Ferrum College runner Jahmal Jones transferring to East Carolina
Ferrum College's Jahmal Jones warms up for a race at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Jones will transfer from Ferrum to East Carolina this school year.
Martinsville High School graduate Jahmal Jones is on the move again, and will get the chance this year to compete in track at the NCAA Division I level.
Jones
Jones, a 2023 MHS graduate, announced last month he will transfer to East Carolina University for the upcoming school year.
The former Bulldog is coming off of a sophomore season at Ferrum College in which he ran a personal best time of 6.74 seconds in the 60 meter dash prelims at the Conference Carolinas Indoor Championships, and won the title in the event with a time of 6.77 seconds.
He was named CC Indoor Track Runner of the Week on January 27.
“Going into this indoor year I kind of set my mind on, I wanted to be bigger and better,” Jones said in a recent phone interview.
Jones’s was the first conference champion for Ferrum since the school moved up to NCAA Division II and joined Conference Carolinas at the start of the school year.
“That helped me push along,” he said of the milestone.
He followed the stellar indoor season by running a personal best time of 10.15 seconds in the 100 meter dash at the CC Outdoor Championships to finish 2nd. He also finished 2nd in the 200 meter dash.
Ferrum College freshman Jahmal Jones (6) lines up for the start of the men’s 100 meter dash at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
Jones was named First Team All-State by the Virginia Sports Information Directors Association for a second straight season.
After so much success, Jones decided he wanted a new challenge.
“I talked to my coaches, I talked to a couple of my friends, and they said, ‘Let's push it to the next level,’ so then I jumped in the (transfer) portal and went on about it,” he said.
He had a few schools show interest, but Jones said after just one meeting with ECU coach Virgil Givens, he knew he wanted to join the Pirates.
“After I took a visit to ECU and the conversation I had with the coach, I felt like that was the place I needed to be,” he said.
“I felt like a lot of my life that I needed a male figure that knew exactly where he stood and how to lead. That conversation me and that coach had, it really stuck out to me because I’ve never had a conversation like that with another coach, so that ultimately just set in stone that’s where I needed to be.”
Jones has been a standout runner since his freshman year at MHS. Despite missing his senior year of outdoor track because of injury, Jones was a five-time VHSL Class 2 state champion on the track during his time at Martinsville. He won three titles at the 2022 outdoor state finals in the 100, 200, and 4x100 meter relay, and added two more championship rings at the 2023 indoor track finals in the in the 55 meter and 300 meter dash, breaking the state record in both events.
After high school, he started his college career at Patrick & Henry Community College, where he finished 11th at the 2024 NJCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field national championships in both the 100 meter dash and as the anchor leg of the Patriots 4x100 meter relay team.
After his lone season at P&HCC, he transferred to Ferrum in 2025, starting the fall playing with the Panthers football team before running both indoor and outdoor track. He finished 4th in the 60m and 11th in the 200 at the 2025 Old Dominion Athletic Conference indoor track championships. In outdoor track that spring, he finished 4th in the 100 and was a member of the Panther’s 4x100 meter relay team that also finished 4th in the ODAC.
He went on to finish 14th in both the 100 and 200 at the NCAA DIII national championships to be named Second Team All-American.
Moving up from DIII to DII at Ferrum, Jones said he “had a burning fire on my back.”
“I knew I had a target on my back coming in the next year, and we were going Division II, so if I was going into a better division, I knew I had to do something different,” he said. “I knew I had to get in the weight room more, I had to focus on my weaknesses and become more flexible so I also would prevent injuries coming into the next season.”
Unlike in previous years when Jones would spend the summers focusing on building up his strength and bodyweight, he’s taking a new training route this summer. He’s focusing on conditioning because he’s found his biggest weakness is endurance.
Jones will move in to ECU on August 15, and as of right now he has one year of eligibility remaining, but he said an NCAA rule passed last year in regards to years spent at junior colleges could allow him an extra year.
Having spent time running on the JuCo, Division III, and Division II levels, he’s most looking forward to getting on the track and making one more transition to the highest level of college competition.
“It feels great. I really can't explain how I feel because I'm not there yet,” Jones said. “I think when I touch campus, actually get a couple workouts in with the team, walk around, take a couple classes, then I'll finally realize it. But it feels great though. It just means all the work that I put in is paying off, and I’ve still got some more to do.
“I feel like it's all track at the end of the day, but there’s definitely levels to it and I'm ready to just put my foot in there and make a name for myself on the Division I level.”
Cara Cooper is the sports editor for the Martinsville Bulletin. She can be reached at cara.cooper@martinsvillebulletin.com.
