Sports Editor:
Hank Hager
hankhager@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
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MLB:
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2 p.m., ESPN Classic
Competitive chucker
Adam Jenkins is poised to make his first trip to the NCAA Championships in the javelin event
By Jon Roetman
Sports Reporter
Four years ago around this time, Adam Jenkins
felt unappreciated.
The Gladstone High School senior owned the top
prep javelin mark in the country (229 feet, 2 inches)
but wasn't getting any attention from college coaches.
"I was really surprised that I didn't get more calls,"
Jenkins said. "It was hard to understand how I was
leading the nation and my coach had to call schools
and say, 'Hey, I have a kid who can throw here."’
It appeared Jenkins had fallen victim to being a
late bloomer with the javelin, failing to reach the
200-foot mark until his senior year. While most col
lege coaches start recruiting an athlete early in his or
her prep career, Jenkins spent the first three years of
high school just learning about the event after mak
ing a switch from baseball.
Frustrated and confused, Jenkins considered skip
ping college entirely and*starting a career as an elec
trician. Before that decision became set in stone,
however, Jenkins' performance at the Oregon 4A
state high school meet caught the attention of Ore
gon assistant coach Bill Lawson.
Jenkins won the state title with a throw of 215-3
on his final attempt.
'That was four years ago and we were just starting
to build a men's program and at that time I was
looking at every possible athlete in every event, leav
ing no stone unturned," Lawson said. "Lo and be
hold, I found Adam. What really intrigued me was
he won the state meet on his last throw. I said, 'Well,
that kid's a competitor and I like that.'"
After opening up communication lines with the
senior, Lawson watched Jenkins put on a quality
performance in the Junior Olympics at Silke Field
in Springfield. The Oregon coach knew Jenkins
could be a valuable asset to the program.
"That's when I started talking to him about the
value of getting a college degree and throwing for
the University of Oregon," Lawson said. "I think it
all sounded very, very appealing to him."
Jenkins made the decision to come to Oregon and
four years later finds himself in position to qualify for
his first ever trip to the NCAA Championships. The
senior finished second at last weekend's Pacific-10
Conference Championships, highlighted by a colle
giate-best toss of227-4.1 le will likely need a top-five
finish at next weekend's NCAA West Regional Quali
fier to earn a ticket to the Big Dance.
If any added motivation is needed, lenkins need
look no further than last season's regional qualifier.
Despite winning the Pac-10 title and launching a
personal best throw of 222-4 on his first attempt at
the qualifier, Jenkins finished seventh and missed
out on a chance of competing at the NCAAs.
"Last year sucked because I entered the meet
ranked fourth and I finished seventh and only the
top five got to go," Jenkins said. "I'm pretty confi
dent (this year). My mission is to go out there and
beat (Arizona's) Matt (Wagner), who beat me at Pac
10s. Cracking the top five is exactly what I want to
do. If it's fifth place I get, that's fine. If it's first place I
get, that's cool. I'm not really throwing for a distance
at that meet, I just want to place. Then, nationals is
where I want to let loose."
It's Jenkins competitiveness and desire to improve
every day that has put him in this position. Whether
it was his desire to achieve the nation's top prep
mark or to out-throw former teammate John
Stiegeler in practice, Jenkins has always had some
thing to drive him.
Jenkins' hard work and competitiveness first paid
off during his senior year of high school, when his
personal best increased by more than 50 feet from
the previous year.
Jenkins took that success with him to Oregon,
where he built a healthy competitive friendship
with Stiegeler. The Coos Bay native set a standard
for Jenkins to follow, including an NCAA Cham
pionship and school record toss of 252-10 during
the 2000-01 season.
With Stiegeler wrapping up his Oregon career last
year, Jenkins has had to find a new way to motivate
himself during practice. Being the only regular
men's javelin thrower, he spends most of his time
training with women's All-American Sarah Malone.
