Cooper Stream was willing to finish second to his older brother last Friday in the 1,600-meter race at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III meet. After all, Jackson is in his final year at Vacaville High and played the seniority card by asking his sophomore sibling to not stand in his way of winning.
Allowing Jackson to cross the finish line first was not a problem for Cooper. Dropping to third was out of the question. All the brothers had to do was finish in the top seven to qualify for the Masters meet Friday and Saturday at Folsom High, but second place was the least Cooper would accept.
Manteca’s Oscar Angel threatened to ruin the brothers’ plan by making a late charge. That forced Cooper to also make a move from breathing down his brother’s neck to pulling alongside Jackson as they approached the finish line. Jackson edged his brother by just two hundredths of a second.
Cooper held off Angel and nearly won a race he had been asked to lose. “I could hear (Angel) and I thought, ‘This is an issue. He’s trying to get me.’ I wasn’t going to slow down,” Cooper said. “We couldn’t tell who won. (Jackson) lunged at the end. If he didn’t do that, I would have definitely won.”
The brothers returned to the track two hours later for the 3,200, which is Jackson’s strongest event. Cooper won in 9:22.74 to set a personal record without asking Jackson for any assistance. Jackson provided it anyway by throttling down in the final lap once he was assured of being in the top seven.
Coach Dave Monk has never had two siblings be so talented that they challenge each other as well as threaten one another. Monk described it as “quite a unique dynamic to watch,” but that dynamic has become rivalrous at times because Jackson is determined not to be upstaged by his brother.
Jackson made that quite clear at the 2024 Monticello Empire League finals. After winning the 1,600, he figured he would throw his brother a bone by letting Cooper finish first in the 3,200. Jackson had a change of heart in the final lap, however, and blew by Cooper to earn his second MEL victory.
“I told him I’d give him that one, but I didn’t want to hear him tell everyone how he beat me,” said Jackson, who received a stern reprimand from Monk for not being a teammate who can be trusted. Jackson has since realized the error of his ways and now admits “I felt bad honestly” after the race.
All of that must have slipped Jackson’s mind when he decided to enter the 1,600 at the Sacramento Meet of Champions on April 26. He did so for the sole purpose of breaking the school record in the event. And this was after Cooper had made it known that the record would be his sooner rather than later.
“My parents doubted me. They thought (Cooper) was better in the 1,600,” said Jackson, who owns the record after winning in 4:12.18. With that time, Jackson is ranked second in the section behind Granite Bay’s Connor Bilodeau (4:11.92). Cooper is sixth at 4:14.29 and again in Jackson’s shadow.
Monk is stuck in the middle. “I know that was quite gratifying for Jackson and quite disappointing for Cooper,” Monk said of the 1,600 record quest. “For Cooper, it was like ‘Hold on a second, you’re infringing on my space.’ For Jackson, it’s like ‘Hold on, maybe I’m not one dimensional.’”
Jackson is regarded as an “endurance monster” by Monk, so the senior’s best shot at qualifying for the state meet is in the 3,200. Jackson (9:06.45) is ranked third in the section behind Jesuit’s Isaac Abbott (8:57.47) and Sonora’s Broen Holman (9:00.81). Only the top three finishers will advance.
Cooper has two races remaining against his brother and there could be one or two more if both go to the state meet at Buchanan High in Clovis. This is Jackson’s last hurrah in high school. Cooper can look forward to two more seasons. And those seasons will be not the same without his brother.
“This is once in a lifetime,” Cooper said.
