Seven years later, he is reaching nearly all of them.

Last Friday, the 2021 Sherman graduate and fifth-year senior at Kansas University climbed another mountain when he captured the Big 12 decathlon title at Roy P. Drachman Stadium in Tucson, Arizona.

“I feel like these meets are really just getting me a little closer. It feels more real every time. It was a sloppy decathlon where I still scored high,” Swabik said earlier this week from Lawrence, Kansas. “It’s not Olympic-high, but we’re close. We’re within 500 or 600 points of the top guys in the United States.”

Swabik’s personal-best total of 7,819 points — 361 more than his previous high — set a new Kansas University record in the process. He became the fourth Jayhawk ever to win a conference decathlon championship and the third in the Big 12.

Kansas University's John Swabik celebrates during the Big 12 Championships at Roy P. Drachman Track & Field Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., last weekend. Photo courtesy of Sydney Allan/Kansas Athletics

“To be able to preserve and stick with it has been incredible,” Swabik said. “I knew that potential was always in there from Day 1, it was just a matter of finding it and bringing it out at the right time.”

Illinois junior Jip de Greef is No. 1 in the nation with 8,039 points, followed by Connecticut junior Joshua Mooney (8,033), Illinois freshman Luuk Pelkmans (8004), BYU senior Ben Barton (7,998), North Dakota State senior Zach McGlynn (7,922), Louisville sophomore Kenneth Byrd (7,891) and Texas State junior Easton Hammond (7,823).

“I don’t truly believe that I’m maxed out in anything, but there are definitely some of those events that are more easy picking. Pole vault should be able to get that up really fast,” Swabik said. “Even in something like javelin, we don’t often train it a ton; this weekend kind of opened my eyes that I can throw that thing 60-plus. When you do that you’re talking big points.

I’m super underdeveloped, but I’m getting there finally.”

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Kansas University's John Swabik receives his first-place medal at the Big 12 Championships last weekend at Roy P. Drachman Track & Field Stadium in Tucson, Ariz. Photo courtesy of Sydney Allan/Kansas Athletics

On the first day of the decathlon, Swabik finished sixth in the 100-meter dash (11.08, 843), first in the long jump (7.45m, 945), 11th in the shot put (12.58m, 642), fourth in the high jump (1.97m, 776) and 10th in the 400-meter dash (50.37, 798).

“In shot put, I had two fouls going into the third throw, so I basically had to do a standing throw to keep going; I lost a bunch of points there,” Swabik said. “My long jump, I was excited about that.”

At the end of Thursday, he was in second place with 4,004 points.

To open Friday’s competition, Swabik took sixth in the 110-meter hurdles (14.8, 874) before setting three straight personal bests.

He finished fourth in the discus at 42.27 meters, 2.73 meters than his previous best, to give him 711 points; second in the pole vault at 4.83 meters, 0.16 meters higher than his previous best, to give him 859 points; and sixth in the javelin throw at 54.60 meters, which was 3.52 meters farther than his previous best and gave him 657 points.

On the first day of the Big 12 decathlon, Kansas University's John Swabik finished sixth in the 100-meter dash, first in the long jump, 11th in the shot put, fourth in the high jump (1.97m, 776) and 10th in the 400-meter dash. Photo courtesy of Sydney Allan/Kansas Athletics

“In the pole vault, I made it at 4.53 on the third attempt. If I hadn’t made that bar it would’ve been a lot different,” Swabik said. “Forty-two (meters) in discus, almost 55 (meters) in javelin, that was a big momentum shift on Day 2 to stay in front of that competition.”

After nine events, Swabik sat in third place, trailing Oklahoma State’s Steven Schmidt by 50 points and Kansas State’s Dorian Charles.

“Dorian is a Kansas State kid so I knew him pretty well. I’ve competed against him a couple of times this year. I knew he could run a 4:45 if he was absolutely giving it everything he had,” Swabik said. “The Schmidt kid from Oklahoma State, I didn’t know anything about that kid. He was a DII kid who just came this year and he didn’t run indoor. Somebody told me that he ran about five minutes.”

Swabik ran the 1,500 meters in a third-place time of 4:34.69 to earn 714 points.

“Going into the 1,500, I was extremely confident that I could run my own race and it would easily happen,” he said.

Kansas University's John Swabik is all smiles during the Big 12 Championships at Roy P. Drachman Track & Field Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., last weekend. Photo by Sydney Allan/Kansas Athletics

The 714-point total pushed him 71 points past Charles and 90 points past Schmidt.

“It was definitely not my best work. That’s what is most exciting about it,” Swabik said. “There are hundreds of points on the table. I just kept sticking with it throughout the whole meet.”

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Now Swabik will change his focus to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in early June.

Personal bests in every event would give Swabik 8,142 points.

On Day 1, in the 100 meters, he has run 10.84 seconds (897 points), in the long jump he has reached 7.54 meters (945), in the shot put he has thrown 13.69 meters (709), in the high jump he has reached 2.03 meters (831) and in the 400 meters he has finished in 49.24 seconds (850).

On Day 2, Swabik has finished in 14.36 seconds (929 points) in the 110-meter hurdles. He has thrown the discus 42.27 meters (711). He has reached 4.83 meters (859) in the pole vault. Swabik has thrown the javelin 54.6 meters (657) and he has run the 1,500 meters in 4:28.63 (754).

“My goal is to go over 8,000 and go win this national meet,” he said. “I’d keep a lookout because it might happen.”