Breaking school records is easier said than done, unless your name is Jacob Harker, who has records for shot-put at both Bishop Carroll High School and now, Waynesburg University.

Harker recently broke Waynesburg’s school record for the indoor track & field season with a heave reaching 14.6 meters, beating the school’s previous best of 14.46 meters. The prior record had been in place since 2010.

Harker was not always into track and field, especially not shot-put until his sophomore year of high school. As a lineman on his football team in high school, Harker realized running events were not the best option for him, as he still had to keep weight on to play the offensive-line role. However, he soon realized shot-put was more suitable.

“I didn’t really start doing shot-put until my sophomore year,” Harker says. “But just being a bigger guy, or like a lineman per say, not a runner. That’s kind of where it started from just doing weight room stuff, just like, ‘You’re a thrower, you’re not a runner,’ so I just started picking up shot-put then,” Harker said. 

Harker decided to stick with track and field only during the beginning of his collegiate career. He used to use a throwing motion known as a glide motion. However, with the help of first-year Waynesburg University throwing coach, Kevin Thacker, Harker transitioned into a rotational spin technique, which is seen at the olympic and international levels. With this form of throwing, Harker reaches longer distances due to a natural explosion.

Thacker mentions how impressive Harker’s adaptation to his new technique is, especially with only one year of practice.

“It is easier to learn the glide, but it is harder to perfect the spin in terms of getting to that next step,” Thacker said. “I mean, when you watch the Olympics, everyone is spinning, everyone is rotating. There is a reason for that because it takes you to that next step,” Through Thacker’s first year of coaching at the University, he also takes a deeper dive on Harker as an athlete and speaks about his qualities as a human and a student first.

“Where he is, you know, that hard work and dedication does not only apply to track and field,” Thackermentions. “He is like that when he is a resident mentor, when he applies it to that position or sometimes will just come to me as a student and we talk academics. It just comes up, and you can tell he has that drive for every aspect.” Harker, as well as Thacker, believe in the relationship and bond between himself and his coach, all while praising his coaching style and techniques.

“He’s been great. He’s really helped, he dissects like everything,” Harker said. “ He has great programs and stuff, so we are really getting after it and he knows what he is talking about,” Harker hopes to reach nationals by his senior year, and if this does occur, he would be the only Waynesburg University athlete to ever qualify for a nationals’ spot in a shot-put event. 

“Get up close to 16 (meters) so we can make it to Natty’s. That’s the ultimate goal is to get to nationals… it’s sick,” Harker said.

The sophomore has only turned page one of his end goals, but wants to reach distances above and beyond 52 feet.