Southeast Missourian boys cross country runner of the year: Jackson's Jack Jeffers

Jack Jeffers was only five months removed from the completion of a successful first season of cross country when he encountered perhaps the biggest obstacle of his career.

A sophomore at the time, Jeffers sustained a severe injury to his right knee in mid-April 2013 during the final weeks of Jackson's track and field season.

"That injury came, and I wasn't able to train over the summer," Jeffers said. "Sometimes I would just think maybe it's gone by now, and I'd go outside and run and get about a quarter mile away from my house. I'd be limping so badly that I'd have to turn around and walk back home after just running a quarter of a mile."

That persistence and determination paid off for Jeffers, who spent only three seasons running cross country but showed immediate excellence.

Now a senior, Jeffers is a three-time winner of the Jackson Invitational, a SEMO North Conference champion and capped off his high school career with a 22nd-place finish at the state meet -- all of which have contributed to his honor as the Southeast Missourian Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.

It took a year for Jeffers to return to his normal training routine, but looking back, the experience carried a valuable lesson.

"It's kind of like you don't know what you've got until it's gone, and I had just realized that I had this gift for running," Jeffers said. "I was going to take advantage of it, and then it kind of got taken away from me for a while. That whole time was kind of a depressing time knowing that I couldn't go out and do what I'm good at."

Jeffers' first exposure to the sport came when a friend invited him to a cross country camp in the summer of 2012. Jeffers showed up for the event, but his friend didn't. He ran with the top group that day, and something about it sparked his interest.

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Jeffers joined the Indians' cross country team, and in his first-ever meet Sept. 1, 2012, he finished as the top sophomore runner in the Jackson Invitational with a short-course time of 13 minutes, 36 seconds.

It wasn't until later that season at the Class 4 Sectional 1 meet that Jeffers began taking his performance to the next level. He set a new personal best at the meet with a time of 16:59 over the 3.1-mile course to earn a trip to state.

"I always enjoyed running. I used to just go run because I liked it. ... I kind of just went through the season nonchalantly," Jeffers said. "I was enjoying it, and I liked running cross country. I knew I was kind of good, but I guess whenever I finished 23rd in sectionals and made it to state, that's when I realized I should take it more seriously. That's when I started doing some real training."

But then came the injury that ended Jeffers' sophomore track season.

Jeffers spent the summer recovering from the injury. He returned to the cross country team his junior year but was limited to running a maximum of about 2 miles a day.

"I never really practiced with the team because nobody else would really run a mile or 2 miles. I mean, races are 3.1 [miles]," Jeffers said. "... I'd drive to the track and run for as long as I could, and since I couldn't really run long, I'd just run pretty fast."

It was during that time he met teammate Ean Buffington, who was an eighth-grader at the time.

"He started running with me, so I was like, 'Alright, this junior-high kid wants to go at it.' And he just stayed with me the whole time," Jeffers said. "It was kind of like my pride. I was like, 'I'm a junior. He's in junior high. I'll put it to him because he thinks he can run with me.' ... He stayed with me for almost all of it."

The two also built a strong friendship off the course as well.

"Last year, he would invite me over to his house and hang out with me," said Buffington, who's now a freshman. "That made me feel really cool because I was only an eighth-grader, and he'd invite me to come run with him at the high school during the summer. I would even come up and practice with the high school sometimes during cross country season just to have more competition. He always encouraged that, so that was nice."

Jeffers said the friendly competition with Buffington has helped both runners improve.

"We didn't run much together over the summer just because he lives so far out of Jackson, but during the school year, it was nice," Jeffers said. "Sometimes he'll beat me in practices. He's fast. I just think I'm a better racer than him, but he definitely stays with me in the practices. It's just really nice to have someone to race against. Coming into this year with all those seniors graduating, I knew he was good, but I wasn't sure how practices were going to go, if I was going to have to do some of them by myself. And he stayed with me for nearly all of them."

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As a junior, Jeffers was the Indians' second runner behind Gabe Underwood.

Jeffers again claimed top honors among (13:01) at the Jackson Invitational and finished second (16:59) at the SEMO North Conference meet.

After a sixth-place finish (16:55.81) at the Class 4 District 1 meet and a 15th-place finish (16:54) at the sectional meet, Jeffers had his best race of the season at the state meet, where he placed 60th in 16:53.30.

Having almost fully recovered from his knee injury, Jeffers had a dominant senior campaign, beginning with an 11th-place finish at the elite Brooks Memphis Twilight Classic on Aug. 30. He ran the meet in 16:33.05 but hovered around third place with a state champion from Tennessee and several top runners from West Plains before blanking out during the final stretch.

"I don't remember the end of the race, but I went from third to 11th in the last 300 or 400 meters," Jeffers said. "I'd still say that was a successful race, just knowing that I was up there with those guys."

Jeffers won his third consecutive Jackson Invitational with a short-course PR time of 12:13 before finishing first at the Marshall County, Kentucky, Invitational (16:43.60) and the SEMO North Conference meet (16:53). His PR came at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he finished 26th in 15:59.30.

Jeffers began the postseason with a first-place finish in 16:40.81 at the district meet and led the Indians to first place as a team, something he said the Jackson boys program hasn't accomplished in more than 40 years.

"It was one thing we were really trying to do last year, and we ended up not being too close to it," Jeffers said about the district meet. "At the beginning of this season, we really didn't think it was going to be possible to do some of the things that we did, and it all just fit together really well. Everyone ran better than anyone expected."

Jeffers followed it up with an eighth-place finish at the sectional meet with a time of 16:16.43 and qualified for state, where he concluded his high school career in unusual fashion.

About 800 meters into the race, Jeffers lost his shoe, so he finished without it. His 22nd-place finish of 16:22.16 was good enough for all-state honors and powered Jackson to eighth place as a team.

A student with a 4.0 GPA and an ACT score of 32, Jeffers is mulling possible college options with Troy University, Lindenwood University, Missouri Southern, Southeast Missouri State and the University of Missouri.

The Indians will undoubtedly miss Jeffers next season, but teammates have taken plenty from his leadership.

"He knows what he's doing, so it really helps us," Jackson junior runner Jackson Givens said. "Since he's the best and he's a senior, we know that what he's telling us just works."