Jacobs grad flourishes in running career

Evan Jager enjoyed a rare opportunity to visit his family and friends in the Algonquin area last week.

The 2007 Jacobs graduate attended his sister Mallory’s graduation party, hung out with buddies every day and went to Great America.

Jager will be back to business Tuesday in the Portland, Ore., area.

And Jager’s business, distance running, has been good.

The 20-year-old phenom left Wisconsin last year and headed to Oregon with former Badgers cross country coach Jerry Schumacher, who was hired by Nike last year to coach elite distance runners.

Now, barely more than two years after he won the Class AA 3,200-meter run at the IHSA Boys Track and Field State Meet, Jager will be representing the U.S. team in the World Track and Field Championships in August in Berlin.

Jager qualified in the 5,000-meter run at last month’s USA Track and Field Championships with Oregon Track Club teammates Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky, a couple of former Badgers also running for Schumacher.

The reaction to Jager’s remarkable success – from Jager himself to his coach to his family – is about the same.

“I was not expecting this to happen this fast,” said Jager, who won four state championships between cross country and track in high school. “If you would have asked me last summer at USAs [Track and Field Championships] if I would have made the USA team for the 5K, I don’t know, I have no clue what I would have thought.

“This whole past year has been such a huge transformation for me. I completely changed so many aspects of my life and my training, it’s just been incredible. It’s a huge change. A year ago, I didn’t even make it to the USA trials for my best event, the 1,500. And a year later, I’m going to Worlds. It’s awesome.”

Schumacher saw a passion and aptitude for racing from Jager, whom he met when Jager attended Wisconsin running camps in the summer. Schumacher figured Jager could handle the monumental task of turning pro so early.

“Put that natural ability and aptitude with that desire to want to succeed, it’s a pretty good combination,” Schumacher said. “As an outsider looking in, you’d be surprised. And if you’d told me eight months ago [he’d be at Worlds], I would have been surprised. Seeing him train every day, it was becoming more and more clear through the season he was making big strides and doing it fast.”

An indication of Jager’s progress came at a Stanford University meet this spring. Then, last month at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., he took seventh in the Bowerman Mile. Jager finished in 3:54.35, beating his previous best mile time by almost 9 seconds.

While he has proven he can run with the big dogs in the 1,500, Schumacher’s focus all along has been to train Jager for the 5,000.

Solinsky stayed in Madison after his college eligibility was exhausted to work with Schumacher. Jager had met Solinsky and Simon Bairu, another former Badger with OTC, when he was a sophomore at Jacobs and attended Wisconsin running camps.

“I’ve been saying all along, even in his freshman year [at Wisconsin] that [Jager] is going to be the next big thing,” said Solinsky, who is 24. “He matched all my high school [personal records] and did a third of the workload I was doing. He was finishing workouts [at 20] that Matt [Tegenkamp] and I would never have finished at that age.”

Jager’s career is a bit of a perfect storm. He possesses a classic runner’s build at 6-foot-2, 145 pounds, a beautiful stride, an insatiable appetite for work and, now, is receiving some of the best coaching in the world.

Jager and his teammates work out twice a day, once in the morning when they run, then do a core workout, then again at night. Schumacher’s training regimen is demanding, but obviously effective.

Almost as important as Jager’s running in the entire process was his ability to adapt to being on his own at 19. He lives in a Nike house with another runner, Tim Nelson, and a massage therapist. They cook and clean and do various other household chores, although Jager has taken those things in stride.

“I told him I was living alone when I was 19 too, but I was only a couple hundred miles from my folks, he’s on the other side of the country,” said Joel Jager, Evan’s father. “[Cathy and I] don’t run anything in his life anymore. He’s doing it really well, keeping things in line and he does a good job at it.”

Jager’s friends, like former Jacobs teammate Aaron Russo, enjoyed a chance to see him last week. Jager made the rounds every day to see friends.

“I ran with him a couple times, it’s nice to have him back,” said Russo, who runs at Western Illinois University. “We’re all proud of him for what he’s done. I can’t say I didn’t think he’d do it, but it’s amazing. He had to mature really quick. He’s adapted to it really well. He’s running all the time and being around his teammates.”

Jager was scheduled to fly back to Oregon on Monday and resume his training with Schumacher and the other eight distance runners he has. At the USA championships, Tegenkamp (13:20.57), Solinsky (13:20.82) and Jager (13:22.18) finished 1-2-3 in the 5,000 meters.

Jager will get his first taste of the World Championships this summer, but unlikely his last. He is looking toward the 2012 Olympic Games in London as a very real possibility.

“That’s my goal, to make the Olympic team in 2012,” Jager said. “I would like to think I have a really good shot of doing it, because, I made the World Championship team and it’s not like anyone takes making the World Championship team any less seriously than making the Olympic team.

“ I’m going to be in that same position three years from now, trying to make the U.S. Olympic team. I’ve definitely thought of that. I’ve thought about getting American records, that’s going to be a goal too. I know it’s a long ways away and I have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, I’ll stay healthy over next couple years and think I have a shot at doing that also.”