Bobby Jazwinski at the Portage invite.
By Scott DeCamp
LocalSportsJournal.com
Whitehall seniors Pierce Westerlund and Alex Winczewski are “basketball guys” who decided to give cross country a try this fall.
They’ve learned a few things along the way:
There are levels to it.
Classmate Bobby Jazwinski is clearly on another level – arguably, one all his own – when it comes to running.
Jazwinski is a really cool dude once you get to know him.
Jazwinski captured the MHSAA Division 2 individual state championship last fall at Michigan International Speedway with a time of 15 minutes, 7.1 seconds. One year later, it seems as though he could post that time in his sleep.
Jazwinski has turned in times in the 14:23s on three occasions this season, including a personal-record 14:23.0 in the Oakridge Invitational Sept. 26 on a course that some say measured a tad longer than the traditional 3.1 miles for a 5k race.
For a good stretch of this cross-country season, Jazwinski ranked No. 1 nationally. According to Athletic.net, he’s currently ranked No. 3 in the U.S. behind senior Yosuke Shibata from Oregon (14:20.7) and junior Dominic Matthias from Oklahoma (14:22.1) for top 2026 times among high school runners.
“Just watching him run, he makes it look so easy and then he runs five minutes faster than me,” Westerlund said about Jazwinski. “He’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I wasn’t really trying. I was just doing different methods for running.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’”
We’re talking about an insanely talented and dedicated runner, whose work rate appears to be unmatched and who knows no bounds regarding how hard he’ll push himself.
Among Jazwinski’s goals is breaking the all-time MHSAA record of 14:10.4 established by Rockford’s Dathan Ritzenhein at the 2000 Division 1 state finals. To put things in perspective, No. 2 on the MHSAA’s all-time list is Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones, who ran 14:46.5 at the Division 3 finals in 2022.
Speaking of Jones, who now runs at No. 10 nationally ranked Wake Forest, Jazwinski shattered his Portage Invite course record on Oct. 10 with a time of 14:23.3. Jones turned in a 14:37.0 in the event in 2022.
Jazwinski, who is playing his college recruitment close to the vest, has goals way bigger than whatever he’s able to still accomplish before graduating from Whitehall High School in the spring.
Many consider Jazwinski’s times “crazy” or, in another slang term, “stupid.” Whatever you call it, what he’s doing is historic but it’s all part of his grand plan.
“It’s not really anything crazy to me because I have really big goals of wanting to win nationals this year and wanting to be the best, and then eventually be the best in the world,” he said. “It’s just about putting in the work, staying grounded, staying humble. But just every time I go onto that race course, just totally dominate.”
Whitehall coach Jeff Bassett said that with Jazwinski’s physical ability, work ethic, determination, and experience, Ritzenhein’s record is attainable.
“He’s looking stronger than ever,” Bassett said. “He’s been doing incredibly consistent training since the summer and he’s been able to maintain it because he puts a focus on all the little things that young people don’t necessarily want to do – running-specific strength training and the core and the stretching. If there’s anything that can improve your odds of avoiding injury and getting better, he’s doing it.”
The key part of Bassett’s quote: Jazwinski is willing to do things in the way of training that others simply won’t do. And not just willing, but he loves it, painful as it can be at times.
Jazwinski, 17, is the second of Bob and Katie Jazwinski’s four children.
Older sister Jessie Jazwinski is a sophomore on the No. 2 nationally ranked NC State women’s cross country team. She was a two-time MHSAA state champ in cross country and a three-time All-American in high school.
Mother Katie Jazwinski was a five-time All-American and the Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year in 2002 for the University of Michigan. Father Bob Jazwinski was a runner at Western Michigan University.
Running is clearly in Bobby Jazwinski’s blood. Growing up in a rural setting on the family-owned Jazz Blueberry Farm seems to be the ideal setup for a runner chasing greatness.
