Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: St. Francis’ Case Jacobson

It was a bittersweet finish for Jacobson that Saturday, March 21, as he settled for second place, despite his top throw of 62-2 taking down a St. Francis school that had stood since 1975.

“For me, of course I want to beat people,” Jacobson said, “but I see Max pretty much every weekend ... so I feel like I was more happy for him than I was upset, because I want to do well, and I want him to do well.”

As it turns out, Jacobson still had plenty left in the tank.

The Woodside native has been named Daily Journal Athlete of the Week after out-dueling Morelle and Lone Peak-Utah senior Matthew Bryant at the Arcadia Invitational, recording a top throw of 65-3 1/2. Not only was it enough for Jacobson to break his own school record set two weeks prior, it is the best mark in California this season, and the sixth best in the nation. It also ranks fourth all-time in CCS, and stands as the section’s best throw since 1967 when Fremont-Sunnyvale’s Steve Wilhelm set the current CCS record of 65-10.

“The whole week I felt pretty good,” said Jacobson, who spent the days leading up to Arcadia training at Woodside High School over spring break. “I was throwing it all week in practice. ... I knew I had it in me. It was just, how good could I get it?”

The last year has been an extraordinary journey for Jacobson, who in 2025 was hanging right on the cusp of qualifying for Arcadia, surpassing the 50-foot mark for the first time just three week prior. Once in Arcadia, he competed in two of the lower shot put competitions, taking first place in the rising stars event and second place in the open competition the following day.

“He barely got into Arcadia last year,” St. Francis head coach Phil Pompei said, “and he basically was in the wrong division.”

Jacobson continued his ascent as a junior, and while he settled for a second-place medal at the West Catholic Athletic League championships, and sixth-place hardware at CCS, he went on to throw a season-record 59-0 3/4 in the CIF state championships preliminaries, standings as the 58th best in CCS history heading into this season. As a senior, he has moved up that list, going from 15th all-time to fourth in his recent triumph at Arcadia.

“That throw on Saturday kind of put him in a whole new conversation,” Pompei said.

A first-team All-WCAL guard on the St. Francis football team, Jacobson is committed to play on the NCAA Division I gridiron at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He isn’t slated as a two-sport athlete — yet. In the wake of his recent successes, however, he has made some phone calls.

“I definitely am thinking about track right now,” Jacobson said. “I just reached out to the throwing coach at Lehigh, and there’s a lot of kids that play football there that also do track, and I feel like the work I’m doing right now, it would be kind of a waste if I’m going to be pretty good at it.”

Jacobson’s foray into track and field started humbly enough, with a simple promise he made to his father Dean that he’d try three different sports his freshman year. With football his priority, he also joined the wrestling and track teams, the latter of which was inspired by his father being a shot put and discus thrower at Woodbridge High School in Irvine in the 1990s.

Discovering track and field in high school, Jacobson has never worked with a private throws coach. He does, however, have the benefit of three throwing coaches on staff with the Lancers, Steve Filios, Mike Jackson and Haley Libuit.

“I never went to a throwing coach,” Jacobson said, “but I feel like that’s the main reason I’m having so much success right now, because I have all of their inputs just to help me out.”

Jacobson not only had Jackson and Pompei coaching him Saturday in Arcadia, he had quite a contingent of fans in attendance, with his father, mother and sister commuted from Woodside, while his grandparents made the trip from Long Beach.

It was Jacobson’s fifth of six throws that shot to the top of the 2026 state leaderboard. And while the left-handed thrower had a good feeling he had put himself into first place in the competition before the shot even hit the ground, the official measurement took over a minute.

“On that throw, the second it came out of my hand, I knew I had something pretty good,” Jacobson said.

By the time the measurement was posted on the leaderboard, Jacobson had already had a quick chat with Morelle and was standing with his family along the ropes.

“I was a little excited and a little relieved too,” Jacobson said.

Bryant, the out-of-state senior, took second place at 62-0 1/4. Morelle was third at 61-2. Redondo Union senior Bo Ausmus, currently ranked second in the state, took fourth at 59-10 3/4.

Now, the stage is set for the postseason, with Jacobson and Morelle ranking one-two in CCS. Beyond that is uncharted territory for St. Francis.

St. Francis has never won a state championship in boys’ track and field. The last time the Lancers brought home a state title was 39 years ago in girls’ track team, with two 1987 CIF championships — Karen Lawson in girls’ long jump, and the girls’ 400-meter relay team of Lawson, Jennifer Jackson, Joslyn Mack and Roslyn Mack.

“Obviously, he hasn’t won yet, but he’s in the lead, so it’s in him,” Pompei said. “He knows it now.”