Erica Birk-Jarvis

[Image:Erica_Birk-Jarvis.jpg|300px|thumb|right]]

Erica Birk-Jarvis is an elite collegiate distance runner who led the Brigham Young University women’s cross country team to a second place finish at the 2019 DI Women’s NCAA Cross Country Championship. BYU had led the field after the first 2,000-meters with Birk-Jarvis in the lead pack.

With the help of her coach, Diljeet Taylor, she came back to running after giving birth to her first child in December 2017. In her first meet back, she finished first in the 5K with a career-best time of 17:00.9. Runner’s World wrote that it’s not uncommon for a professional female athlete “to return to form” after giving birth, but “the phenomenon is far less common among collegiate athletes.”[1] Birk-Jarvis became BYU’s first West Coast Conference women’s cross-country champion in 2018. She finished seventh overall at November 2018 NCAA XC Championship, which was a big improvement over her previous best NCAA finish of 34th place in 2016 (and earned All-American honors). ESPN wrote “Birk-Jarvis has returned to competition in a thunderous way, placing in the top four of every race she’s run this year [2018].”[2]

Birk-Jarvis is from Coalville, Utah, and set records for North Summit High School. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a full-time mission in Cleveland, Ohio. Her husband, Tyler, also served his mission in Ohio. Her mother, Nicole Wardrop, was a runner for BYU.