Mount Si sprinter breaks schools record and personal best

Published 11:35 am Thursday, April 21, 2016

Mount Si junior Jacob Belceto has been running for most of his life and with a school record in the 100-meter dash, he doesn’t plan on stopping.

A runner since the sixth grade, Belceto said the key aspect of training that got him to where he is now is putting in work outside of practice.

“It’s more about putting in time outside of the track itself, lifting and eating right. It’s everything that practices don’t give you, the extra stuff,” Belceto said.

Belceto’s current personal best times are 11.01 in the 100-meter race and 22.27 in the 200-meter.

Belceto’s former coach Brian Peterman said he was very impressed with Belceto’s improvement since freshman year. Peterman, who has coached track for 23 years, said he has not seen another sprinter do what Jacob has done.

“He’s been so consistent from the time he was a freshman, you could see in his workouts he was fast,” Peterman said.

“He runs this 22.78 and that was probably close to the top 20 all time freshman runners in Washington. For him to run in the top 25 best times as a freshman, now he is better in each season.”

Belceto said his motivation just comes from his own desire to improve. His goal is to place high and he wants to compete against others, as well as surpass is own best times.

“I just like the high stakes of meets with more competition because it pushes me more than racing against myself and my own times,” he said. “My personal best is 11.01 for the 100, that’s really close to 10 seconds and that’s my overall goal. That’s more of a motivation in itself, trying to break 11 than anything else.”

On April 2, at the Arnie Young Invitational track meet in Renton, competing with 24 other schools, Belceto placed third in the 100 and first in the 200, with a time of 22.34.

He said placing first at this event was one of his most surprising and memorable accomplishments so far.

“I wasn’t really expecting a first because I’ve never gotten first at a big invite like that. It was a big surprise and after that, I realized how much the work paid off and how important it is to do the work,” he said. “I never go into it expecting anything. It pays off a lot more if you don’t have high hopes.”

Dave Clifford, Mount Si sprinting coach, was impressed with Belceto’s performance and believes it is only a matter of time before the runner sets more school records.

“If he keeps going at this rate, by the end of the season he could have both school records in the 100 and the 200 and if we can find a couple of other kids to put together with him for the 4×1 relay. On the class lists as a freshman, he is the top for both the 100 and 200 and his 11.01 this year puts him at the top of the 100, I think that ties the school record but I fully expect him to break it,” Clifford said.

Mount Si’s most recent track event was the NIKE Eason Invitational in Snohomish where Belceto broke the 11-second barrier in the 100 meter preliminaries with a 10.90, he went on to win the 100-meter finals with an 11.09.