Tigers’ Jordan Ready To Jump Into Indoor Contention

Jordan Patrick, a Bentonville junior, will be competing in the boy’s 60-meter hurdles, triple jump and high jump on Saturday in the Arkansas Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.
Jordan Patrick, a Bentonville junior, will be competing in the boy’s 60-meter hurdles, triple jump and high jump on Saturday in the Arkansas Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.

— Jordan Patrick may stand 6-foot-4, but he could go virtually unnoticed last year because of the success some of his Bentonville track teammates enjoyed.

That won’t be the case this time around.

PROFILE

Jordan Patrick

SCHOOL: Bentonville

CLASS: Junior

HEIGHT: 6-4

WEIGHT: 180

NOTABLE: Will compete in the triple jump, high jump and 60-meter hurdles Saturday during the Class 5A-7A State Indoor Track Meet in the Randal Tyson Track Center. ... Finished seventh in the triple jump during the 7A-West Conference meet last year in Rogers. ... Has already cut .7 seconds off his indoor hurdles time and added more than a foot to his triple jump.

The Tigers need the junior to emerge from those shadows and be a big contributor in the triple jump, high jump and 60-meter hurdles, starting Saturday with the Arkansas Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.

“The expectations are set pretty high,” he said. “But the standards are set pretty high for everybody on the team.”

Track and field remains relatively new to Patrick, who didn’t get involved in the sport until a coach asked him to try out during his freshman season. His height made him an obvious choice for the high jump, but he was also asked to run the 400-meter dash — an event he admitted he didn’t like because of the distance.

It was last year when he became introduced to the triple jump and the hurdles — the 60s for outdoor and the 110s for outdoor. He immediately became hooked with the events.

“It would be hard for me to pick one of them,” he said. “The hurdles just come natural for me, then the triple jump is just fun. Coach (Todd) Boddie helped me out a lot last year, just hammering down in practice until I became good at it.

“It’s still clicking because it takes a lot of work and a lot of practice.”

Even though most of last season was treated as a learning experience, Patrick turned in a jump of 41 feet, 9 inches during the 7A-West Conference meet and finished seventh. He’s already improved on that mark, jumping a personal-best 42-10 3/4 during the Arkansas High School Invitational meet held Jan. 12 in Fayetteville.

That’s not the only event where he’s shown improvement this year. He had a time of 9.13 seconds in the 60 hurdles in the invitational meet, compared to 9.82 during last year’s state indoor meet.

“Jordan’s had a great offseason,” Bentonville boys track coach Mike Power said. “He just matured as an athlete, and I think his strength will really show this year, starting with the indoor state meet.

“I think him and Nate Gneiting will give us that good one-two punch in the triple jump, and I see continuing to improve on the hurdles. The triple jump has always been a big event for us, and I can see Jordan continuing to improve and score big points for us.”

The improvement could come sooner than later. Patrick knows he has a better triple jump inside of him and almost proved it in the earlier meet.

“I know there’s something else inside of me,” he said. “I actually had one of my best jumps during the last jump of that meet, but I just scratched.

“In the hurdles, I’m expected to break the school record, but that’s up in the air. I’m just .14 seconds off right now.”

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