![Gaylord St. Mary’s Rylan Matelski long jumps and runs a relay.](/sites/default/files/2024-05/240531_GSM_2H.jpg)
Matelski Makes Own Path to Become Gaylord St. Mary's Long Jump Record Setter
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
May 31, 2024
It wasn’t much of a long shot Rylan Matelski would become a school record holder this spring, according to Gaylord St. Mary track & field coaches.
However, it came in the long jump — with a 21-foot, 8-inch leap at the Snowbirds’ first meet of the season at Indian River.
Despite the fact Matelski rarely had a true long jump runway to practice on, his coaches knew he was going to become a record holder. It might have something to do with a 21-foot leap he made as a junior, his first-ever experience with the sport of track. And to top it off, his record-setting performance this spring followed an offseason during which he experienced two seizures before the start of basketball this winter.
The Snowbirds’ previous school record was 21-3. Matelski will have another chance to break his own Saturday when he competes at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals at Hudsonville Baldwin Middle School.
“I already had it in my head that we were going to have a record holder at some time during the course of the season,” said Brian Oliver, the St. Mary head track coach. “That early in the season was pretty impressive, particularly up here where we have limited time to practice with the weather and such.”
Matelski admitted he was a little surprised.
“I was just feeling myself that day,” the senior three-sport star said. “When they said ‘21-8’ I was just stunned — I didn’t really know what to say.”
Gaylord St. Mary does not have a long jump area that allows for Matelski to properly train for his approach, takeoff and landing. He practiced mostly on grass and during warm-ups at competitors’ venues. Occasionally he picked up some practice time at neighboring Gaylord High School when the Blue Devils were not using their facility.
But you will never hear Matelski – nor his coaches – complain.
Another surprising factor in Matelski’s record-setting leap was that he was recovering from a hamstring injury at the time.
“It is because of his physicality and his work ethic and what he puts into what he does,” said Oliver. “You make what you do have available work, and not so much focus on not having the opportunities other kids do have on a day-in and day-out basis.”
Matelski qualified for the Finals with a 20-2½ leap and third-place finish at his Regional. He nearly qualified in the 200 meters as well.
Unfortunately, Matelski aggravated his hamstring this week at the Gaylord Meet of Champions. It is unknown how that will impact his Finals performance. Unofficially at the Champions meet he went over 21 feet on all three jumps, but officially he was a scratch on all three. The longest scratched jump this week was 21-10. Matelski had come within three inches of the school record at last year’s Meet of Champions.
Matelski, whose favorite sport is basketball, is focused on having fun on the track. Whatever happens at the Finals is just fine with the graduating senior, who also played football and basketball for St. Mary.
“I would love to get 22 feet, but if I don’t it’s okay because I just want to have fun,” said Matelski, who will head to North Central Michigan College this fall to play basketball. “Track is for fun, mainly.”
Oliver, now in his eighth year as the Snowbirds’ coach, has been amazed by Matelski’s senior year.
“These kids go from sport to sport with no break,” said Oliver, who is a chiropractor in Gaylord away from track. “Although multi-sport athletes are better athletes, they are more prone to injury. For him to make it through that and still have the fortitude to be where he is at, I think, is pretty cool.”
Matelski is the oldest of three children adopted by Gary and Alison Matelski. Gary serves as the long jump coach for the Snowbirds and as the assistant NCMC basketball coach. He was raking the pits on opening day, as he usually did, and was the first to congratulate the new record holder.
Coach and father Matelski is amazed too at what has occurred this spring.
“We don’t have a long jump pit to practice on,” Gary Matelski said. “When he’s doing all this stuff he’s basically doing it in a field — we don’t get to work on the approach much.
“Rylan is a good indicator of not dwelling on the things you don’t have but really looking at the things you do have,” Matelski continued. “He concentrated on what he does have and making the best out of that instead of worrying about what he didn’t have.”
Rylan Matelski rolls along with the obstacles for the most part. He’s determined to put his challenges behind him to compete Saturday.
“It makes me a little bit inconsistent compared to the other kids who are jumping farther than me,” he’s acknowledged. “I need to keep pushing through everything no matter what.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gaylord St. Mary’s Rylan Matelski long jumps and runs a relay. (Middle) Matelski and father Gary Matelski confer in the long jump area. (Photos courtesy of the Matelski family.)
