Somerville High Grad Jackson Anderson Has Record-Setting Heptathlon

HANOVER, NH — Somerville High School grad Jackson Anderson had a weekend to remember earlier this month when he competed in track and field for Division III Williams College against Dartmouth and Vermont.

On the weekend of Dec. 9-10, Anderson, a junior and the lone member of the Williams team in the meet, won the heptathlon with a school record of 5170 points. He broke the previous mark of 5068 set by Tobias Muellers in 2018.

Dartmouth's Karl-Oskar Pajus finished second in the heptathlon with 5143 points.

While some athletes manage to win a heptathlon or decathlon by dominating a few events, Anderson was strong across the board.

He won the 60-meter dash, long jump, high jump and 60-meter hurdles, was second in the pole vault and 1000 meters and finished third in the shot put.

Anderson ran a lifetime best 6.93 seconds in the 60, which was the second fastest time in school history. He had an indoor lifetime best of 21-9 in the long jump and a lifetime best 36-8 in the shot put.

Anderson also tied his career-best mark of 13-1.5 in the pole vault and ran a personal best time of 2:51.0 in the 1000-meter run.

Though just two meets into the season, Anderson is ranked No. 1 in Division III in the heptathlon, No. 1 in the 60 hurdles and No. 9 in 60.

Anderson and the rest of the Williams College Ephs are back in action on Jan. 14 in the Little Three Championships at Wesleyan University. Anderson's next heptathlon is likely to be at the 2023 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships, which take place March 10-11 in Birmingham, Alabama.