When asked whether Notre Dame’s runner-up finish in last season’s NCAA Cross Country Championships was going to serve more as momentum or motivation heading into this year’s event, Saturday, in Tallahassee, Fla., Dylan Jacobs paused for a second.
“Hmm, that’s a good question,” the Irish senior distance ace said. “I feel like it’s a little bit of both. It’s definitely a confidence boost, because we know that we can hang with all of these powerhouses that have been there for so many years, but it’s also motivation.
“We finished second, and we were pretty happy about it last year, but once you finish second, you don’t want to finish second again.”
Last season, Jacobs finished second individually on his team and 20th overall to earn All-America honors at the 2020 NCAA Championships last March in Stillwater, Okla. — the race was moved from its traditional November date because of the pandemic. The second-place finish for Notre Dame tied its best finish in the race since winning the national title in 1957.
Jacobs admitted before this year’s event to being satisfied with his team’s runner-up performance eight months ago behind perennial powerhouse Northern Arizona — a program that entered the weekend’s national championship race having won four of the last five national titles.
But with a second straight ACC championship for the Irish Oct. 29 — Jacobs finished second in the race — before another team win in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional qualifier Nov. 12, Jacobs celebrated that his group was healthy, peaking, and ready to dethrone the mighty Lumberjacks as NCAA champions.
“Momentum and confidence are two of the biggest things in running and in sports, in general,” explained Jacobs, a Chicagoland native.
“The team that wins the World Series isn’t always necessarily the best team, it’s usually the team with the most momentum and most confidence going into the championship season.”
When asked to describe Jacobs as a runner, Notre Dame men’s head cross country coach Sean Carlson called him a “big meet” competitor.
And when told about his coach’s assessment, Jacobs said that the No. 4-ranked Irish — which returned six All-Americans from last season’s team, placed seven runners in the top 16 at the recent ACC meet, and six in the top 12 of the NCAA Great Lakes Regional race — are loaded with “big meet” competitors.
“When it comes to the championship season, you just really settle in and realize that all the work is really already done,” explained Jacobs, a business analytics major that will graduate in May with an eye on a career in analysis or consulting.
“All you can do now is control your emotions and control what you can on that day. If you do that, the amount of work we all put in during the offseason, and throughout the year, then good things are bound to happen.”
But whatever the final result, Jacobs explained that the lessons and experiences gained as a Notre Dame student-athlete will ultimately outweigh his cross country success.
“I’m so fortunate to have an opportunity to be at a place like Notre Dame, academically, athletically and socially,” he said. “It’s challenging, it’s tough, it’s what you want and it makes you better as an individual.”
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