Cold rain poured down on his head. Brittle winds whipped across his face. Mud splattered all over his uniform. But as he always had before, senior Jake Liebert pushed on. And he crossed the finish line for his final cross country race, securing his third individual state title, one of many he has won.
For Liebert, over the course of four years, he has won a total of eight individual state titles between cross country and track, and one team title as well. Liebert’s first title came during his sophomore cross country season.
“My sophomore year… I would just go out as fast as possible, so… I was just alone in the front the whole time and it was pretty dope when I crossed,” Liebert said. “But just crossing the line was super cool for the first time. It was a dream of mine to win state once [and to do it] so early on in high school… I was not expecting to win state at all. It just happened like that.”
After that, Liebert went on to win the two mile during his track season, also breaking the school record in both the mile and two mile.
For the past four years, Bret Davis has coached Liebert, and seen his progression in running since his freshman year. Davis said that from early on he could see the potential in Liebert and his running.
“He was kind of that sponge where he really did want to learn… want to get better… and then during [freshmen] track season… some moments became a little bit more frequent. I think he realized what his potential really was… that this could be something special. I think the rest of us did too,” Davis said.
just having fun. I want to end the mile and two mile on a high note [and] just try and make it as memorable as possible try and show everyone what I should be remembered for… [and] go out on my own terms,” Liebert said. (Anna Mills)
“The progression he was making were the progressions that I had expected. But it was just a year sooner than we thought. He basically made a one year leap at that point. But that’s where you
saw how committed he really was,” Davis said.
During his junior cross country season, he won his second individual title along with the team title as well. Coming off of a strong junior cross country season, Liebert then went on to break the two
mile state record in the 2023 region track meet. That year he also won the mile and two mile in states.
“That was [an] awesome experience, breaking [the] state record. That was obviously a goal of mine… and to do it by myself, in front of my team [and] coaches was a really awesome experience,” Liebert said.
Once again, during states at track, Liebert won both the mile and two mile races adding to his record of state titles. Liebert then set his eyes on the cross country 5k record, but fell short because of bad weather. However, he was able to secure his third and final cross country individual state title for the third year in a row.
“It was definitely a sad moment. I crossed the line and I immediately started crying. I stayed and waited for Harp and everyone on the team to cross the line [and] told them how proud I was of them and how great they did this year… it was just a bitter- sweet moment,” Liebert said.
Liebert also defended his mile and two mile titles at his final track state meet, add- ing to his collection of individual state titles.
Senior Brennan Harp has been running with Liebert since their sophomore year, and has since grown closer with him and has seen his progression throughout the years.
“Over the years he’s taken his training more seriously, running more, eating correctly and just having the right mindset and keeping up with it,” Harp said. “He’s a hard worker. He’s running seven days a week, always on top of it. He’s very dialed into what he does and cares about it.”
Liebert will also continue his running career at the University of Tennessee in the fall.
“If you really want to get somewhere you just have to work and work and work,” Liebert said. “You really have to sacrifice everything to reach your goals… I think what I have done has set me up on a really good path.”