It takes two to tango, but only one to run. In the case of twin brothers Jeremy and Jacob Parsons, both have done their fair share of running throughout their lives.
Jeremy, a senior cross country and track runner at SRU, has seen a great amount of success thanks to his running prowess over his career.
Jeremy has collected three all-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) selections and three all-region selection, among other accomplishments.
Jacob, a senior track and field runner and now wrestler at Penn State-Behrend, was a district champion runner and state qualifier in high school.
“Growing up, we were pretty bitter rivals, just competing all the time,” Jeremy said. “At least we had somebody to push each other through everything, so it was a nice little competitive feel.”
Something that both brothers have in common throughout their collegiate careers is academic success. Jeremy has been named a PSAC scholar-athlete on multiple occasions, and Jacob was named to the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) all-academic squad last year. This makes it no surprise that academics were a driving force in selecting the institution that both brothers attended.
“We weren’t really looking to do much in college sport-wise, we kind of knew what we wanted to go to school for academics,” Jeremy said. “We just picked the best school for academics and just decided to run for them, it worked out great.”
Any parent would be proud of the academic achievement and drive alone, but raising two collegiate athletes is a rare thing to find.
“They were really pumped [about our sports], they were really supportive growing up, they like to travel everywhere,” Jeremy said. “It was always nice having them there cheering for us and everything else. I think they’re pretty happy with how we managed [ourselves].”
Any pair of twins knows that shenanigans are bound to ensue when it comes to joking about the symmetrical looks, but Jeremy has taken it with a light heart.
“We get quite a few jokes, like when my brother visits everyone just usually calls him by my name, not knowing at first, so it’s pretty funny.”
