Jackson solidifies his legacy with a year full of dominance
Jackson Spencer is a senior that is currently attending Herriman High School in Utah while being committed to run for BYU in college. Spencer has displayed this last cross country season that he is without a doubt the best high school cross country high school runner in the nation this year and that no one even came close to rivaling him in terms of accolades this past season. Jackson is a runner that will be remembered for years to come and is sure to continue running and have a successful collegiate running career.
Jackson went undefeated the whole season and accomplished many incredible feats like Becoming the Utah state champion and becoming the fastest time recorded at the Utah state championships. Although amazing, it’s the things that he did out of Utah that really prove why he was the best this year.
Anthony Fasthorse ‘24 said, “All the records he’s run have been really impressive. I mean he’s genuinely taken seconds off many of the historic course records and that is very telling. He completed the national championship double and came home with both titles which is one of the biggest feats in high school running, as well as competing for team USA and helped be a part of the third place U20 team.”
At the 44th Woodbridge XC Classic, Jackson was completely dominant the entire race after he took the lead and continued to create more and more distance between himself and the rest of the runners in his race where he would go on to run an incredible time of 13:42.1 for the win. For reference, the next runner to come in after him was Carter Prater who ran a 14:00.1 for a difference of 18 seconds.
Spencer would later go on and win the Clovis invitational where he would also dominate the field and continue showing California runners what he can do. Spencer went on to win with a time of 14:16.9 breaking the course record of 14:24.0 that had stood for many years previously held by German Fernandez in 2007. This is something that many great runners in the past years like Leo Young who ran a time of 14:25.9 were just shy of doing. This proves just how good the young runner is and that he can perform well on any type of course that may come his way.
Jackson also became the first male runner to win both national meets since Lukas Verzbicas in 2010. The first national meet that took place was called Nike Cross Nationals. Off the gun, Jackson started a little further back than he usually would in a race but he would gradually move up the pack and later take the lead and eventually be the first to cross the finish line at 15:01.1 making him the 2025 individual NXN champion.
About a week later he would race at the second national meet, Brooks XC Championships, where he would again show what he is made of, as by this time of the season for runners like Jackson, racing as much as he did takes a huge toll on the body, but regardless he managed to out kick the competition and make him the 2025 Brooks XC Champion with a time of 15:10.70 and officially the champion of both major national meets.
Later on Jackson would be called up to represent the United States in the 2026 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, where he would be the second finishing American which greatly helped the US place an impressive third place finish overall.
To top things off Jackson Spencer would be named Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Player of the Year after his racing season full of dominance, winning over runners like Caden Leonard and Yohanes Van Meerten. This is awarded to who is deemed as the best high school cross country runner in the entire nation. Noah Sloan ‘26 said, “I feel that Jackson Spencer will continue to thrive as a runner.”
It is safe to say that through his incredible performances and times at big races and his undeniable consistency in training and races that make him truly deserving of having the title of the best high school cross country runner of the 2025 fall season.
