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 college 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 making a switch from baseball.
Frustrated and confused, Jenkins considered skipping college entirely and starting a career as an electrician. Before that decision became set in stone, however, Jenkins’ performance at the Oregon 4A state high school meet caught the attention of Oregon 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, leaving no stone unturned,” Lawson said. “Lo and behold, 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 collegiate-best toss of 227-4. He will likely need a top-five finish at next weekend’s NCAA West Regional Qualifier to earn a ticket to the Big Dance.
If any added motivation is needed, Jenkins 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 confident (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 something 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 Championship 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 training with girls, but it’s just different because I trained with Stiegeler for three years. Last year, John and I competed with each other every practice. That’s something I did miss a lot for the first half of the year. I just changed the way I train this year and I kind of like just having (throws coach) Lance Deal and Sarah there most of the time. It’s a good change.”
Despite Stiegeler’s absence, Jenkins hasn’t been without challenges this year.
“I can kick his butt at throwing arrows and he hates that,” Malone said of a training technique that javelin throwers use. “We hadn’t thrown them since we were in college, so we went and bought a few and came out and threw them and I crushed him. He was so pissed that he had even taken the time to buy them. He swore up and down that he could throw 250 feet, and that he did it in high school, but he’s yet to prove it. It’s gotten to the point that he won’t even throw them anymore. He won’t even compete against me because he doesn’t like to lose.”
With the regional qualifier
approaching, Deal said he has plenty of confidence in Jenkins’ ability to make the NCAAs.
“Adam is a real student of the event,” Deal said. “He made up his mind early in the season that he was going to be successful.”