Getting Better and Better
Brueckman's student-athlete progression has been ideal
Ideal.
The description is perfectly apt in describing Jacob Brueckman’s progression, which is what every coach wants to see when they invite a student-athlete on campus to represent their program. The truth is, very few follow the charted path.
Not every one of them will improve every year. Not all of them grow as students, let alone as athletes. For many, there is a tail off in one half of the student-athlete tag they all have bestowed upon them. Brueckman did it, and he started as a walk-on.
Coming from Issaquah, Wash., Colorado State’s cross country and track and field programs were one of a select few who guaranteed him a spot on their roster for as long as he earned his place. He used his redshirt season for growth and did the same with the pandemic year granted by the NCAA.
His performances in cross country continually placed him higher at conference. The same happened in track, be it in the indoor or outdoor year, but particularly outdoor. He went from third last season in the 1,500 meters to first this season, unseating the defending champion.
On top of it, he not only earned his degree in business management with a minor in sustainability but went to graduate school and earned his MBA in corporate sustainability.
Brueckman may very well be the poster child for how a complete collegiate experience can play out.
“For sure. When the NCAA gave the opportunity to use the Covid year, as a coach and educator, you want your student-athletes to not waste time and spin wheels, but the fact he got his master’s degree in business and set himself up for a really good job in Denver and a good future, then it’s definitely worth it,” cross country coach Art Siemers said. “I’ve seen that growth over the last six years where he’s become more and more of a leader each year, and he’s always been a student of the sport. I look at his progression, and you probably couldn’t have a better progression every year throughout his entire career to the point he is.
“Looking at conference, he was third last year, and the guy who won, Sam Gilman of Air Force, was at a whole different level than Jacob last year and is a multi-time All-American. From Jacob’s growth to be able to go from where he was last year and be able to beat him convincingly at the conference meet and set himself up to possibly be an all American himself is pretty special.”
It’s just the way Brueckman hoped it all would go, though even he admits it wasn’t without work.
He had mentors when he arrived, a long line of successful distance runners for the Rams, to watch and absorb from in their actions and words. Brueckman felt the pressure of having to prove he belonged his first two years, and they were among the first to tell him to trust the work and process. So, he relaxed.
Those first two seasons also taught him not to put all his life in one basket. He was a student, so enjoy it as much as the athletic component of his time here. A conference champion, some of his best memories will come from spending time with his roommates and teammates, but more importantly, the time they spent away from the track. Those were the moments he learned more about them and their life dreams, their goals and aspirations. He learned track isn’t as fun if it feels like the rest of your life isn’t as important. A proper dose of schoolwork, social life and working out brings about better results.
Now, all these years later, he is telling people he meets the same thing.
“I think it’s probably every high schoolers dream to have the college career play out the way it has for me,” Brueckman said. “Especially since I was a walk-on out of high school. As a freshman in college, I had the dream of maybe one day being at this level, but it was pretty distant, and I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to happen.
“It’s funny ... One of my competitors at San Jose State at a meet earlier this season, he asked me how I was able to improve over the years. He was younger, and he looked at my progression. I just told him it’s years of doing exactly what you’re expected to do each day. If you’re expected to take an easy day and recover, do 100 percent of what that day is meant to be. If you have coaches you believe in, letting go of the wheel and letting them take over for you, that’s’ what I really did, and it’s year over year of consistent mileage and believing in the process. That’s what made it happen.”
I feel like I’ve learned all these lessons throughout college. Right when I figured out all that I need to know, it’s right when I have to put it all together.Jacob Brueckman
No matter how much pressure he’s feeling before a race, Brueckman makes himself smile, a reminder of how much fun he has being a runner in the Colorado State program. He did so before the 1,500, feeling good about the race, but over near the finish line was a very invested spectator. Lynn Crane was nervous and even a bit anxious, knowing she had no control over what her first born was about to do.
Even still, she felt really good about it all.
“To describe that race as I was watching him run, I was having flashbacks to high school, I was having flashback to his first races in middle school,” his mother said. “The entire time he was running, I just had chills. I kind of knew he was going to win. He didn’t take the lead until the very end, but I don’t know, there was something in my gut and in the air that day that I knew he was going to do this, and I saw it happening for him. I just enjoyed that moment and the tears started flooding for me when he was running his last lap, because I knew it was his last conference race and I knew what it meant to him.
“Jake and I are very close. I know what he’s feeling in a given moment, and I knew how special that was going to be for him to be a conference champion. I was a conference champion my senior year. So, we share a lot of side-by-sides that way. For him to capture that in his last conference race … Overwhelming as a mom; flooded with emotion for him.”
Seconds after Brueckman won the race with an impressive closing kick in a time of 3:48.55, he found his mother. They hugged. She cried.
