Parker in top five at NCAA indoor championships
James Parker earned fifth place in the weight throw and Maurice Jenkins tied for 11th in the pole vault at the NCAA Indoor National Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., March 9-10.
Parker, who placed sixth at nationals last year, beat his career personal record twice with his toss of 72 feet 1.75 inches.
“I beat my personal record on my second throw, and then my third throw was my best ever,” he said. “It came out at the right time and peaked good.”
“It was very competitive this year,” said head coach Gregg Gensel. “It took 69 feet just to score. There were years when that would have won the meet.”
Parker was ranked seventh out of 18 going into the meet with his qualifying mark of 70′ 9.25″ at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships on Feb. 23. He was the top-placing American at the meet, said Gensel; the four athletes who beat him were foreigners.
“I was able to go there and let the competition hype me up,” Parker said. “Things came together when I wanted them to.”
Gensel said he was not surprised by how well Parker finished.
“James is a great competitor,” he said. “He has been nursing a hamstring injury all season, but I knew that he was capable of doing this. He did a great job.”
Jenkins said he liked competing with Parker because he is so experienced.
“It was amazing watching him,” Jenkins said. “It was a lot of fun having him there with me.”
Parker has qualified for nationals every indoor and outdoor track season since he came to USU, for a total of seven national championships. He is a seven-time All-American and holds the school and stadium record in the weight throw.
This was the last indoor track season for Parker, who will graduate this spring.
“This meet was a good one to end on,” he said of the championships.
While this was Parker’s seventh time at a national meet, it was junior Jenkins’ first.
“Being there is hard to describe,” Jenkins said. “It was overwhelming at first. Before I made the first height, I was very nervous. I was running around like crazy.”
Jenkins was ranked seventh going into the meet; he cleared a mark of 17′ 5.5″ at the Last Chance Meet on March 3. But he said he made mistakes at the national championship, which led to his vault of 16′ 10″.
“I set my [bars] standards wrong and used the wrong pole,” he said. “If I would have cleared the mark close to my personal record, then I would have gotten ninth. I would have liked to get higher.”
But Gensel said he thought Jenkins, who was the Big West Conference champion last year in outdoor track, performed well at the meet.
“It was the first time he’s ever been there,” Gensel said. “I told him just to go and have fun. He is young and has plenty of time ahead of him. I was impressed with how he handled himself.”
“I was glad to get my first national meet out of the way so the next one won’t be so overwhelming,” Jenkins said.
He also said he liked competing with the best in the nation.
“It was nice to have experienced guys back there with me when I was vaulting,” he said.
Gensel said Parker and Jenkins competed well, and he is pleased with their performances.
“There are a lot of athletes who didn’t get into the meet,” Gensel said. “By going, they are among the elite in the nation.”
Parker qualified for the outdoor track national championships on March 17 at the Cal Poly meet, the team’s first of the season. Gensel said he thinks Jenkins will also qualify, but he hasn’t vaulted outdoors yet.
The track team will compete Saturday at the UC Irvine Invitational in Irvine, Calif.