Chartiers Valley grad savoring final season in college track

By: Ted Sarneso
Sunday, March 23, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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It had been a long time since Charters Valley grad Caleb Nelson was able to compete in a track and field event.

An injury his senior year at Saint Francis University cost him the chance to compete and go for personal records in the outdoor track and field season.

“I tore my hamstring,” Nelson said. “In the summer before my senior year, I pulled it during training, and at one of my first indoor meets, I tore it while attempting a jump.”

The recovery process took nearly a full year, lasting from his indoor season at Saint Francis all the way into the fall of his first year as a grad student at Mount St. Mary’s, where he is on an athletic scholarship.

“It’s good to be back. I had never had an injury that long throughout my entire career as an athlete,” Nelson said. “Being away that long, it feels really great to get back into it.”

Nelson is not only feeling good to be competing again in the triple and long jumps, but the results have been strong.

After being away for a year, he didn’t miss a beat, setting personal records at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference indoor championships on Feb. 22-23 at the Nike Track and Field Center at the Armory in New York.

He placed first in the triple jump with a distance of 14.43 meters and finished fourth in the long jump with a 7.02 meters.

“I was starting to see a lot of my hard work paying off,” Nelson said. “I felt I still had some big jumps in there, so I was just trying to improve my personal record as best I could. I was really excited to hit those marks.”

His previous best marks were 14.40 meters in the triple jump and 6.99 meters in the long jump for indoor track. His previous outdoor PR for the long was a 7.19 at Saint Francis, but Nelson said that really didn’t count.

“It was wind aided,” he said. “But for just coming back from my injury, getting back to 7 meters in the long jump was a big deal for me.”

Nelson takes pride in his work in the long jump, because he sees it as the harder of the two jumps.

“It’s weird because the technical aspect of the triple jump is harder, but I feel like the approach for the long jump is so speed dominant that being at your top speed when you hit the board is harder to consistently do,” Nelson said.

When he was at Chartiers Valley, Nelson was on pace to break the school record of 45 feet (13.71 meters), but he lost his senior outdoor season in 2020 due to the covid pandemic.

“My personal best was 44-10 (13.66 meters) in the triple jump and the long jump was a 21-4 (6.50 meters),” said Nelson, who made it to the state championships in both outdoor his junior year and indoor his senior year.

His distances were good enough to pique the interest of multiple schools who came calling his senior year at Chartiers Valley.

Nelson flirted with the idea of becoming a decathlete and even participated in a decathlon in 2019 at Slippery Rock.

But because his favorite event, the triple jump, was not one of the events, he chose to go the jumper route.

Schools from the PSAC and other Division I schools, including Bucknell, gave Nelson a look, but he chose Saint Francis, where he got his undergraduate degree in marketing.

The difference between high school track and field and the competition at the college level was something Nelson had to adapt to.

“When you’re in high school, A lot of the kids were doing it for fun, just trying it out,” Nelson said. “But when you’re in college, everyone there was the best athlete when they were in high school, so you’re going up against the best of the best and they all take it seriously.”

Nelson adapted well, being a point-scorer for the Red Flash in multiple events.

“I would get points in the long and triple jump as well as the 4×400 in the conference championships,” Nelson said. “I earned All-East honors in the long and triple jumps for placing top eight in my events.”

Nelson earned All-East honors again on March 7-9 at the IC4A regional championships at the Boston University Track and Tennis Center.

He achieved the honor only in the triple jump, where he placed third. His outing in the long jump didn’t go so well.

“I think I finished 10th or some place around there,” Nelson said. “I did not have my best long jump that day, but being able to medal for the first time at that event, my goal is to always compete hard, so I was very happy with my results.”

As the indoor season winds down and Nelson has achieved his goal of getting back to his PRs in time for the outdoor season, he will look to improve upon his PRs in his final track season for Mount St. Mary’s.

“That year I got injured at Saint Francis, I probably could redshirt, but I’m not really planning on it,” said Nelson. “I want to take my personal bests as far as I can, and I normally don’t attach a number to them, but if I could get to 15 meters for the triple jump and 7.31 meters for long, that would be great.”

The season began for Nelson and the rest of the Mount St. Mary’s team at a meet in Myrtle Beach the weekend of March 21-23.

“That will be a more of a fun, relaxing meet,” Nelson said prior to the meet. “I’ll even compete in the 4×100 in that meet.”

Nelson is working toward a master’s degree in business administration. He doesn’t have a focus right now, but thinks he may focus on management.

Last summer, he took a job working for a sales team that sells ADT Security and he plans on going back there again this summer.

“It’s like a seasonal job, but I’ve been helping to build up the team,” Nelson said. “I’ve recruited some friends and a few of my teammates.”

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