Azle Malinao-Aivarez Emerald
■ Even Nat Johnson didn’t
expect that he’d become
the valuable go-to guy that
he has been for the Ducks
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Amazing that chance and luck
can work so well together.
Funny that a long-haired high
school kid who dreamed of being
the next Mr. Baseball wound up
being Mr. Tracktown at Oregon
instead.
Weird because at the age of 21,
Nathan Garrett Johnson’s senior
outdoor season is already nearing
its end, as he makes his final col
legiate appearance at Hayward
Field at the Pacific-10 Conference
Championships this Saturday
and Sunday.
Hard to believe he’ll even make
it that far, considering the mas
sive size of the two ice packs he
applies to his knee and groin im
mediately after practice on Tues
day afternoon.
Quite a bit of mileage — for a
young’un.
And he’s hungry for more.
“This is the meet where every
thing shows,” Johnson said. “This
is the meet I’ve been working for.
We’ve trained through certain
meets and practiced hard all
week just to be ready for the big
Pac-10 meet here. So far it’s been
a good season, and I think it’s go
ing to be a great one.”
Johnson moves into the Pac-10
Championships planning to com
pete in four events: the long jump,
4x100-meter relay, triple jump
and 4x400, in that order.
When one considers that he has
to run the 4x100 twice — once in
Saturday’s preliminaries and again
in Sunday’s finals, barring a major
upset from another team — John
son’s weekend workload leaves lit
tle room for rest.
No problem.
“He’s been a workhorse,” Ore
gon field coach Bill Lawson said.
“He likes wearing that badge, and
he likes carrying lots of weight.
He’s like a kid in a candy store.”
Five years ago Johnson would
have scoffed at the thought of be
ing a track and field favorite, es
pecially for the revered Ducks.
Because he was a baseball play
er. A sure-fire short stop who nev
er committed an error, Johnson
knew that his future belonged in
the diamond.
Or so he thought.
This is where chance and luck
Pepped in.
After playing on his high
school baseball team for two
years, Johnson faced a major
dilemma when he went to join
the squad his junior year.
“They made a new rule on the
baseball team that you had to
have really short hair,” Johnson
said. “I had totally long hair. I did
n’t want to cut my hair, but I
wanted to play baseball.”
So, after much thought, John
son cut his hair. Everything was
settled — or so he thought.
“We had our first meeting for
the baseball team, and [the coach]
made everybody take their hats
off and show him their hair,”
Johnson said. “As I walked
through the door, he said ‘Go
home and get a haircut.’
“I went home and thought about
it, and I didn’t want to play for a
coach where hair mattered more
than ability. So I was like, maybe I
need to go out for track and field.
“And as luck would have it,
that’s my sport.”
A month into his first track and
field season, Johnson became a
long jump standout. Most athletes
spend years in their sports before
finding success.
Not Nat.
As more luck would have it,
then-Oregon-assistant coach John
Gillespie watched Johnson PR in
the long jump and triple jump at
the state championships at Hay
ward Field his senior year.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you come
on and give it a try, and we’ll see
what happens,’ and that was such
a big deal,” Johnson said. “I didn’t
get recruited but I did get to meet
him, and that was the biggest thing
that happened to me.
“I came here just hoping to get
a shot, and [to] maybe be on the
team.”
Johnson expected to specialize
in the triple jump when he came
to Oregon.
But again, he couldn’t have
been more wrong.
His role as a Duck was that of a
utility player, just like it was
when he played baseball in high
school.
Since the beginning of his col
legiate career, Johnson has spe
cialized in the long jump, 200 me
ters, the 400 and both 4x100 and
4x400 relays. Only now, near the
end of his final season as a Duck,
has Johnson thrown the triple
jump into his bag of tricks.
He’s an experienced Pac-10
scorer, having contributed Ore
gon points in each of his three
outdoor seasons in both relay and
jumping events.
The one thing Johnson hasn’t
had is a trip to the NCAA Cham
pionships. One might say he has
little chance of doing so this sea
son because his seasonal best is 1
foot, 1 inch short of the 25-1 1/4
NCAA provisional mark.
But that’s hard to gauge be
cause he’s only taken nine jumps
at Hayward Field this season,
some of which he fouled.
“It’s in me — it has always been
in me — and I need to get it out
and keep going farther because I
should jump a lot further than 25
feet every meet,” Johnson said.
“I’m still growing as a long
jumper and as an athlete, but
jumping 25 feet is my main goal
right now, and I know I can go a
lot further than that.”
“He’s been getting in more run
way work,” Lawson said. “I antic
ipate him having the best jumps
of the year in the long jump and
triple jump.”
Johnson’s entire collegiate career
won’t end if he doesn’t capture an
NCAA mark this weekend. He still
has one indoor season of eligibility
remaining, and he intends to com
pete unattached at Hayward Field
next spring.
He said he’ll treasure all the
memories he’s had as a Duck.
“It’s been chance that I became
a sprinter here, when I came here
to be a triple jumper,” Johnson
said. “Things have just kind of
happened. Following' that pat
tern, there’s a lot left to be discov
ered in what I can do.
“I’d like to think there’s an un
limited amount of potential.
That’s just my optimistic way of
looking at things.”
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