Jacob Smith was named the Head Cross Country Coach at Agnes Scott College in August after a two-year stint as the Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach at the State University of New York at Oswego, where he coached the 2021 SUNY Athletic Conference men’s high jump champion. 

Prior to coaching at Oswego, Smith was the Head Cross Country and Strength and Conditioning Coach at Sweet Briar College. During his year at Sweet Briar, the cross country team enjoyed it’s highest-ever placings at both the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the NCAA South/Southeast Regional championships. The team also enjoyed its highest ever GPA and earned the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team Award for the first time in program history. Every single runner on the team ran at least a 1:30 PR during the season, and all but two runners improved their PR by over two minutes. Those performances led to new school records in the 6k and 5k. In addition to the school record holder, other runners on the team became the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 9th, and 12th fastest performers in program history. 

Prior to coaching at Sweet Briar, Smith coached at Christopher Newport University from 2015 through 2017. During that time, the CNU distance program achieved unprecedented success. In 2015, the men’s cross country team won its first-ever Capital Athletic Conference championship and qualified for the NCAA championships for just the third time in school history, and first time in 21 years. Building upon that success, the men’s team had a near-perfect winning score of 16 points at the 2016 CAC championships and finished 11th at the NCAA championships, which was the best placing ever for a team from the South/Southeast region, until the team surpassed that in 2017 by finishing on the podium in 3rd place at the NCAA championships, including 3 All-American performances. In addition to the men’s team, one woman qualified for the NCAA championships in 2015. 

CNU distance runners were also quite successful on the track, winning 34 CAC individual or relay titles, helping both the men and women win the indoor and outdoor CAC championships in both of Smith’s years there. The 2016 men’s CAC championships were the first in school history. During Smith’s tenure, 16 distance runners qualified for the NCAA championships in events ranging from the 800 to the 10k, including the DMR, with 7 of those resulting in All-American performances. Smith’s distance runners also established 15 new school records, 5 new CAC Championship meet records, and 8 CAC all-time records. The distance runners also captured 12 USTFCCCA All-Academic honors, one USTFCCCA team All-Academic award, one CAC Scholar Athlete of the Year, and two CoSIDA Academic All-district awards. And for his efforts during the 2017-2018 school year, one of the distance runners was named the CAC Male Athlete of the Year (for all sports), becoming both the first distance runner and the first CNU athlete in history to win the award. 

Prior to coaching at CNU, from 2009 to 2013 Smith spent four years at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs coaching professional triathletes, including 2016 Olympic gold-medalist and 2-time World Champion, Gwen Jorgensen, World Champion Katie Zafares, and Olympian Sarah Haskins, Olympic 4th-placer Sarah True, as well as Olympians Hunter Kemper, Manny Huerta, and Greg Billington. 

From 2007 to 2009 Smith coached the distance and middle distance runners at the SUNY Cortland, helping to build the most successful cross country program in all of NCAA Division III at the time. In 2007 the men’s team finished in 3rd place at the NCAA cross country championships and one woman competed there as well. In 2008 the men’s outdoor track & field team finished 2nd at the NCAA Championships. In 2009 the team won the school’s first and only NCAA men’s cross country national championship title while the women’s team finished 9th at that year’s NCAA championships. During Smith’s two years there, Cortland distance and middle-distance runners earned 14 All-American awards, 

eight SUNY Athletic Conference team championships, 20 SUNYAC individual titles, one SUNYAC Championship Track Athlete of the Meet award, and set conference all-time records in the men’s mile, men’s 1000, men’s DMR, and men’s steeple plus five additional school records including the men’s and women’s steeple, men’s 3k, men’s 800, and men’s 1500. 

Smith began his coaching career in 2006 in NCAA Division I as an assistant cross country and track & field coach at Bowling Green State University, where he had previously competed as a distance runner. While an undergraduate at BGSU, he concomitantly served 6 years in the U.S. Air Force, which included two tours of duty, and completed an internship as a sport physiologist at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Smith is also a member of the Fremont (OH) Ross High School Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the 1994 varsity cross country team that finished 2nd at the OHSAA Division I state championships. 

Smith holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in exercise science as well as USA Track & Field Level II coaching certification in distance events and USATF Level I coaching certification. In addition, he holds personal trainer certification from the American College of Sports Medicine, coaching certification from the Road Runners Club of America, and is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist with the National Strength & Conditioning Association.