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Storms Can't Squash Inspired Performances
June 1, 2019
By Matt Schoch
Special for Second Half
ZEELAND – From great-grandparents and former coaches to a mother and a son, athletes at the MHSAA Boys Track & Field Finals became champions in honor of their loved ones on Saturday.
Take senior Emari O’Brien of Harper Woods Chandler Park, who became the 100-meter Division 2 champion at 10.97 seconds at Zeeland Stadium in honor of former coach Paul Zelmanski, who died in January.
“This whole time I’ve been running, he told me I was going to win it one year,” said O’Brien, a Ferris State football signee who wrote “For Z” on his shoes. “Last year when I (took second place), he said next year when you come back, you’re going to win it for sure.
“I’ve been waiting on this for the longest time, so I have to win that for my coach.”
Athletes like O’Brien endured a three-and-a-half-hour delay and then another of 45 minutes as storms crept off Lake Michigan. Then, a final delay of more than two hours pushed the event to a 12-hour affair.
On the heels of three event wins, Zeeland West earned the team title with 53 points, topping Yale (37), Fruitport (33), Dearborn Divine Child (27) and Corunna (26).
“That means we have won every meet we have been to,” said Zeeland West’s Ethan Brooks, the only individual champion for the Dux. “It is awesome.”
Zeeland West won the 400 relay at 43.51 seconds, and the 800 relay at 1:29.29.
Brooks won the 300 hurdles at 39.38, edging Fruitport junior Ethan Flores by one hundredth of a second in his quest for a second title on the afternoon. Meanwhile, Flores said he had his family, in particular his great-grandmother, on his mind in the starting blocks for the 110 hurdles, which he won at 14.53 seconds. This, despite a slow start to his spring after basketball season leaked longer than usual.
“I didn’t have time to be at the track like I should’ve,” Flores said. “I worked by myself over Memorial Day. I wanted it, and I worked really hard for it.”
Saginaw senior Tony Martin, who is headed to Michigan State, jumped 22-11.25, winning his second straight Division 2 title. That distance came, he said, despite missing the whole board on the championship jump.
Martin credited his mother, Kishon, for pushing him through hard times this year, including a pulled hamstring that hampered his season. He also said his son, Isaiah, has been an inspiration.
Before the injury, Martin had a regular-season jump of 26-6, which is among the top all-time national jumps.
“For me to come and do what I did is pretty amazing,” Martin said. “I’m just happy that I’m back and healthy.”
Junior Dylan Targgart of Coldwater continued his decorated career with two more titles, repeating in the discus at 187-7, a personal record, and the shot put at 66-7.50, a Division 2 Finals record, breaking former Detroit Lions defensive lineman Anthony Zettel’s 2011 mark for Ogemaw Heights (61-8).
“I had thrown my PR before the delay, so I think maybe it was a good thing since other people had to sit and wait and try and PR after that,” Targgart said. “So it might’ve worked to my advantage that way.”
Targgart is probably just being modest though – he won that competition by 14 feet and then the shot by more than six.
Rounding out the field events, junior Matt Veneziano of Parma Western won the high jump at 6 feet, 6 inches, and senior Josh DeVries of Grand Rapids South Christian won the pole vault at 15 feet.
On the track, junior Luke Brenner of Ada Forest Hills Eastern won the 200 at 22.02 seconds. Yale senior Justin Kudera won the 400 at 48.74 seconds, edging last season’s champion Jacob Denison of Tecumseh by six hundredths of a second.
Otsego junior Hunter Hartman won the 800 at 1:55.56; and Corunna senior Ben Jacobs won the 1,600 meters at 4:19.79.
Jacobs also overcame a Zeeland West runner to give Corunna a win in the 3,200 relay at 7:53.20.
After the final weather delay, Dearborn Divine Child junior Anthony Hancock won the 3,200 at 9:06.65.
Yale closed the long day with the 1,600 relay win in 3:23.42 to earn second overall.
PHOTOS: (Top) Zeeland West completes a relay hand-off during its team championship run Saturday. (Middle) Runners take off to start a race at Zeeland Stadium. (Photos by Kevin Fowler. Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)