Line up everybody who has ever won a discus title at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, regardless of division. Now, ask any of those men who won four to step forward. Nick Jones would be the only individual front and center.
In other words, Jones truly stood out.
Jones dominated the NCAA DII ranks from 2008 to 2012, winning every single national title when he stepped inside the discus ring. The only year that Jones didn’t top the podium was in 2010, when he redshirted. Otherwise, Jones had no peer with the platter in his right hand.
His last two years in an Abilene Christian uniform were beyond remarkable.
Jones captured three NCAA titles during that span and wrote his name all over the record book. He stood tall in back-to-back years in the discus – which included a still meet-record heave of 60.75m (199-3) in 2011 – and captured his first national shot put crown indoors that same year. Then, in 2012, Jones whirled the disc 61.95m (203-3) at the UTEP Invitational for what was – and still is – the third-farthest mark in NCAA DII history and the farthest effort since 1996.
In addition to five career NCAA titles, Jones earned 10 All-America honors and won a treasure chest of conference crowns in the Lone Star Conference. Jones was named the USTFCCCA’s NCAA DII Men’s Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year twice – once in 2011, then again in 2012.
Jones is the 12th athlete from Abilene Christian inducted into the USTFCCCA NCAA DII Track & Field Athlete Hall of Fame.