She knew, maybe better than most.
In 1991, Crane was the all-around conference champion for Penn State’s gymnastics team her senior year. She knows what it’s like to be a high-performing college athlete. She also understands from Siemers’ perspective, as she was the head gymnastics coach at Illinois for nine years.
Her story, her son’s story, they don’t always manifest in such a manner.
“Some kids lose focus; some kids lose that drive while they’re in college. Jacob’s goals kept exceeding what he thought he could accomplish the previous year,” she said. “If you interviewed his high school coaches … It’s kind of special, because no one expected it, but when it happens, you kind of expected it for him. He has worked hard for everything he has accomplished. There are a lot of athletes who have it in them and are just talented. Jacob’s has come 100 percent from hard work and grit and determination, and he’s had to work harder than those born-with-it talented athletes.”
He also had to keep learning, which is why Siemers feels Brueckman is suited so well to come out of NCAA West Preliminaries this week in Fayetteville, Ark., and advance to his first NCAA Championships. This week, with four heats of the 1,500 in the quarterfinals on Wednesday cutting down to two on Friday, there are likely to be races which are run briskly from the start, others which will take a more tactical turn. The top placers automatically advance to the next round, but there are also at-large bids earned based on time.
What type of heat you fall in and how you react can determine if a runner advances, and some exceptionally talented runners have fallen prey in both types. Brueckman in the past would have been one of them.
Siemers said Brueckman used to overthink things, but not now. He used to favor a fast pace, lacking a closing kick, but that has changed.
“Now he’s gotten to the point where he flows with his training and his racing,” Siemers said. “He’s learned from some mistakes in races in the past, and every race this year he’s put himself in position to win.”
Brueckman will tell you it is as much a part of his arc as anything he’s accomplished and why he’s had such a successful final season. He goes back to his first collegiate win. He wanted to go out fast and lead from the start, but his coaches told him no, and Brueckman was annoyed. He followed their plan anyway, and he won.
He was still annoyed, but then Siemers reminded him he had just won. For the first time. Many more wins started to follow as Brueckman learned races can be run in multiple ways and that, while winning, results tend to follow.
He picked up his qualifying time at the Bryan Clay Invitational earlier this year, a race which started and stayed fast, his old favorite style. His time was 9 seconds faster than at conference, but the feeling of accomplishment was just as great.
Thanks to learning how to race no matter the style.
“Last year, I was more successful in the races that were hard from the gun. If it was a hot pace from the beginning, I thrived in those conditions,” he said. “When it got tactical, sometimes I didn’t trust my closing speed as much. It’s not as much about developing the speed but having the strength to be able to use your speed later in the race. I probably have the same flat-out speed I had last year, but his time last year, I wasn’t as strong. When the race got to the last lap and I spent a lot of energy just staying in the race, I didn’t have the strength to be able to use my foot speed. This year I’ve learned how to conserve that more throughout the race by being a little more relaxed in the first half and racing more tactically I know how to sit and stay aware of when the moves are happing in a race, and that’s allowed me do use my speed a little bit smarter.
“I feel like I’ve learned all these lessons throughout college. Right when I figured out all that I need to know, it’s right when I have to put it all together.”
The thing about ideal is the one involved can also see another level. Brueckman is no different. He’s a conference champion for the first time, but now it’s not enough. Like early in his career, what once felt like the pinnacle has led to another step.
The new one is to qualify for the NCAA Championships. He fully understands this is his last shot, but it doesn’t have him anxious. Quite the opposite, he feels rather settled with where he is and the training which has carried him to this point.
All the work in the classroom, as well. A week ago, he received the email telling him his degree was confirmed, and Ernst & Young was understanding enough to hold off his start date until his track career was finished.
“I’m officially just an athlete now,” he joked.
“I took my job offer before track started. I think that’s something a lot of people in their final year of college spend a lot of time working out,” he said. “It took a lot of pressure off me; I didn’t have to worry about school as much as in the past, and I was able to focus on running and making the most of this last season. I’m lucky I had that chance. A lot of people cloud their training with other worries in their life.”
From the start of his college life, every aspect of it just became better, which included the hiccups along the way. Mistakes are a vital part of growth if used correctly, which Brueckman has done. As his time as a Ram comes to a close, his status as a runner will not change. He’ll still have goals, no matter what transpires the next few weeks, one of them being a US Olympic Trials participant, sitting just 2 seconds shy of the qualifying standard.
For now. Brueckman is still trending up, which has him ready for these next few days and putting off his final collegiate race for as long as possible.
“I’d say I’m primed to do so. I’m going into this race with everything pointing that in that direction,” he said. “I’m excited to see what I’m going to be able to put together.”
A rather ideal way of finishing one’s career.