Jacobs grad Evan Jager wins silver medal in Olympic steeplechase

Evan Jager was unveiled as the U.S.’s new steeplechase hope in 2012, a runner with the right makeup to contend with the Kenyans in a race they have dominated for decades.

Jager had his breakthrough race Wednesday as he finished second to take the silver medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 8:04.28 at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jager became the first American man to earn a medal in the steeplechase since 1984, when Brian Diemer took bronze in Los Angeles.

[ PHOTOS: Jacobs grad Evan Jager runs to silver medal in Rio ]

It was the best U.S. finish in the event since 1952, when Horace Ashenfelter won gold in the event.

“It was just the last two years of dreaming of that moment, thinking about it every single day,” Jager told NBC afterward. “It actually coming to fruition and coming true … that was a lifelong dream of mine coming true. Those emotions were everything that you guys were seeing and what I was just feeling inside of me. It was unbelievable.”

Jager took the lead in the second lap of the race and held it as a group of three runners broke away until the second to last lap, when Kenya's Conseslus Kipruto charged ahead and eventually won the golf medal.

"I kind of preferred a faster pace as opposed to a slower pace with a kick," Jager said. "I just wanted to keep it going and keep it fast and hope that my strength was better than everyone else's. I was hoping that someone would have taken over the lead a little bit before a lap to go, but I was feeling pretty comfortable and just wanted to keep the pedal down and not get too flustered if someone came past me."

Afterward, NBC showed his father, Joel, in the stands wearing his Evan Jager T-shirt and celebrating.

"Evan Jager you just made history. to say we are proud is an understatement," Joel Jager tweeted afterward.

Jager, 27, is a 2007 graduate of Jacobs High School. He had not raced often in 2016, choosing instead to concentrate on training with his coaches Jerry Schumacher and Pascal Dobert. He ran only three steeplechase races before the Olympics.

In the 2012 Olympics in London Jager took sixth. He was fifth in the 2013 World Track and Field Championships and sixth last year in Beijing, China, a disappointing finish after running some of his best races earlier that season.

Jager, who won four state titles combined in cross country and track in high school, ran at Wisconsin for one year before turning professional with Nike. Schumacher, the former Wisconsin cross country coach, invited Jager to join him in Portland, Oregon, where Jager now runs with the Bowerman Track Club.

"It means a lot but we had really great steeplechasers back in the '80s and '90s and Dan Lincoln kind of started bringing that back," Jager said. "My training partner, Dan Huling, kind of bridged the gap between Lincoln and myself and I'm just happy to carry the torch and keep it going and hopefully inspire some really talented kids to come out and do steeplechase and possibly win a medal someday."