With the cross country season in full swing, Gallatin alum and former Violet runner Nic Jacobsen is back at NYU as associate head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams. 

Jacobsen, who graduated in 2020, is eager to bring his experience and passion to the table as he leads the Violets to another successful season. The cross country team performed strongly at last year’s NCAA Division III Championships, where the women placed fourth and the men finished fifth.

“I’d like to try and get back to where we were, if not surpass it a little bit,” Jacobsen told WSN.

With Jacobsen on board, alongside head coach Tyler Deck Shipley and three assistant coaches, the women’s and men’s cross country teams are performing well,  ranking No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, in NCAA D-III. This past weekend, the men’s team finished second in the 8K White Race at the Connecticut College Invitational, while the women’s team placed fifth in both the 6K White Race and the 6K Blue Race.

Jacobsen originally planned to study film and screenwriting after high school, with NYU as his top choice — but when he joined the university’s cross country team, running became integral to his college experience. Though his seasons were cut short due to injuries, Jacobsen watched from the sidelines and realized he wanted to pursue a career in coaching. He switched into the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, taking courses on sports psychology and sports management, and built his career in athletics from there.

“The more I was away from running and couldn’t do it at the level that I wanted to, the more I knew I really wanted to coach,” Jacobsen said. 

A decorated cross country and track and field runner for his high school in Delray Beach, Florida, Jacobsen helped the track team score a second-place finish at the Florida High School Athletic Association State Championships in 2014. He was also a two-time regional champion and four-time cross country state qualifier.  

While Jacobsen has spent recent years coaching Division I teams at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Tennessee and Southern Methodist University, he believes competing at the D-III level allows players to avoid the roster limitations and other changes that constantly affect D-I athletes. 

“In the D-III world, you can have a team full of guys that are gonna be together for four straight years and be really close and have that bond and really run for each other,” he said.

With time as both a coach and a runner, Jacobsen values the connections built between teammates, which he strives to foster throughout the Violets’ season. Reflecting on middle and high school, he recalled how he grew especially close with his teammates and emphasized that cross country, in particular, creates unique opportunities to form meaningful bonds. 

“There’s really no other time in life that you’re just out with some of your best friends for 60 minutes, 90 minutes, two hours, just running uninterrupted with no phones, no computers,” Jacobsen said. “That uninterrupted conversation that you have out on a long run with teammates — there’s not really too many other areas in life where that still exists.”

He credits the team’s strong culture to Shipley, who has led cross country and track at NYU for the past four years. Jacobsen noted that the team has been training rigorously for the season throughout the summer, running 80 to 100 miles a week. Their preparation paid off in the season opener, where the men’s and women’s teams took first place out of six teams at the Vassar Season Starter. 

“I’m just stoked to be back at NYU,” Jacobsen said. “I really think this is one of the best places in the country to be a student-athlete, so I couldn’t be any more excited for the rest of the year.”

Contact Isabelle Yang at [email protected].