"At the beginning of the year, it was tough," Jenkins
said. "It was really hard to train on my own. I was train
ing with girls, but it's just different because I trained
TurntoCHUCKER, page 14
Adam
Jenkins set
a new
personal
best during
last
weekend's
Pac-lOs
(2274).
Danielle
Hickey
Photo Editor
Ducks begin regional process today
Oregon begins the search for a Women's College World
Series berth at 9:30 a.m. today in Tallahasse, Fla.
By Mindi Rice
Senior Sports Reporter
All season, the Ducks have talked about the NCAA Regional Tourna
ment — when they will play, where they will play, who they will play,
how they will play and why they will win.
That time has come, and as Oregon (38-19) answers some of its own
questions — the Ducks' first game is at 9:30 a.m. today in Tallahassee,
Fla., against seventh-seeded Bethune-Cookman, for starters — the No. 2
seeded Ducks have to search for answers to the remaining queries.
"All year long, we've waited to go to regionals," pitcher Amy Harris said.
Tim Bobosky Photographer
Third baseman Ashley Richards and the Ducks finished the season 1-5, but they are
hoping to turn that around in NCAA Regional play. (
"We're putting everything we've learned in one season into this one week
and playing as hard as we can."
After a successful early half of the season, including a 14-game win
streak in preseason play and a 7-3 start to Pacific-10 Conference play, the
Ducks finished the season with a 3-8 record in the final three weeks of
conference play.
"Everything we've done this season, it doesn't mean anything," Ore
gon head coach Kathy Arendsen said. "Seeding for the tournament is es
tablished, we're in. It's 0-0 for everybody. All 64 teams have the equal op
portunity to win this thing. Everything else is in the past, I'm not worried
about anything that happened last week."
Oregon, as a team, is focused on making a clean start. The team spent
Tuesday traveling to Tallahassee and Wednesday was for adjusting to the
weather and the park with a full practice before the tournament begins.
"All we have to worry about is playing the best that we can when we get
there," third baseman Ashley Richards. "We're so far from home that there's
no distractions, so it's all softball there. We're going to be focused and we're
going to be playing to win."
In 2003, the Ducks made a noticeably shorter
trip for the regional tournament, staying in the
same time zone for a trip to Fullerton, Calif., as a
No. 3 seed. Many family members and friends
made the trip to support Oregon.
Tallahassee is a bit farther than Fullerton, and while the Ducks could
have gone closer to home, with Lincoln, Neb., Waco, Texas, or Ann Arbor,
Mich., as other options. But there are positives to a trip across the country.
"We're so far away ... we're going all that way, so we've got to win,"
Richards said. "There's nothing else. If you're going to go all the way
across the country, why not win?"
To get those wins, there is little room for error in regional games. In the
double-elimination format that the NCAA has adopted, teams can
bounce back from a loss, but they must do it quickly.
Last year, Oregon proved that an early loss isn't the end of the world.
In Fullerton, the Ducks lost to Oklahoma State, 2-1, in the second round.
The players weren't ready for their season to end, however, as Oregon stayed
alive with a win against San Diego State later that day.
Turn to REGIONAL, page 14
DUCK
SOFTBALL
Arizona
weather
an obstacle
for Harmon
Laura Harmon battles the
Arizona heat to add points
to Oregon’s 7th place finish
—
By Alex Tam
Sports Reporter
Laura I Iarmon expected the extremely hot
weather in Tucson, Ariz., to have an impact
on her 5,000-meter event at last weekend's
Pacific-10 Conference Championships.
Harmon, a junior from Vancouver,
Wash., placed eighth in the race with a
time of 17 minutes, 21.57 seconds. Only
two seconds separated her from the sixth
place finisher, Arizona State's Desiree
Davila. A contin
WOMEN’S
TRACK
gent from Stan
ford finished in
the top three led
by Sara Bei, who
clocked in at
16.35.39.
As temperatures soared to nearly 100 de
grees, Harmon said it was tough to mn in an
environment so different than Eugene.
"It's hard to race out of your element,"
Turn to WEATHER, page 16