CARBONDALE — The college recruiting process can be challenging for athletes trying to pick where they will head after high school. Junior seasons are often pivotal in this process. So what happens when your junior season gets wiped out by a pandemic?

You improvise.

Carbondale senior thrower Jackson Grant’s helped land him a Division I scholarship with Belmont.

“I didn’t get that,” Grant said of a junior season. “It (recruitment) was mainly on videos I sent to coaches that I took in the summer, and that’s how the recruitment process happened.”

Grant plans to be a Music Business major. Belmont was a school he targeted.

“They really just have everything that I would want in a school,” Grant said. “It’s close to home, but not super close. It’s the perfect middle ground. I’ll get to throw there (and) compete in D-1 athletics. They have a great music business program. It’s really, everything I could’ve wanted in a college.”

With his college choice made, Grant can now focus on his final high school season.

“I’m really excited now,” Grant said. “I haven’t competed in a long time. Really I got most of my competitions my sophomore year. I’ve only been in seven meets and only won one of them. I’m just excited to get back out there and compete again, and just know in the fall, I’m going to have a place to go and keep throwing.”