Ja’Warren Hooker knows what it takes to win a Pacific-10 Conference championship.
Heck, the junior multi-sport athlete already owns two such titles. Back in 1998, Hooker swept the 100- and 200-meter titles at the conference meet.
The performance garnered him Pac-10 Male Athlete of the Year honors.
But it was his 1999 campaign that has him craving for this weekend. It was an up-and-down spring for the Ellensburg, Wash., native. He was sidelined until mid-April with a stress fracture in his left shin and was unable to defend his 1998 NCAA Indoor 55-meter championship he won as a freshman. That was the first NCAA track title the Huskies had won since 1988.
Perseverance is a key word for Hooker, however, as he impressively capped his season at the 1999 Pac-10 meet by finishing third in the 200 and fourth in the 100.
After taking last fall off from football to fully recuperate from his injury, Hooker has exploded this spring. He was recently awarded the Pac-10 Men’s Track Athlete of the Week award for the third time this season, but this time it was for annihilating a 10-year old school record in the men’s 400 meters at a clip of 44.91.
His time is the fifth-fastest time in the world this year, and more important to him, it qualifies him for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Not too shabby for a wide receiver. -J.S.