UW senior sprinter Jordan Boase wasn’t enjoying track like he used to. He didn’t know if the sport was for him and wanted a break after his sophomore year.

When coaches persuaded him to come back after he redshirted the following season, he agreed, just wanting to build on his past successes and get faster. But former track and field sprints coach LaMonte Vaughn and current sprints coach Raul Sheen had something more in mind.

“I remember last year, [Vaughn] told me, ‘you can run a 44 seconds in the 400 [meter dash],’” Boase said. “I didn’t really even believe it at all.”

Yet when he showed up in his junior year, he felt good and suddenly running fast became easy, he said.

Boase, from Bothell, would go on to set school records in the 400-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a time of 46.34 seconds, placing third to earn All-American honors. He also established a new school record in the outdoor race (44.82 seconds) and would go on to break the 45-second barrier three more times that season.

“You don’t expect a guy to take a year off and come back and go run a 44-anything for 400 meters,” track and field head coach Greg Metcalf said. “He’s a tremendous talent and the year off kind of made him a little more hungry.”

But by the time the U.S. Olympic Trials rolled around, the season would take its toll on Boase. He suffered a stress fracture in his leg from training and had a massive blister that had lingered from the end of the season.

Boase reached the semifinals of the trials and didn’t make the Olympics, although he said he can’t blame his injuries for it.

“I mean, I got to run with the world’s fastest people,” he said. “U.S.A. took first, second and third [place in the Olympics], so I can’t be too upset about it. It was definitely a really good experience.”

Tomorrow at the Husky Classic, Boase will run the 400-meter dash for the first time since the trials last summer.

“Now it’s time to get down to business because this is the 400 [meter] and that’s my race,” Boase said. “Just got to go out there and run my best.”

“He’s fit and fired up,” Metcalf said. “I’m not 100 percent positive what he’ll run, but he’s going to run fast this weekend.”

Reach reporter Maks Goldenshteyn at sports@dailyuw.com.