After completing the 400 meters as part of the men’s decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on June 11, Jaden Roskelley took a few moments to catch his breath. The BYU sophomore started talking to his coach under the tunnel leading out to the track when he felt a pat on his shoulder.
It was Washington State’s Parker Duskin, who had just completed the men’s 400 relay. Of all the events that took place during the four-day championship at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, it was quite the coincidence that these two athletes would wind up in the same spot together, even for a moment.
While competing for separate programs last weekend, the two graduated from Arlington High School a year apart — Roskelley in 2021, Duskin in 2022 — after competing for the Eagles track & field program. The pair would talk about competing for their dream schools, and eventually doing it on a national stage.
They each checked the first box a couple years ago, with Roskelley enrolling at BYU and Duskin at WSU. Last weekend they checked the second box, becoming the first pair of Arlington athletes to compete at the same national championship, much to the pride of Eagles coach Judd Hunter.
“That is a rarity,” Hunter said. “Even to have one make it, let alone two that graduated a year apart.”
With the strict rules and official proceedings of such an important meet, Roskelley and Duskin couldn’t talk to each other in that moment in the tunnel, but both were able to appreciate it. Duskin even texted Hunter a video of Roskelley completing his 400.
“It was definitely strange to see each other on such a big stage,” Roskelley said. “So many people around us and so many things going on when we came from such a— although Arlington isn’t that small, it had that small-town vibe.”
Duskin agreed it was weird in a good way. They managed to talk to each other after the meet about each other’s races, about what went right and what went wrong.
“We talked like we just never left,” Duskin said. “It’s really awesome, but it was just surreal for us, and no matter what, we still want to be champions and we still have that grind. So it’s almost like, job’s not finished.”
Duskin and the Cougars 400 relay placed 20th in the preliminaries with a time 39.41 seconds. It would ultimately be Duskin’s final race with the school he grew up wanting to compete for following Washington State’s decision to cut part of the track & field program to focus on a “distance-approach,” which was announced on Monday. Duskin, who competes in hurdle events as well as sprints, entered the transfer portal shortly after the news broke.
Meanwhile, Roskelley placed 19th in the decathlon despite entering the meet seeded fourth. In the long jump, he fouled his first two attempts, which forced him to take a more conservative approach in order to ensure he would be scored. His 7.02-meter jump (23-00.5) was more than a foot shorter than his personal record 7.75m (25-05.25).
Additionally, a stumble on the 110 hurdles slowed Roskelley down to a 15.97-second finish, last among the 20 finishers, costing him valuable placement and points.
“He’s just running, probably, his best race of his life,” Hunter said, recalling watching it on TV. “(He) nails — I can’t remember what number hurdle it was, maybe six, and almost bites it. Almost goes down, saves it, gets back and finishes. He still ran a (15.97) after almost falling down, but that’s tough. … That’s a difference of probably 100, 150 points right there.”
Roskelley excelled in other events, finishing second in the discus throw (150 feet), fifth in the javelin (184 feet, 1 inche) and tied for third in the high jump (6 feet, 8.25 inches), but ultimately the mishaps in two of his best events set up for a disappointing weekend in his eyes. He still turned it into a learning experience.
Following his trip on the hurdles, Roskelley realized he faced less pressure since placing high was more than likely off the table. He started to see better results in the subsequent events after focusing on each individual one rather than stressing about the points.
“It was so fun for me. … I was focusing on, you know, hitting my positions and doing the right thing in the event,” Roskelley said. “So that also was great. That was super cool to see, and I’m gonna carry that on to other meets, you know, focus on the event, not the overall score.”
Roskelley said he learns more in one track meet than he does over a few weeks of practice, and he credits Hunter for instilling the value of simplifying his focus to one thing at a time on each rep.
Going forward, Roskelley plans to focus on practicing higher quality reps and lowering his volume in order to maximize his progress while also staying fresher over the course of the season. Despite graduating high school in 2021, he just finished his sophomore season because he spent two years as a missionary in Ecuador before enrolling at BYU.
With his missionary work, Roskelley stayed moderately active but was unable to train, especially not at the level of a Division I athlete. He believed he didn’t return to the level of fitness he was at before the mission until halfway through this past season.
With two more years of eligibility left and this experience at nationals under his belt, Roskelley is excited to see his progress going forward. He plans to keep the bib from nationals on his locker throughout next season.
“It really is disappointing to do not as good as you know you can, because you’ve done it before,” Roskelley said. “So seeing that bib on my locker … for the rest of summer and next season is going to be a huge motivator.”
As for Duskin, once he finds a new team for his upcoming senior season, he hopes to return to nationals not just sprinting, but as a hurdler as well. He expects to train with Roskelley in Arlington at some point this summer, as both remain closely tied to Hunter and the Eagles program. Hunter introduced each of them to what is now their primary event — hurdles for Duskin and the decathlon for Roskelley — and the pair even returned last spring to speak to the current Arlington team at the time.
“I was just that kid at one point, right?” Duskin said. “I just walked in, I saw how amazing our track program is. … I was that kid who didn’t want to do hurdles at all, and now I’m doing it at the NCAA national meets, so it’s just, you never know what you’re going to get. I wanted to go out and talk to those guys and say, ‘Just give it your all. Listen to Coach (Hunter).’ I mean, we have such a successful program that we have set up in the Washington area.”
Hunter said their words for the Arlington team served as great motivation, and he noticed performances started to tick up as a result. As proud as he is for what the two are accomplishing now, he’s also proud of what they give back to the program.
“It’s just a great thing,” Hunter said. “To have two guys from the same high school that are really good friends, both competing at the Nationals.”
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