Jones gave two national record performances in 2008, having a high jump best of and a decathlon best of 6852 points. His high jump mark came in the decathlon competition at the 2008 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics, which he failed to finish. He enrolled at The University of Texas at Arlington, majoring in interdisciplinary studies. Competing on the Texas-Arlington Mavericks team, he scored 5146 points in the indoor heptathlon at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships Outdoors he scored a best of 6980 points at the Texas Relays before setting a national record mark of 7178 points for fourth at the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships. His third and last decathlon outing that year was at the 2009 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics, where he came seventh with 6774 points in total. In the individual events he set seven personal bests outdoors, including national records in the 110 metres hurdles (15.19 seconds) and the pole vault ().