Until last August, when John Swabik arrived at KU as a graduate transfer from the University of Colorado, looking for a new place to finish out his college track career, the only thing he really knew about Lawrence, Kansas was that it was the place where his dreams once died.
Fast-forward 10 months and Swabik is now leaving as a part of KU’s storied track history.
His brief Kansas career ended last weekend at Outdoor Nationals, where he fell short of his goal of reaching the podium with a 20th-place national finish.
But prior to that, he achieved things and experienced moments that had eluded him up to this point in his athletic career. One of them etched his name in the KU record books forever, as he broke Alex Jung’s decathlon record by 73 points, scoring 7,819 points en route to a Big 12 championship.
Swabik’s record-setting day marked the fourth time in the last three years that the record had fallen, a far cry from the 27-year reign that former Jayhawk Mike Evers had as KU’s Decathlon King before Jung broke his mark three times in 2024 and 2025.
“I always knew that was in there,” Swabik told R1S1 Sports of his monster showing, which topped his own personal record by 361 points. “In my mind, I’ve always been this guy. But coming here, joining the Jayhawks, they’ve been able to bring it out of me. That’s what it was.”
And, if he’s being completely honest, the result surprised even Swabik, a native of Sherman, New York, about an hour outside of Buffalo.
See, when he decided to leave Colorado, he was merely looking for a change of scenery and somewhere new to compete. His communication with KU head coach Stanley Redwine and multis coach Paul Thornton during the recruiting process instantly made him feel like Kansas was the right place. And it only got better from there, with strength coaches, support staff, teammates and other KU assistants bringing a fresh vibe to his final season as a collegiate athlete.
“I didn’t expect it to be this good,” Swabik said. “Everybody’s been very inspiring,” Swabik said. “And there’s always something to fight for, which helped a lot with the confidence piece. That’s so big in track. And they just let me be an athlete. We planned and trained and all that stuff, but they also were just like, ‘Go out and do it.’”
So he did.
Swabik actually thought his breakout was coming a year ago, at Rock Chalk Park, when KU hosted the 2025 Outdoor Big 12 Championships. But instead of making a name for himself and qualifying for nationals that day, he no-heighted in the high jump and was left without a complete decathlon score.
It was the latest in a string of missed marks and no-heights that cost Swabik at three consecutive conference meets, in high jump, pole vault and long jump.
This year, when the Jayhawks’ hosted the Rock Chalk Classic and he found himself standing in the same high jump pit where his dream fell apart less than a year ago, he couldn’t help but think back on that day in 2025 and how far he had come since then.
“I definitely thought about that a lot this season,” he told R1S1 Sports. “At least 10-plus times. At the Rock Chalk Classic, I was high-jumping at that meet and I thought about it probably 5 times that day — ‘I gotta get my get-back.’ And I wanted to conquer it. I jumped well, stared it in the face and created a new memory.”
Things only improved from there. A few weeks later, he won the Big 12 decathlon title and set the school record, earning a spot at Outdoor Nationals in the process.
This year marked the first time in his career that he competed at Indoor or Outdoor Nationals. And he showed up to both of them as a Jayhawk.
“This was my first conference medal ever,” he said. “And, to be honest, I don’t care. This one’s great.”
Interestingly enough, it was an event that is not one of the 10 disciplines of the decathlon that first got Swabik into the world of multi-events. He was a cross country runner up to that point and had played baseball, basketball, football and more as a kid, but his mom told him she wanted him to try the decathlon, so, to make mom happy, he did.
Not that he minded. See, after a few years of showing up to track practices and running laps and long distances, he got bored one day — jealous, really — and thought that jumping over hurdles and running sprints looked like a lot more fun than he was doing.
So he asked his 8th-grade coach if he could try something else.
At the very next meet, he was entered in the triple jump and he set a school record on his first attempt.
“After he saw that, my coach was like, ‘OK. We’re gonna try you at everything,’” Swabik recalled with a smile.
From there, the path to the decathlon was a short distance, and he’s made the event’s 10 trials his home ever since — 100-meter run, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter run, 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1,500. In that order. Over and over and over until he landed in the KU record books.
“I’ve got lots of favorite parts,” he said. “But I think just the variety of the competition itself is so refreshing. In practice, if I’m working on something specific and it gets frustrating, I’ve got nine other things to worry about, so I just move on and get better somewhere else.”
He added: “I remember the day I found out about the multi-event; I was like, ‘This is literally made for me.’”
Now that his time as a Jayhawk is a thing of the past —somewhat fittingly, Swabik went out with a bang even though he only finished 20th at nationals, running a season-best 4:31.48 in the 1,500, the final event of his college career — Swabik wants to take what he unlocked at Kansas and apply it to his future.
He graduated from Colorado with a degree in leadership and community engagement and received his graduate certificate at KU in professional workplace administration. He’d like to become a college track coach someday.
But until then, he wants to keep running. And jumping and flying and fighting and competing — against himself and whatever records exist are sitting in front of him.
He’d like to qualify for the USA Championships to see what that’s all about. And he also wants to compete in the Thorpe Cup or other national events like that in the months ahead.
Ultimately, like most college track athletes, he’d like to make an Olympic team. Most likely as a decathlete. Although, he admitted that if he somehow starts excelling in one of the 10 events by itself, “it’d be an easier life.”
“I definitely want this season to drag out a little bit,” he said. “And, next year, I’m definitely gonna continue to compete. This has been my goal since I can remember — to make it in track. So, I’m gonna keep going.”
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