ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Roberts Wesleyan University sophomore Diego Arellano Jasso got off to a fast start to the 2025-26 indoor track and field season.

Arellano Jasso recorded personal best marks in the 60-meter dash (7.61 seconds), shot put (10.36 meters/34-feet), 60-meter hurdles (8.93 seconds) and the 1,000-meter run (2:57.83) while finishing seventh overall in the heptathlon with 4,429 points at the Liberty Kickoff Meet in Lynchburg, Va., on Dec. 5.

A resident of Hamlin, N.Y., who attended Brockport High School, Arellano Jasso is also shining in the classroom with a 4.0 grade-point average as a Physical Education major.

Arellano Jasso, who was named All-Region in the heptathlon during the 2024-25 indoor season and the decathlon during the 2025 outdoor season, has been selected the Roberts Wesleyan University Male Scholar-Athlete for December.

Arellano Jasso, who hopes to work as a high school teacher and coach in the future, is the third member of his family to attend Roberts, joining his sisters, Tania, 28, and Princesa, 21.

Before arriving at Roberts, Diego enjoyed success at Brockport High School, where he finished sixth in the state in the Division I pentathlon as a junior and competed in the 4-by-110-meter shuttle hurdles at New Balance Nationals as a senior.

Diego was a very active student in high school, playing percussion in the band and participating in several clubs and extra-curricular activities. Arrellano Joseph has narrowed his focus to academics and athletics at Roberts.

Arellano Jasso took a few moments to share his thoughts on being a student-athlete at Roberts. Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did you get started in track and field?
"I started on the modified track team at Brockport in seventh grade. I mostly started because all my friends were doing it, and I was one of the fastest kids in elementary school, so it just kind of fit well for me."

Did you have immediate success, or did it take you a little bit of time to get used to it and fall in love with the sport?
"I immediately fell in love with it. I really enjoy competing. I think that my biggest drive to do it was that I just enjoy going against people. I wasn't necessarily very good when I started. I guess since everyone was small and I was the same size as everyone when I started, I was OK. My high jump was OK, and my hurdles were OK and then as I progressed as an athlete, I got better. Everyone else got bigger, but I stayed 5-9, which didn't really turn out too well for me."

How has your experience at Roberts been so far?
"It's been really nice. I appreciate the teams that I am on and the athletics are great. We don't have an indoor track, but we have enough things inside to help us train throughout the winter so that we don't have to practice outside all the time."

Do you have a favorite event?
"My favorite one is probably the one I'm best at, the hurdles, which is surprising because they're very tall and I'm not. I like the hurdles, I think mostly because my coach in high school was a very good hurdle coach, so my technique in the hurdles is very good even though I'm not very fast. It kind of balances out because in the open 100, I'm the slowest guy in the field, and then in the 110 hurdles, I'm usually one of the faster ones. It's nice to have something under my belt going into a meet like that."

Why did you choose to major in Physical Education?
"I really like any sort of athletics, any sort of sport. I wanted to coach, that was really my first thought, but I kind of told myself, 'Well, I need a real job.' Phys. Ed. was the way I decided to go because Phys. Ed. is for every student. Every kid, even if they are just trying to pick up a skill or a sport, takes Phys. Ed. and that's what coaching is, trying to improve someone's skill in a specific sport. Phys. Ed. is the same, it's just in a broader range and you don't necessarily have to critique every single thing they do. I really enjoy coaching, so I wanted to do something in that realm, and Phys. Ed. was what I thought of."

Have you had a favorite class or professor at Roberts? If so, what has it been?
"I really enjoy my Phys. Ed. professors and advisors. I had Elaine Gregory last year, she just retired, now I have Pete Tabone, they are both great. I really liked last year's individual/dual sport class. That was a class where we learned about tennis, badminton, curling, all of those sports, then we had to also teach a sport in that realm. It was just a lot of fun to learn a lot of new sports that I'm not necessarily familiar with and getting more comfortable with them, because when I have to teach them, I have to be able to demonstrate. Professor Gregory made grading easy, made sure our objectives were clear, it was just really nice having a professor that kind of put everything out on the table, so we knew what we had to get done."

How would you describe the Roberts community?
"Everyone's very welcoming. I know I am talkative, so I can pick up a conversation with someone quickly. Everyone at Roberts will hold a long conversation with me if I try. Everyone wants to learn more about you, and you can learn more about those people. They're all kind, Christian-oriented, and that's nice to be around on campus. You know everyone because it's a smaller campus, so that's nice."

Do you have any resolutions for 2026?
"Oh boy, that's a big question that I haven't thought about. I wouldn't say I have any off the top of my head. I guess I could probably procrastinate less and just not waste as much time doing things that aren't productive. I sit on my phone a lot, and I could do homework and get more sleep, but I don't really do that. Maybe that would be a New Year's resolution, to not procrastinate and get eight hours of sleep every night."

What does being a Redhawk mean to you?
"It means being welcoming and being supportive of everyone, not just your fellow Redhawks. When I go to other meets, I cheer on the other teams or people that I know from other schools. It's just being supportive and being there for people. I relate being a Redhawk to sports, so just being the best athlete you can be and putting your best foot forward in anything you do, that's what I would define it as."