BOSTON — Peabody High senior Alex Jackson came from behind to finish third in the shot put in the New Balance Indoor Nationals Friday at The Track at New Balance, earning All-America honors as a top-six finisher.
After his first two throws in the preliminary round, Jackson was on the outside looking in, standing in 10th position, two spots short of advancing to the final.
But he came up clutch on his last throw with a heave of 63-09.5 to jump up to fourth and secure his spot in the final. From there, Jackson fouled on his first attempt, then had his best throw of the day, 65-03.50, to move up to third. He ended the day with a foul on his final throw.
Jackson said he felt “the weight of the world” going into his third throw.
“I needed to produce a good throw to make finals on my last throw, which is something I had never done before,” Jackson said. “All the experience of my four years came into play and it paid off. It’s weird to not be satisfied after being named an All-America, but that’s what happens when you want to be the best. It was a super experience and shows how far I’ve come over the years.”
Tanners’ throw coach Jay Smith said it was all about Jackson’s mental toughness.
“Alex has worked diligently on his mental game this championship season. Today, he reaped the rewards of his efforts,” Smith said. “On top of that, we tweaked his technique this week. We wouldn’t have been able to do that at this point in the season before now.”
Jackson, a University of Virginia commit, will be back at The Track Saturday morning to compete in the weight throw. He is hoping to improve on last year’s 17th-place finish.
Fellow senior Evan Bedard, a Stonehill College commit, finished 16th in the long jump. Like Jackson, a late rally pulled him from 20th (21-10) after two jumps all the way up to sixth on his final jump (22-03.75).
“Finishing top 20 at nationals is a direct result of the collaboration of hard work and commitment between Evan and Coach Dan Harris,” said Head Coach Fernando Braz.
Marblehead High senior Nate Assa ran the race of his life Thursday in the 5,000-meter run, snagging All-America honors with a personal-best time of 14:32.40 to finish sixth.
St. Mary’s Lucian Paula finished 21st in the boys middle school 800m, finishing in a personal-best time of 2:09.41.
