to the future. And we tried to collect items that would reflect all of those different categories.”

Making the cut was President Shane Reese’s Nike blue sneaker, which he took off his foot onstage and signed with a Sharpie; an iPhone; a stainless steel water bottle; BYU 150 memorabilia and a roll of pennies from the university vault, because pennies stopped being minted last November.

Predicting items that won’t be used in the future, Reese and Vorkink placed inside measuring cups; a tape measure and a slide rule, under the assumption the United States will go away from the imperial system; and a sheet of cursive paper, because cursive is no longer taught in schools.

BYU also put in a Church News article showing the 383 temples built, under construction or announced, a diploma from 1975 signed by Carl G Mazer that was originally in the centennial time capsule, and an updated graduate certificate design from 2026.

BYU will also continue a tradition set in the previous time capsule of adding the athletic gear from Hedengren, as well as a game-worn jersey from senior basketball player Richie Saunders.

The centennial capsule included a game-worn jersey from former BYU quarterback Gifford Nielsen. Nielsen, who is now a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was on hand to open the capsule in October.

The idea of being back onstage in 50 years came to Saunders’ mind before he placed his jersey into the box on Tuesday.

“When I first got the text that this was happening, it kind of gave me some weird feelings of, I’m going to be 75 or 74 years old (when we open it),” he said. “I look back, last time it was Giff, who’s one of my heroes. I look up to him and to think that he’s now a general authority, I don’t know if that’s my trajectory, but what an honor it is to be up here and to be a part of it.”

Vorkink said regardless of where Hedengren and Saunders’ athletic careers go from here, he’s confident they have bright things in store for the next half century.

“The great thing about both Jane and Richie is that they’re not just spectacular athletes. They’re incredible disciples of Jesus Christ,” Vorkink said. “They both care deeply about the mission of the university, about the church that sponsors the university. They do their best to let that reflect in all that they do. And I imagine that even if it’s not athletic pursuits, in the future, they’ll find some way, like (Elder Gifford) to be a bright star somehow, and it will be neat to see them back in the Bicentennial and what they’ve done and what they’ve become.”

The time capsule will be placed in the Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building when reconstruction is completed in three years. Vorkink said they wanted to put it in the Harold B. Lee Library, where the 1975 time capsule went, but they couldn’t for engineering purposes.

“But now, because (the administration building) is not built, we can find a place to put it,” he said. “It won’t impact the structure or anything else.”

When it is unveiled, what does Vorkink want BYU in the 2075-76 school year to know about BYU in the 2025-26 school year?

“My hope is they feel our commitment to the mission of the university, to try to play our role in its life’s history, to help move it forward in the direction the prophets have asked us to move it,” he said.