This is the interview with the 2025-2026 Gatorade National Men’s Cross Country Player of the Year, Jackson Spencer, who won his state meet, the NIKE NXR Regional, the NIKE Cross Nationals, and the Brooks XC Nationals. Jackson leads the country in the outdoor 3,200 meters in 8:46.04. He will compete at the iconic Arcadia Invitational on April 11, 2026.
RunBlogRun and NIKE present
The Journey to Compete Episode 2 –
Jackson Spencer
This is our interview with Jackson Spencer, who won the NIKE Outdoor Cross Country 2025 on December 6, 2025 and the Brooks XC National Championship on December 13, 2025.
At the World Cross Country Championships, Jackson led the US with 18th place, helping the US team win bronze at the World Juniors! Jackson told RBR that the final lap in Tallahassee was pretty tough. After Tallahassee, Jackson took two weeks off and then ran 8:50.50 at the Simplot Games.
At the New Balance Indoor Nationals, Jackson ran 13:54.70 in the 5,000 meters, solo, the second all-time US high school indoor track mark. Jackson Spencer also anchored his club’s DMR team at NBIndoors.
At the Pine View Invitational, Jackson Spencer ran 3200m with a national-leading time of 8:46.06.
On April 11, 2026, Jackson Spencer and Marcelo Mantecón will run more than 3200 meters in the Arcadia by invitation. It could be a race forever!
Here is our interview with Jackson Spencer (we will be interviewing Marcelo Mantecon next week).
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Special thanks to Mike Deering, original member of The Shoe Addicts, who edits, records, manages and produces the podcast for Fortius Media Group, LLC and RunBlogRun.com.
Special thanks to Jackson Spencer for this thought-provoking interview and to NIKE Sports Marketing for their kind support. NIKE Sports Marketing and NIKE running believe that we build the sport, one athlete and coach at a time.
For more information on NIKE Running, visit www.nikerunning.com. We highly recommend it NIKE Vomero Premium and NIKE Pegasus 42 (And the new NIKE Structure PLUS!)
