By Katie Zigelman, News Staff
After an accomplished rookie season including six individual victories, freshman Eric Jenkins finished 11th in his heat and 19th overall in the 1,500-meter run at the NCAA semifinals June 9.
Jenkins ran the event in 3:51.21, his sixth-best time this season. He entered the event ranked second-to-last and ended up beating five other runners. He was the only freshman in the country to make it to the semi-finals in the NCAA 1,500 meter run. The winner of the race was senior Dorian Ulrey from the University of Arkansas, who ran the race in 3:42.44.
Head coach Sherman Hart said Jenkins’ race was the first time he acted his age.
“He ran like a freshman,” Hart said. “The whole thing was overwhelming for him but he learned a lot. Eric [Jenkins] had a tremendous season. It’s about time that he acted like a freshman because he hasn’t all season.”
The Portsmouth, N.H. native began his collegiate track career by winning his first race at the Bryant Invitational Sept. 3, 2010. He ran the 5,000-meter run in 15:58.80 for the victory. He was also named the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) runner of the week on Sept. 14, 2010 and the co-runner of the week just two weeks later, qualifying him for the Intercollegiate Association of Athletes of America (IC4A) indoor championship meet.
During the outdoor season, Jenkins recorded the best 5,000-meter time for a freshman in Northeastern history at the Stanford Invitational March 25 running the event in 14:09.67. He also became the first Husky to win the 5,000-meter run at the CAA outdoor championship meet since 1994 after completing the race in 14:27.04. He recorded his best 1,500-meter time at the New England Championship meet where he was victorious with a time of 3:46.04. This is also the fastest time recorded by a freshman in Northeastern history.
“I can’t say enough about how competitive Eric is and tough and what he does for the team by scoring points,” Hart said. “You don’t get much better than him.”
Hart credits a great deal of Jenkins’ success to his thought process, or lack thereof.
“He’s just unconscious,” Hart said. “A lot of distance runners do a lot of thinking but Eric doesn’t think at all, he just competes.”
Jenkins is enjoying a couple weeks of vacation before returning to campus for summer training and was unavailable for comment.
“I’m really looking forward to the next three years,” Hart said.