“It’s the perfect set-up to be honest,” Bobby Jazwinski said. “We live kind of in the middle of nowhere, so we can kind of set up stuff. We have about five acres we really use. … We actually have built a dirt track, a 400-meter dirt track on one of the fields we used to use for, like, soy and corn.
“I think it was two summers ago, my dad built it. He, like, plowed it and then drove it over and measured it perfectly. That’s (where) I do most of my workouts now. We also have two old barns or one old barn, one pole barn, and we have like all of our weights and stuff in the old barn, all of our agility stuff and jump ropes and stuff in the pole barn.”
Any piece of equipment or training method one could think of regarding running, the Jazwinski property has. Not to mention, “dirt roads in every direction.”
It’s a runner’s paradise. Jazwinski said he could not ask for anything more.
Of course, as Jazwinski pointed out, goals are only goals and nothing more unless one is willing to put the work in and become comfortable with the uncomfortable. He noted that the mental aspect is even more important than the physical piece. One needs to become “unbreakable” and not surrender when it gets difficult, he said.
For example, an intense workout Jazwinski has completed in recent months consisted of a four-mile tempo run on rolling hills in about 18:30, which is around a 4:37-per-mile pace. He followed it with a two-minute break and then did four one-mile runs averaging 4:24 or 4:25 with one or two minutes of rest between each.
“I knew I was in really good shape, but it definitely cemented that I was in, like, crazy shape – like, world-class shape,” Jazwinski said. “Afterwards, my dad was like, ‘I don’t know really anybody in the world that could do that workout right now.’ So we knew I was ready to do something special.”
On Oct. 17, Bobby Jazwinski cruised to his second straight Greater Muskegon Athletic Association title with a time of 14:46.6 at University Park Golf Course.
Jazwinski’s training regimen is very specific and strategic. It’s not 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. As Westerlund alluded, Jazwinski has days where he may “take it easy.”
Of course, that’s all relative.
Jazwinski has grown in many ways in the last few years, including in the physical sense.
Now standing 6-foot-3, Jazwinski believes he’s at the ideal height for running. However, a recent doctor’s appointment revealed that his growth plates are still open, so who knows how much taller he may get.
His dad has witnessed growth beyond that.
“He’s matured a lot, too. He really has,” Bob Jazwinski said. “To put a mindset where he’s at, listening to him interview, he’s really taken everything I’ve said and Katie has said and Jessie has said, to heart. Also, he’s now a student of becoming the best that he can be. His mindset is never to put any of these other kids down, which has impressed me so much because all these other kids talk so much trash.”
Bobby Jazwinski has hit it off with his teammates, especially the aforementioned “basketball guys.”
Westerlund said that Jazwinski is not super loud, but once one gets to know him, he’s really funny.
Jazwinski is very humble, which his teammates clearly appreciate.
“It’s actually amazing because he’ll go and run like the national first (time) and he’ll just come to school and he’s just like a normal dude and it’s, like, crazy,” Winczewski said. “He’s super humble for how good he is.”
Said Westerlund: “He’s the No. 1 runner in the nation. You don’t hear anything from him. A lot of kids, they’d be talking about how good they are, their rankings, or whatever. But he doesn’t talk about it ever. He talks about how much he loves running and being around people. I think that’s really cool.”
Added Winczewski: “I was talking to him last year in school and he promised me that if he made the Olympics, he’d give me a ticket. It’d be insane. Just, like, seeing him and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I ran with him back in the day.’ That’d be, like, a crazy story to tell all my friends and my family. The more I think about it, the more I’m, like, ‘He can really do it because he’s amazing.’”
On a cross-country course – or a track, where he excels in the spring – Jazwinski often leaves the pack behind him.
But with his future in running and how far he might go, it’s all right there in front of him.
Jazwinski is a self-professed “running nerd,” who loves studying historic runners such as Steve Prefontaine and Steve Ovett.
Running has been Jazwinski’s life. He intends on making it his profession as well.
“It’s so hard to think about anything other than running because I truly believe this is what God made me to do,” he said, “and I think this is the craft I want to do the rest of my life and see how good I can possibly get at it.”
