OREGON-BOUND HUSKE'S A PUREBRED HURDLER
By Pete Cava
Things just don't work out the way they should. Like a few seasons ago, when a promising Indianapolis high school sprinter named Curtis Hoosier decided not to attend Indiana University .
In the late 1970s Tony Bruin, an outstanding high school basketball prospect, picked Syracuse University over UCLA. About that same time British distance runner Adrian Leek, a natural for Austin Peay, enrolled at East Tennessee State .
And now Jared Huske, whose name makes him a perfect fit for the University of Washington , plans to be a Duck.
 Huske, from Highland Park High School in Topeka , Kans. , is one of the University of Oregon 's prize recruits. He overcame a leg injury last month to repeat as a double winner at the Kansas state meet. He's also one of the leading entries for the National Scholastic Sports Foundation's Nike Outdoor Nationals at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro , N.C. , June 17-18.
�I've been running four races a meet for nine weeks and it wore down my body,� said Huske. �I'm a little out of shape now, but I'll be fine for Nike Outdoors.�
Huske emerged as one of the nation's best prep track athletes during the 2004 outdoor campaign, when he won state titles in both hurdles races. His season best of 13.97 for the 110 meter hurdles made him the fifth-fastest underclassman on the year's high school charts. He also had a wind-aided 13.91.
�He's been pretty much running in a league of his own the last few years,� said Carol Swenson of McPherson , Kans. , whose involvement in the sport ranges from grassroots to international levels. �There's nobody in Kansas to push him.�
At the tail end of the 2005 indoor season, the 6-foot-, 155-pound Huske claimed a national title, winning the 60m hurdles at the Nike Indoor Nationals in Landover, Md. (photo above) His time of 7.78 seconds topped the indoor high school list and ranked as the ninth-fastest in prep history.
Huske entered the outdoor season with an ambitious goal. He planned on running four events at the state meet � both hurdles races plus the 100 and 200 meters � with an eye on a team title for Highland Park .
Early in the year Huske ran a windy, hand-timed 13.4, the fastest-ever prep time in Kansas under any conditions. His first real test came at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence on Friday, April 15. Under overcast conditions, chilly temperatures and wind gusts of thirty miles an hour, Huske won the 300m hurdles. His time of 37.76 gave him a winning margin of 1.48 seconds.
Under sunny skies the next day, Huske took the high sticks in 13.92, aided by a 1.6 meters-per-second breeze. His time was 63-hundredths of a second faster than second place and broke the meet record.
Huske's blueprint for the state meet hit a snag at the Class 5A regionals on May 20 when he strained a left hamstring in the 200m prelims. �I had a huge lead and I was cruising in the backstretch,� he said. �It got tighter and tighter, and I felt a little pull. I kept on going and turned it into a higher gear to make the final. That messed it up a little bit more.�
Determined to qualify for the state meet in all four events, Huske ran cautiously. He placed first in the high hurdles in 15.1 and, on short rest, took second in the 100 with a time of 11.1. Taking advantage of a long break in the schedule, he easily won the 300H in 40.8, then took second in the 200 with a time of 22.6
�Most people would have quit,� Huske said afterwards to Rick Peterson of the Topeka Capital-Journal . �But I didn't want to because I would have let down my team and I would have ended all our chances for a regional or state title.�
With the state meet set for the following weekend, Huske immediately began extensive therapy. The day after regionals he took a break from icing his leg to serve as class valedictorian at commencement ceremonies. Monday he began Whirlpool activity, eventually adding ultrasound and electrical stimulation treatments.
�I'm about 85 percent sure that I'll be fine for state, or at least near-perfect where we can score a lot of points and hopefully win that team title,� he told reporters.
Carol Swenson, who announced the state meet at Wichita 's Cessna Stadium, was very much aware of the drama concerning Huske. �I knew he'd been hurt,� said Swenson, �but word was that he planned to run in all four events. Highland Park had an outside opportunity for the team title and a real good shot at a top-three finish, and the word was that he was going to lay it all out for his teammates.�
During Friday's prelims, Huske ran fast enough to qualify for all four finals. �He basically ran third or fourth most of the way through,� said Swenson. �I think it was still hanging there in the back of his mind that he couldn't push it too hard. Everybody was sitting back, waiting to see how he'd do in the finals.�
Huske took third in the 100 with a windy 10.90 and ran 22.26 into a headwind for second place in the 200. He finished first in the 300m hurdles with a 37.70 clocking, just short of his personal best of 36.93. Huske rounded out the repeat double with a 14.04 triumph in the 110m hurdles.
�My hamstring was tight and I was hitting hurdles because I just couldn't get the leg up like I should,� he said afterwards. �But today wasn't about running fast, it was about getting the win. Those are points we need for the team.�
Highland Park wound up with 58 points, 38 of them provided by Huske. It wasn't enough, though, as Wichita Carroll amassed 70 points for the 5A team title. Highland Park tied for second place.
�He was trying to get as many points as he could all the way through, even though he was injured,� said Swenson. �That's just the kind of kid he is. Any coach in his right mind would like to have someone with his kind of commitment . . . academically as well as athletically.�
The son of Irvin and Barbara Huske, Jared was born in Topeka on March 30, 1987. He was student body president at Highland Park and served as editor of the school newspaper and sports editor for the yearbook. Huske said he was recruited by �fifty or sixty schools,� but added that it would �be an honor� to run for Oregon . �There's just something about the school, its history and the people there,� he said. �They really care about track and field.�
Huske will double up in the hurdles at the Nike Outdoor Nationals. �Yeah, I'm going to do both races,� he said. �There'll be lots of competition in both, but the high hurdles will be my primary event.�
In the 110m hurdles, Huske sees the top contenders as Jordan Seabrook (North Central, Indianapolis , IN ), Dennis Martin (Westside, Anderson , S.C. ) and sophomore Johnny Dutch ( Clayton , N.C. ).
�We're all scattered around the country right now, so it's hard to tell,� said Huske. �But in the final, all nine guys are going to be good.�
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