Jason Willis will head to the Seattle Seahawks minicamp this weekend as a football player. But he said his recent experiences on the track might just help him stay in Seattle.
The senior and former wide receiver for the Oregon football squad ran in the Pepsi Invitational earlier this month as a fill-in. But he ended up exploding, finishing third in the 100-meter dash and second in the 200. He did it again at last weekend’s Oregon Invitational, finishing third in the 200 with a time that almost qualified him for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships and helping the Duck 4×100 relay team to an almost-Pac-10 time in that event.
But on Sunday, Willis focused on football and the NFL Draft, and finally he got a phone call from the Seahawks, who didn’t draft him but signed him to a free agent contract. He reports to minicamp Thursday.
“(Track) is definitely going to help me stay in shape, help me for this weekend,” Willis said. “Receivers are running all the time. Track’s helped me with my endurance, and definitely with my speed.”
Willis said that despite his focus on performing well for the Seahawks, the track bug has burrowed deep in his skin. Now he wants to qualify for the Pac-10s in the 200, which was his specialty in high school. His time, 21.65 seconds, from the Invitational is .21 seconds slower than the Pac-10 qualifying time. He’ll have only one chance to qualify as there is only one weekend between the minicamp and Pac-10s.

Javelin pointing

differently
Adam Jenkins isn’t John Stiegeler, but he’s sure been throwing like the former javelin champion these days.
Jenkins used a personal best Saturday at the Oregon Invitational to move to the top of the Pac-10 rankings and earn Pac-10 Field Athlete of the Week honors. Jenkins posted a throw of 221 feet, 4 inches to finish second behind national leader Rob Minnitti of Boise State at the Invitational.

Jump like a freshman
The old Ducks weren’t exactly moldy with age, but the new Oregon high jumpers were ripe and fresh at the Invite on Saturday.
With the graduation of stars Jason Boness and Kyley Johnson last season, the future looked bleak for the high jump crew. But with Boness and Johnson in attendance and competing Saturday, freshman Chad Clason popped a Pac-10 and regional-qualifying height to give Duck fans hope for the future of the jump.
Clason jumped 6-10 3/4 and currently ranks seventh on the Pac-10 list just three weeks out from the conference meet. Fellow freshman Jeff Lindsey isn’t too far behind; he’s jumped 6-6 3/4 and sits just outside the list of Pac-10 qualifiers.

Rank and file
The Oregon track teams can’t seem to catch a break — or a big mark — to move up in the national rankings. The Ducks both sit at 14th in Trackwire.com’s weekly rankings. The Web site takes teams’ best marks and scores the national meet based on those marks.
The men sit all alone in 14th in their poll, while the women are in a three-way tie on their side of things. Both teams would score 18 points at the season-ending meet, according to the rankings.
The Ducks still aren’t on the board at www.team-power.org, which allows the user to match teams against each other and see who wins. But some other Pac-10 powers are listed, and according to the site, the Pac-10 Championships should be a heck of a battle between UCLA and Arizona. The Bruins, ranked No. 19 by Trackwire, would edge the unranked Wildcats, 125-78.