LocalSportsJournal.com
Whitehall seniors Pierce Westerlund and Alex Winczewski are “basketball guys” who decided to give cross country a try this fall.
They’ve learned a few things along the way:
There are levels to it.
Classmate Bobby Jazwinski is clearly on another level – arguably, one all his own – when it comes to running.
Jazwinski is a really cool dude once you get to know him.
Jazwinski captured the MHSAA Division 2 individual state championship last fall at Michigan International Speedway with a time of 15 minutes, 7.1 seconds. One year later, it seems as though he could post that time in his sleep.
Jazwinski has turned in times in the 14:23s on three occasions this season, including a personal-record 14:23.0 in the Oakridge Invitational Sept. 26 on a course that some say measured a tad longer than the traditional 3.1 miles for a 5k race.
For a good stretch of this cross-country season, Jazwinski ranked No. 1 nationally. According to Athletic.net, he’s currently ranked No. 3 in the U.S. behind senior Yosuke Shibata from Oregon (14:20.7) and junior Dominic Matthias from Oklahoma (14:22.1) for top 2026 times among high school runners.
“Just watching him run, he makes it look so easy and then he runs five minutes faster than me,” Westerlund said about Jazwinski. “He’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I wasn’t really trying. I was just doing different methods for running.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’”
We’re talking about an insanely talented and dedicated runner, whose work rate appears to be unmatched and who knows no bounds regarding how hard he’ll push himself.
Among Jazwinski’s goals is breaking the all-time MHSAA record of 14:10.4 established by Rockford’s Dathan Ritzenhein at the 2000 Division 1 state finals. To put things in perspective, No. 2 on the MHSAA’s all-time list is Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones, who ran 14:46.5 at the Division 3 finals in 2022.
Speaking of Jones, who now runs at No. 10 nationally ranked Wake Forest, Jazwinski shattered his Portage Invite course record on Oct. 10 with a time of 14:23.3. Jones turned in a 14:37.0 in the event in 2022.
Jazwinski, who is playing his college recruitment close to the vest, has goals way bigger than whatever he’s able to still accomplish before graduating from Whitehall High School in the spring.
Many consider Jazwinski’s times “crazy” or, in another slang term, “stupid.” Whatever you call it, what he’s doing is historic but it’s all part of his grand plan.
“It’s not really anything crazy to me because I have really big goals of wanting to win nationals this year and wanting to be the best, and then eventually be the best in the world,” he said. “It’s just about putting in the work, staying grounded, staying humble. But just every time I go onto that race course, just totally dominate.”
Whitehall coach Jeff Bassett said that with Jazwinski’s physical ability, work ethic, determination, and experience, Ritzenhein’s record is attainable.
“He’s looking stronger than ever,” Bassett said. “He’s been doing incredibly consistent training since the summer and he’s been able to maintain it because he puts a focus on all the little things that young people don’t necessarily want to do – running-specific strength training and the core and the stretching. If there’s anything that can improve your odds of avoiding injury and getting better, he’s doing it.”
The key part of Bassett’s quote: Jazwinski is willing to do things in the way of training that others simply won’t do. And not just willing, but he loves it, painful as it can be at times.
Jazwinski, 17, is the second of Bob and Katie Jazwinski’s four children.
Older sister Jessie Jazwinski is a sophomore on the No. 2 nationally ranked NC State women’s cross country team. She was a two-time MHSAA state champ in cross country and a three-time All-American in high school.
Mother Katie Jazwinski was a five-time All-American and the Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year in 2002 for the University of Michigan. Father Bob Jazwinski was a runner at Western Michigan University.
Running is clearly in Bobby Jazwinski’s blood. Growing up in a rural setting on the family-owned Jazz Blueberry Farm seems to be the ideal setup for a runner chasing greatness.
“It’s the perfect set-up to be honest,” Bobby Jazwinski said. “We live kind of in the middle of nowhere, so we can kind of set up stuff. We have about five acres we really use. … We actually have built a dirt track, a 400-meter dirt track on one of the fields we used to use for, like, soy and corn.
