Adoree’ Jackson hovered over the tape measurer, anxiously awaiting his announcement on the distance of his final long jump attempt.
Jackson’s jump was the last of the event, and he needed a mark better than 25 feet, 7¼ inches to unseat USC teammate Eric Sloan and win the event at the Pepsi Invitational at Hayward Field Saturday afternoon.
“Twenty-five feet, two inches,” a meet official announced. Good for second place.
Jackson cringed, shook his head and laughed.
It was not what the defending Pac-12 champion had hoped for on this particular day. But it is the first step of what he hopes will be one of the great seasons in NCAA history.
“I’m not frustrated at all,” Jackson said. “I just know I wanted a better mark because last week I went 25-10 and I was hoping for somewhere closer to that. At the end of the day, you can’t always go out there and do big jump after big jump week after week. I know it’s a process, and we’ve got to be patient.”
Sloan’s winning leap of 25-7 ¼ was his best thus far as a Trojan. The junior transfer spent the last two seasons at San Joaquin Delta College and was a junior college All-American last season.
The combination of Sloan and Jackson — who was named a third-team All-American defensive back for the Trojans — gives USC one of the most dynamic groups of horizontal jumpers in the conference.
“It’s always great to come out to Eugene and show everybody what we’re about,” Jackson said. “We really don’t get shown a lot as track athletes…. This is Tracktown, and a lot of people here want to see a track meet. It was just nice to come out here and compete.”
Jackson spent the 2015 football season as a do-it-all superstar on the football field for the Trojans. Jackson earned first team All-Pac 12 honors as defensive back and also played significant time at wide receiver with 27 catches for 414 yards and two touchdowns. He also returned two punts for touchdowns.
Last spring Jackson won the Pac-12 outdoor long jump title in his first season of collegiate track and field, and this year he has an outside shot at qualifying for the Olympics.
He plans to qualify for Rio.
Next fall, he will return to the football field for USC, and following the 2016 season he will have the opportunity to enter the NFL Draft, where he is already being slated as a top-50 prospect.
So, if Jackson ultimately does qualify for the Olympic Trials and possibly the Olympics, what does that do to his football future?
“Same thing it’s doing right now,” Jackson said, laughing. “I’m just going out there and competing and having fun. If I make it to trials, obviously I’m going to take it. And if I was fortunate enough, God bless me, to make the (USA) team, of course I’m going to go for it.”
