Don Richards

According to his coach, UWRF Director of Cross Country/Track and Field Andrew Eggerth, UWRF sophomore Jacob Balcome has great potential. Balcome began to show that promise as a high school senior at Alexandria, Minn. He didn’t participate in track until his senior year. Coaches told him he would be a good high jumper. He jumped only 5'6" in his first meet, but eventually won the conference by achieving 6'2", qualifying for the Minnesota State meet, and placing seventh. It was there he met UWRF coaches Jordan Gray and Eggerth.

After looking at UW-Stout, he picked UWRF, partly because of the facilities, he said. While competing as a Falcon, he shared he was "proud of qualifying for both indoor and outdoor nationals last year. I would like to break the D3 record in the heptathlon or decathlon. I also would like to win conference in one of my events."

When coaches Gray and Eggerth attended the Minnesota State meet, they saw two things:  

1. He jumped pretty high with very poor technique over the bar so we knew he could immediately jump higher (he jumped 3 inches higher right away during his freshman year).
2. He’s tall with long levers so we spotted him as a potential decathlete.

So what is his potential in the next couple of years? Eggerth: "It's surely not a given, but I think Jacob has the potential to be an NCAA champion and possibly break the NCAA record. Decathletes who stick with the sport tend to peak between 28-30 years of age. If he stays with it after college, I think he could make a U.S. team."

What about the potential of the UWRF track and field program? Eggerth thinks, "We have the strongest program (men and women) we've had in several years. We have more depth and breadth. One would typically call it a rebuilding year after graduating Lexi LeFever (Hudson), who got us so many points, but about two-thirds of our team are freshmen. Although the points may not show us as a stronger team, our strength can be seen in roster size (over a hundred now). It can also be seen in the number of conference championship qualifiers. We hope it will be seen in increased points, too.

"If our men's team finishes seventh or higher (a realistic goal), that will match the best finish the program has seen in the last 30 years. 

"Long term potential depends on many things, especially budget. As things are, we can eventually get to the upper half of the conference. This may not seem like a very exciting goal, but it would be a tremendous return on investment."

The 2025 WIAC Outdoor Championships will be held May 2-3 in Oshkosh.

Balcome's assessment of the Falcon program mirrors that of his coach: "I believe we will continue to improve as a program and culture across the board."

He will continue to lift weights over the summer where last summer he showed vast improvement in what he could lift, and says he was a lot more consistent and powerful as a result.

Let's hope he doesn't get into the same trouble comedian Rodney Dangerfield experienced when his doctor told him he needed to get in better shape: "He told me to run 5 miles a day for two weeks. So when I called him in two weeks, I told him I was 70 miles from home. Now what?" You can't beat a guy who follows directions!