“I think it was two summers ago, my dad built it. He, like, plowed it and then drove it over and measured it perfectly. That’s (where) I do most of my workouts now. We also have two old barns or one old barn, one pole barn, and we have like all of our weights and stuff in the old barn, all of our agility stuff and jump ropes and stuff in the pole barn.”
Any piece of equipment or training method one could think of regarding running, the Jazwinski property has. Not to mention, “dirt roads in every direction.”
It’s a runner’s paradise. Jazwinski said he could not ask for anything more.
Of course, as Jazwinski pointed out, goals are only goals and nothing more unless one is willing to put the work in and become comfortable with the uncomfortable. He noted that the mental aspect is even more important than the physical piece. One needs to become “unbreakable” and not surrender when it gets difficult, he said.
For example, an intense workout Jazwinski has completed in recent months consisted of a four-mile tempo run on rolling hills in about 18:30, which is around a 4:37-per-mile pace. He followed it with a two-minute break and then did four one-mile runs averaging 4:24 or 4:25 with one or two minutes of rest between each.
“I knew I was in really good shape, but it definitely cemented that I was in, like, crazy shape – like, world-class shape,” Jazwinski said. “Afterwards, my dad was like, ‘I don’t know really anybody in the world that could do that workout right now.’ So we knew I was ready to do something special.”
On Oct. 17, Bobby Jazwinski cruised to his second straight Greater Muskegon Athletic Association title with a time of 14:46.6 at University Park Golf Course.
Jazwinski’s training regimen is very specific and strategic. It’s not 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. As Westerlund alluded, Jazwinski has days where he may “take it easy.”
Of course, that’s all relative.
Jazwinski has grown in many ways in the last few years, including in the physical sense.
Now standing 6-foot-3, Jazwinski believes he’s at the ideal height for running. However, a recent doctor’s appointment revealed that his growth plates are still open, so who knows how much taller he may get.
His dad has witnessed growth beyond that.
“He’s matured a lot, too. He really has,” Bob Jazwinski said. “To put a mindset where he’s at, listening to him interview, he’s really taken everything I’ve said and Katie has said and Jessie has said, to heart. Also, he’s now a student of becoming the best that he can be. His mindset is never to put any of these other kids down, which has impressed me so much because all these other kids talk so much trash.”
Bobby Jazwinski has hit it off with his teammates, especially the aforementioned “basketball guys.”
Westerlund said that Jazwinski is not super loud, but once one gets to know him, he’s really funny.
Jazwinski is very humble, which his teammates clearly appreciate.
“It’s actually amazing because he’ll go and run like the national first (time) and he’ll just come to school and he’s just like a normal dude and it’s, like, crazy,” Winczewski said. “He’s super humble for how good he is.”
Said Westerlund: “He’s the No. 1 runner in the nation. You don’t hear anything from him. A lot of kids, they’d be talking about how good they are, their rankings, or whatever. But he doesn’t talk about it ever. He talks about how much he loves running and being around people. I think that’s really cool.”
Added Winczewski: “I was talking to him last year in school and he promised me that if he made the Olympics, he’d give me a ticket. It’d be insane. Just, like, seeing him and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I ran with him back in the day.’ That’d be, like, a crazy story to tell all my friends and my family. The more I think about it, the more I’m, like, ‘He can really do it because he’s amazing.’”
On a cross-country course – or a track, where he excels in the spring – Jazwinski often leaves the pack behind him.
But with his future in running and how far he might go, it’s all right there in front of him.
Jazwinski is a self-professed “running nerd,” who loves studying historic runners such as Steve Prefontaine and Steve Ovett.
Running has been Jazwinski’s life. He intends on making it his profession as well.
“It’s so hard to think about anything other than running because I truly believe this is what God made me to do,” he said, “and I think this is the craft I want to do the rest of my life and see how good I can possibly get at it.”
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