Former Marquette head cross country coach Mike Nelson remembers the 2013 Big East Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships well.
“That race still stands in my mind as an all-time performance where a person ran a great effort despite the (windy) conditions,” Nelson said.
Persevering through 25 laps straight into the wind, then-senior Jack Hackett finished seventh place overall out of 34 runners in the 2013 Big East Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship.
Hackett’s time for that 10,000-meter race ended up being 29:50.88, his personal best.
“A lot of people would have mentally given up, even before the race started or halfway through the race, but (Hackett) ran steady the whole way,” Nelson said.
Running full circle, Hackett was hired this past July as the associate head coach of cross country and as the assistant track & field coach, to replace former head cross country coach Sean Birren, who stepped down in May.
Hackett started off his college running career at Loyola University Chicago in 2008 but transferred to Marquette the following year. He spent the next four years – one as a redshirt senior – competing for cross country and track & field.
Throughout his collegiate career, he earned several accolades including the track program’s second-best 5000-meter time at 14:05.66 and the third-best mile time at 4:06.69. For cross country, in the 2012 Great Lakes Regional, Hackett finished 35th overall out of 201 runners with a personal best of 32:00 in his redshirt senior year.
“I’ve been where those athletes have been,” Hackett said. “Quite literally, I’ve been in that same locker room. I’ve been on those same trails. I’ve raced a lot of the same races these kids are going to be running at. I think good coaching can come from a spot of empathy and understanding of what that student athlete is going through. So having been there before, it’s easier to find that and easier to connect to them about some of these things.”
Aside from his running experience at Marquette, he also has experience coaching through volunteer work at Marquette High School and assistant coaching the women’s cross-country team at Muskego High School. While he was with the Warriors, they won a state championship and finished 16th in the nation in consecutive years.
On top of that, he decided to start up Infinity Running Company in 2018 to do more coaching on the side. At the start of his business, he provided 1-on-1 virtual coaching to his runners. A few years later, he started arranging local running events like road races and 5k’s to help draw the community into the sport.
“The Milwaukee running scene is a little bit underdeveloped, especially on the younger side of things,” Hackett said. “There’s not as many… cool events, and that’s what I was trying to do with that. (I wanted) to bring some fun… energetic races (here).”
Hackett’s company continues to operate today, and he’s hired another coach to help out his business while he’s working with Marquette.
In his first few weeks as associate coach for cross country, Hackett has already made some changes. First, on the physical side of things, he has introduced pre-activation exercises – essentially a mini warm-up – to aid in preventing injuries. Secondly, he’s made changes to the program’s overall culture.
One thing he has built in at the start of every practice is time for high-fives. His reasoning for it is scientific, as he found in research that doing so can release oxytocin, a hormone related to trust and bonding.
“By doing this and starting every day with a high–five, you also associate that with positivity,” Hackett said. “It’s a way to create a team identity that feels more positive (and) inclusive.”
To reinforce his team expectations and culture, he’s established themes of certain values for each week. He said week one was all about respect, while week two dealt with change and how to develop better habits.
“A lot of these athletes spent a lot of time injured last year, and so they weren’t able to express that talent,” Hackett said. “Getting able to see some of these athletes changing programs over the summer and being able to get some more training in healthily, they’re already showing signs that they should be a little bit better this year.”
After each team’s finish in the Great Lakes Regional in 2023 — the men and women placed 28th and 31st, respectively — Hackett said he hopes to get the team back on track.
“It is very likely that we’re going to improve this year, and that’s always fun and exciting because that’s the goal,” Hackett said. “That’s part of why we’re doing this is to get better… I’m really just looking forward to watching these men and women push themselves and develop, not just as runners, but as people.”
This story was written by PJ O’Grady. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @PjOGradyMU.