2 weeks Ago
Jackson Cantwell hopes to hear his name called in the NFL Draft one day. But as the second round of the league’s annual draft was set to begin on Friday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the No. 3 overall 2026 high school football prospect in the nation was instead representing Nixa High School Track and Field in the 2025 Ken Peek Invitational at Liberty North High School in Liberty, Missouri.
The dual-sport phenom set a new national season-high mark in the shot put and set a new state-best in the discus, winning both events. A top college football recruit rated No. 3 in the 2026 class by ESPN, Cantwell (6-foot-8, 330 pounds) has said he is nearing a college decision .
Oregon, Georgia and Miami (Florida) are believed to be the favorites among his finalists, though Georgia, Missouri and Ohio State were also in his final six. The Hurricanes reportedly had staff on hand to watch Cantwell perform on Friday. He will travel to Oregon to meet with the Ducks this weekend.
Like Tiger Woods in the tee box, Cantwell’s throws are a can’t-miss for spectators. His performance on Friday at the Ken Peek Invitational was no different. In front of a healthy contingent of onlookers, Cantwell launched the shot 22.
42 meters (73-feet, 6 1/4 inches), breaking his previous season-best and topping the national mark he set April 11 by one centimeter. Cantwell currently holds Missouri’s state record in the shot put at 22.8 meters.
He set that mark last season in the MSHSAA Class 5 District 6 meet. Joey Goodenow (St. Thomas Aquinas) took second on Friday with a throw of 18.
75 meters, while Hayden Mays, Cantwell’s Nixa teammate, finished third with a heave of 18.21 meters. Cantwell didn’t stop there.
He also cruised to top honors on Friday in the discus with a throw of 62.79 meters, beating Goodenow (57.71) and Mays (56.
77). That throw is now the top mark in Missouri this season. Last week, he broke his own personal record at the KU Relays in the shot put.
Cantwell told MileSplit in an interview on Friday that his goal is to break Missouri’s high school discus record of 66.55 meters held by Jefferson City’s Devin Roberson, who set the mark at the MSHSAA Class 3, 4, 5 State Track & Field Championships on May 25, 2019. “It felt good,” Cantwell told MileSplit in an interview on Friday.
“There should have been some bigger (throws) there as well. I think there was a lot of things that I could have done better. .
.. But I definitely think there’s some big throws on the horizon.
” Cantwell leads the nation by a healthy margin in the shot. Down in Katy, Texas, Katy High’s Adam Carter is second nationally with a top throw of 21.46 meters (70-4 3/4).
McKay Madsen (Clovis North, California) is third at 20.83 meters (68-4). Derrick Taylor (South Point, Ohio) is fourth at 20.
57 meters (67-6), and Paul Hoeckman (Sioux Falls Christian, South Dakota) pitched it 20.24 meters (66-5), good for fifth. “It felt good,” Cantwell told MileSplit in an interview.
“There should have been some bigger ones there as well. I think there was a lot of things that I could have done better. .
.. But I definitely think there’s some big throws on the horizon.
” Cantwell and the Eagles return to action at the 2025 Republic Relays on Thursday in Republic, Missouri, before gearing up for the Central Ozark Conference Meet on May 7..
