The long distance specialist from Orland Park, Illinois, has rewritten the Tennessee record book in his debut season on Rocky Top — most recently taking down the program standard in the outdoor 5k with a victory at the SEC Outdoor Championships on May 13. His time of 13:36.93 secured UT’s first conference title in the 5k since 1981 while breaking the SEC meet record and LSU Bernie Moore Track Stadium facility record.
Jacobs, the defending national champion in the men’s 10,000-meter for Notre Dame, made his outdoor debut for the Vols at the Bryan Clay Invitational and won the invitational 10k with a lifetime-best mark of 28:01.53. The performance took down a 32-year-old school set by two-time Olympian Todd Williams.
His phenomenal campaign includes being recognized as the USTFCCCA National Track Athlete of the Year for the 2022-23 indoor season after posting Southeastern Conference records and all-time top five performances in both the indoor 3,000m and 5,000m. His season-best time of 7:36.89 in the 3k was the No. 2 performance in collegiate history and .47 seconds shy of the NCAA record, while his fastest 5k of 13:11.01 stands as the No. 3 all-time collegiate performance and ranked fifth on the 2023 world list.
His phenomenal indoor season culminated with an individual national title in the men’s 5,000-meter at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, running a time of 13:37.59 for the fastest indoor 5k at high altitude in collegiate history.
Jacobs is the fourth Tennessee athlete to appear on the men’s watch list for The Bowerman alongside Darryl Sullivan (2020), 2017 winner Christian Coleman and Jake Blankenship (2016).
The USTFCCCA will release one more update to The Bowerman watch lists in June (post-NCAA DI first rounds), and 10 semifinalists will be named after the conclusion of the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Six finalists (three men, three women) will be selected by the Bowerman Advisory Board, and voting will take place into July. The winners will be announced at the annual USTFCCCA convention in December, held this year in Aurora, Colorado, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center.
THE BOWERMAN…
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