Family Matter: Continuing the Farmer Legacy

The track & field roots run deep for Josh Farmer.

His grandfather, Dixon, was an NCAA champion in the 440 hurdles at Occidental College and went on to coach at the collegiate level with stops at his alma mater, Michigan, Washington and San Diego State. 

Josh’s father, Matt, was a three-time Big West decathlon champion at UC Irvine, and his mother, Kristin Harkins, was an All-American in the 1500m at Cal Poly Pomona. 

In addition to the bloodlines, Josh grew up around the sport with his father working as a sales manager for VS Athletics, which sells track & field equipment. He recalls having toy versions of a discus and hurdles around the house as a kid with his father recording his marks when he was just five years old.

It only seemed natural for Josh to continue his family’s track & field legacy, but that wasn’t initially the case. He almost didn’t even pursue the sport. When he entered high school, his main focus was basketball and he also wanted to try out for volleyball in the spring, but it was his father who convinced him to give track & field a shot.

“I never really took track very seriously,” Josh said. “When I was a freshman in high school, I wanted to play volleyball, but my dad told me to just come out and try track, that I was going to love it - and I did end up falling in love with it.”

“I vaguely recall volleyball being talked about by Josh and I’m sure he would have been great at it,” Matt added. “He was a basketball player at that stage of life and I think most of his buddies were going that route. I can remember at the dinner table one night he said, ‘I think I’m going to do track,’ and I nudged his mom under the table trying not to show my excitement.” 

Josh started out in the jumps primarily because he thought it would help him increase his vertical so that he could dunk on the basketball court. He continued to be a dual-sport athlete up until his junior year when he picked up the decathlon and consequently started to take track & field more seriously.

“I picked up the decathlon because my dad had done it back in the day,” Josh stated. “I started to fall in love with it really quickly. When I was first starting out, I was so into the idea of points. The way the decathlon works is it’s never going to be perfect because there are 10 events, but you can always think about it in the sense of if I had done this, then this could have happened, so I got hooked into the idea of always making things better.”

Josh saw quick success as he was a two-time state champion in the decathlon at Rancho Bernardo High School. As a senior, he won the event at the Arcadia Invitational with a CIF-San Diego Section record 6,963 points. He was also a standout in the 300m hurdles, winning the title at the CIF-SDS meet and placing fifth at the state championships.

Josh’s credentials earned him a spot on the track & field team at the University of Colorado. As a true freshman, he made his way onto the podium at the Pac-12 Championships, placing third in the decathlon with 7,089 points.

After a year in Boulder, Josh was ready to come back to Southern California. He saw Irvine as an ideal location where he could make a quick drive home to San Diego to see his mother, who has always been his inspiration, while having the space and independence to create his own college experience. It also helped that Josh had already developed a relationship with UC Irvine head coach Jeff Perkins.

Josh’s Anteater career didn’t start the way he had hoped. He arrived in the fall of 2019 and after his first meet on March 7, 2020, the season was canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Josh kept himself busy during the shutdown by spending a lot of his time working out. When he came back to campus, he was 15 pounds heavier and in the best shape of his life, which led to a breakout season in 2021. 

The 2021 campaign looked a little different with health & safety protocols still in place, but Josh stayed focused on his goal as he qualified for the NCAA Championships with a 7,648-point total in an individual victory at the Franson Classic Multis. He set personal bests in seven of the 10 events and made an appearance in the program’s all-time top-10 in the long jump. Josh went on to place 16th at nationals to earn second-team All-America honors.

“It was a very unique experience,” Josh said of his first NCAA meet. “That was when the new Hayward Field had just been built. It was brand new at the time, so it was a surreal feeling to be there. It’s not something most track athletes are used to - seeing a giant stadium around them. It was definitely different and I really loved it.”

Josh made a return trip to TrackTown USA in 2022, where he secured second-team All-America distinction again with a 14th-place finish at the national meet. After redshirting last year, he will be back at Hayward Field one more time, competing in the decathlon at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He put together an NCAA-qualifying performance at the Bryan Clay Invitational where he totaled a personal-record 7,703 points, which ranks second in school history (ahead of his father, who is fourth).

“I feel like I’m more than ready to hit what I think can be a really big PR in the decathlon,” Josh said of his upcoming NCAA appearance. “I want to put together something that makes me proud. I think I can leave that meet as a first-team All-American and I think my coaches believe I can do that too. I feel more than ready for it and the momentum I got from the Big West Championships is going to build into the NCAA meet.”

On May 3rd and 4th in San Luis Obispo, Josh, who was competing in the Big West decathlon for the first time in his career, brought home the program’s first title in that event since 1993. He joined his father as one of eight Anteaters to win the conference title in the decathlon. It was a special moment for Josh, who had opted out of the Big West meet in 2021 and 2022 to focus on nationals. What made it even more special was his father, who had such an influence on his career, was there announcing the meet.

“Josh has been in a pretty rare position in his UCI career to have a berth in the NCAA meet locked up and not needing to participate in the conference meet in the decathlon the last three years he has competed,” Matt said. “He wanted to go out with a Big West title and it was amazing to be on the mic for those two days. Coach Perkins saw that Josh and I were going to hug after he won and snapped a few pictures of that moment; really one of my favorite pictures of Josh as an adult.”

“My dad had always talked about winning that meet back in the day so it was a special feeling coming home in that last 100 meters of the 1500 and I knew I had it locked up,” Josh added. “We had briefly talked about me having to do it once and I think doing it my senior year was the right way, going out strong."

Josh has cemented his spot as the best decathlete in the conference and will now head to Eugene to represent UC Irvine as one of the best decathletes in the nation.

“Josh has truly been a joy to coach and watch grow,” Perkins said. “I am beyond excited to see the culmination of his hard work and determination come to life one last time at Hayward Field.”