Jesse Smith

1972 AHS

Jesse Smith is one of the very few Antioch High athletes whose performances are so formidable that the records still stand after four decades. The cross-country runner’s time of 14.11 for a three-mile course and 9:27 for the two-mile course remain on the Panther record books as the best times ever recorded, making Jesse the best male cross-country runner in AHS history. Jesse’s record-setting three-mile race could not have happened at a better time – during the North Coast Section Meet of Champions in 1971. Preceding the NCS meet, Jesse was the first place finisher at the Diablo Valley Athletic League Championships with a 14:37 time. Recognized as the MVP for Antioch High’s cross-country team for two consecutive years, Jesse was also First Team All-DVAL and First Team All-East Bay as both a junior and senior, leading the best cross-country team ever to represent Antioch. The team’s total time (the top 5 runners) is 3:30 faster than any team in Panther history. After the cross-country season ended, Jesse continued running for the AHS track team for both his junior and senior years. As a junior, he set the North Coast Section II Class B 2-mile meet record of 9:45.4 in 1971, and bested that time by five seconds at the NCS Meet of Champions, coming in second place with 9:40.1. During his senior year at AHS, Jesse set the third all-time AHS record of 9:28.84 in the 3200-meter race and owns the seventh fastest recorded AHS time of 4:27.64 in the 1600-meter. Smith’s races were run using yards, and his times have since been converted to metric distances following the 1980 transition. Jesse headed to the University of California at Berkeley following graduation, where he ran for the Golden Bears’ cross-country team for three years from 1972-1974. During his college running career, Jesse clocked a 30:05 for a six-mile course at the Pac-8 Cross-Country Championships at Stanford. Following college, Jesse remained a fierce competitor, participating in the Ironman World Triathlon Championship in Hawaii in 2000, and has completed more than 30 double-century (200-mile) bicycling events.