St. Thomas track star, Pat Jager battled through several near career-ending injuries before becoming a six-time All-American.
All-American Determination
Last May, Patrick Jager of St. Thomas University had a lot to smile about while standing with his teammates on the podium at the 2009 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Marietta, Ohio.
Jager had just finished anchoring the first place teams in both the 4×100 and 4×400 meter relays.
His journey to the top wasn’t easy. Ankle problems plagued Jager since his freshman year of high school when he suffered an ankle injury that ended his freshmen season and kept him out for his entire sophomore year.
Jager, who also competed in soccer and basketball in high school, returned to track his junior year excelling in his events, but still dealing with persistent ankle pain.
After high school, Jager decided to continue his track career while studying at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minn. He was running well, but the pain just wouldn’t go away.
“Every once in a while I had flashes of me doing really well, and something bad would happen, so I knew I had never really reached my potential,” said Jager.
Most of Jager’s sophomore year at UST he spent confined to wearing a boot. He tried to come back a couple of different times, only to find out that his foot had not fully healed. He decided to see foot and ankle specialist, J.Chris Coetzee, MD at the Minnesota Orthopedic Sports Medicine Institute at Twin Cities Orthopedics.
“Nobody could figure out why it didn’t heal. Dr. Coetzee was actually the one who figured out that I had a bone spur in my ankle that was limiting my motion. I was putting a lot of pressure on the top of my foot and that is why it wouldn’t heal,” said Jager.
“After the consultation, which included a trip to Baltimore for a special test on my ankle, Coetzee did surgery and it got back to where the pain was at least bearable.”
Jager’s last surgery was in 2007. Afterward he was prescribed 12-weeks of physical therapy. “That was the hardest part; keeping up with all of those little exercises. You don’t feel like you are doing much, but you are really helping yourself out.”
After therapy, Jager continued to work hard with his team, steadily improving with each day, each workout and each meet.
“It was all about staying motivated and continuing to work hard,” said Jager.
Winning
All of Jager’s hard work started to pay off when in mid-May, Jager’s 4×100 meter relay team set a school record time of 40.75. “When everything kind of started to come together, it was like ‘whoa, this is really cool.’” said Jager
Just a couple of weeks later his team won the NCAA Division III national championship 4×100 meter relay with a time of 40.76. It was the first time a men’s track and field team from Minnesota had won an NCAA relay championship.
Later on that same day, about three hours later, Jager anchored the NCAA Division III national championship 4×400 meter relay team. That being just the second time a men’s track and field team from Minnesota won a NCAA relay championship.
The Future
Jager is a finance and accounting major at St. Thomas University. He hopes to continue his career in public accounting, but that may be on hold for a little while as he petitions the NCAA for an extra year of competition. No matter what his future holds, we’ll sure he’ll do well.
