By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
Graduate long jumper Alexis Brown became the first Baylor athlete to win a national championship in the long jump event at the NCAA Championships in Virginia Beach, Va., Friday. After a season of consistently jumping over 22 feet, the victory came as no surprise to Brown and her coaches.
What did come as a surprise was her decision to complete her final attempt after securing the title on her second jump.
“I decided to take the last jump because I was like, ‘I won’t get this moment back, so I might as well take the last jump knowing I had it secured,” Brown said. “So even if I fouled, even if something happened, I won the meet. So I looked in the stands, and coach Stacey didn’t even watch the jump. She was turned around crying. I look, and I see my parents, and my dad’s like, ‘Just go for it.'”
While head coach Michael Ford said he journals specific goals for athletes before meets, he approached the indoor championships with full confidence in Brown’s abilities due to her consistency throughout the season.
“Each meet I’m doing a pre-journal, then a post-journal,” Ford said. “But then also, one of the things I did this year with the team is every meet we had goals … So I would have a note card for every athlete, and they will write down their goals.”
Brown also journals her goals, and on the morning of the competition, she wrote something that later became reality.
“I showed coach Stacey [Smith] my journal after I won nationals, and the first thing I wrote after I thanked the Lord was, ‘This is the day you become a national champion and jump 690,” Brown said. “So to actually go out there to win nationals and to jump 690, it shows that if you trust in the Lord and you trust in yourself, the rest will be taken care of.”
Brown’s success doesn’t come without a backstory — before her 2024 indoor season, she had never completed a season without injury.
“My journey has been hard, and I think people see the glory, but they don’t know the story,” Brown said. “I’ve gone through a lot, and if it wasn’t for Baylor, Coach Ford, Coach Stacey and their support, I would not be in this position. And, of course, the Lord — just having faith that I could do this played a big part.”
After placing fifth at both the indoor and outdoor championships in 2024 and the Olympic Trials, Brown said her disappointment in the results pushed her towards bigger goals.
“I’m using that as motivation,” Brown said. “I’m not going to finish fifth again. I told Coach Ford and Coach Stacey, ‘I want to win.’ And so I was working and making sure I did all those steps to make sure I brought home that win.”
Ford said Brown’s rapid ability to pick up new techniques, along with her dedication to improvement, set her apart from other athletes.
“The one thing I would say about Alexis is she just works really hard,” Ford said. “When I say student-athletes have to do everything right to be successful, she does everything right — at least from my lens — between going to treatment, going after treatment, asking the right questions.”
After breaking the record for the first time on Friday, Brown experienced a wave of emotions that helped her gain momentum to complete her last attempt.
“I immediately broke down after the jump,” Brown said. “I think everyone thought I was injured because I immediately went to the ground, but it was just like, the emotions just hit. So, yeah, I mean, thinking about it, I could tear up again.”
Brown looks to best her 22-7.75 mark on Saturday during the Clyde Hart Classic at Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium.
