LARAMIE – Good things come slow, especially in distance running.
 
The quote from Bill Dellinger, a three-time Olympian who also coached Steve Prefontaine at Oregon, certainly applies to Jacob White.
 
After committing to Wyoming during the pandemic before ever stepping foot on campus, the talented Littleton, Colo., prospect's performances remained stagnant during his redshirt season in 2021.
 
White put his faith in UW head cross country coach Scott Dahlberg to develop him into an elite collegiate distance runner.
 
"My freshman year I was kind of facing a block," White said. "I hadn't PR'd in a 5K in like three years when I got here. Dahlberg had faith that his training was going to work, and he saw that potential in me. That kind of trust really gave me confidence in those days to keep up with the process and keep looking forward.
 
"It took time, maybe a year before I got that PR finally, but once I started improving and getting that consistency the results came shortly after that."
 
This fall White, a junior, led a veteran group of Cowboys to the NCAA championships for the first time since 2018.
 
It all started with a rigorous offseason training regimen that included plenty of miles in the mountains.
 
"To have the races of your life you need to lean on the training from three months ago, six months ago, every single run counts," White said. "Having that base, having those miles, knowing you did the work gives you so much confidence, especially now."
 
On Aug. 30, White set the tone for the fall by winning the 5K Wyoming Invite in Cheyenne. Three weeks later, the Cowboys won the 8K Roy Griak Invitational with senior Mason Norman and junior Ryker Holtzen finishing fifth and seventh, respectively, in a stacked field.
 
White, who finished eighth, already knew this was a special group. Beating Navy, host Minnesota, rival Colorado State and Ohio State in the 17-team field to win the title boosted the team's confidence.
 
"It definitely shifted our mentality to an area where we started to believe it was possible for us to win and compete and bring down teams that two years ago, three years ago we would never have thought possible," White said. "That starting point was a great way for us to get this self-belief rolling. That was an 'it's happening' moment and we've got to ride it out and go until the flame goes out."
 
Competing against a list of All-Americans, White finished ninth at the Joe Piane Invitational on Oct. 4 in South Bend., Ind., with a program record time of 22 minutes, 49.3 seconds in the 8K.
 
UW was fourth in the 19-team invitational behind No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 4 Northern Arizona and No. 29 Cal Baptist.
 
"He's got a really good engine," Dahlberg said of White. "Early in his career he was probably more inconsistent. There would be days when we would see him on fire and days where it was really rough. He has really smoothed that out and been greatly more consistent this year than any other year, which has been fun to see in his growth and maturity."
 
White led the team with a 38^th place individual finish and the Cowboys placed 12^th at Pre Nationals.
 
Most of the team got sick the day after the 8K, but White was able to grind out an 11^th-place finish at the Mountain West championships on Nov. 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo., where UW was third behind New Mexico and CSU.
 
Senior Dylan Van Der Hock was 14^th at the conference championships with Norman (17^th), Holtzen (18^th) and senior Trevor Stephen (20^th) also posting top 20 finishes.
 
"I'm really proud of their consistency in workouts and overall dedication," White said of his teammates. "This year more than ever we've been making every little thing count and it showed. We've had the races we needed to put us in position to qualify."
 
The Cowboys understood they would have to perform well at the NCAA Mountain Regional last Friday in Reno, Nev., to receive an at-large bid to the national championships.
 
UW finished sixth in the competitive 17-team field behind BYU, New Mexico, Northern Arizona, Utah State and Colorado. White was 19^th in the 10K with a time of 29:43.2 with Holtzen (32^nd, 29:59.1) and Norman (37^th, 30:02.3) also cracking the top 40.
 
The Cowboys, who are ranked No. 29 in the coaches poll, learned Saturday they had made the national championship field.
 
"The NCAA championships are so interesting because the guys have been running 8Ks essentially every other week throughout the season and now you couple together two 10Ks within eight days," Dahlberg said. "It's just a different deal and that's what we've been training for, we've been training to run two 10Ks in eight days. There are teams that will be there that maybe aren't as prepared for that and there's teams that are running a little tired.
 
"We look at this group and we know they're not in a place where they're ready to be done. They're ready to go and compete."
 
Both Dahlberg and White agree that the Cowboys have enjoyed a great season but haven't put together their best collective race yet.
 
Perhaps good things will come fast for UW on the big stage.
 
"Since day one when I got here that has been our dream for this group of guys was making this race because we've kind of known our potential for a while," White said. "We just wanted it for each other. We've worked so hard to be consistent, not just individually but as a team, and I think that's what is great about us.
 
"We've had good races this season, but we haven't had our best race yet. I still believe we are going to have our best race coming up here."
 
The men's NCAA championship is scheduled to start at 9:10 a.m. Saturday and will be broadcast on ESPNU.
 
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