Performance: Salem's Mason Phillips
May 13, 2017
Mason Phillips
Salem senior – Track & Field
Over the last week, Phillips has emerged from a key contributor to Salem’s No. 3-ranked boys track & field team to become one of the most incredible stories of this spring season. A four-year football player for the Rocks, Phillips had run track as a freshman but not the last two years before coming back to the team this spring – and at the May 6 New Balance Invitational at Farmington unloaded a wind-aided long jump of 24 feet, 1 inch, vaulting him into MHSAA title discussion and earning him the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week” for May 1-7.
Phillips took up long jumping a mere three weeks ago – to help his team score some points when one of its long jumpers was out – but if he can replicate that 24-1 jump without the wind at next month’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals, he would tie the all-Finals record set in 2009. Phillips actually set the school record previously with a 22-10¾ leap at the April 29 Brighton Invitational. At Farmington, he also set a school record in the 200 meters at 22.07 seconds (and since broke it again going 22.06 at Friday’s Kensington Lakes Activities Association championship meet). He also runs on undefeated 400 and 800 relay teams.
A wide receiver in football, Phillips caught track coach Dale Maskill's attention pulling in athletic one-handed catches during warm-ups in the fall – and is a different athlete than the one who ran his only other season of track as a 4-foot-11 freshman. Phillips has since grown a foot, and his newfound talents are opening up opportunities as well. He received Division III college interest for football but was set on attending Bowling Green State University and possibly studying sports medicine. But he’s now getting interest from college track & field coaches – and should keep turning more heads as this season finishes up.
Coach Dale Maskill said: “He’s a very explosive athlete, very athletic. I feel he could compete in pretty much every event on the track. He works hard every day; he comes to practice and he’s the first one there, he works on whatever needs to get done, does his workout and makes sure he gets all his technical work in afterward. He’s dedicated to performing well, and he did that before he knew how good he could be – and his good performances have motivated him even more.
Performance Point: “I was actually really loose, really stretched up, and it was great weather, and I just jumped. I honestly had no idea (it was 24); I thought I’d jumped 22 or something like that. When they called it out (at 24), I was really, really surprised. I felt like I didn’t go as far. … I only started three weeks ago, and I’m already doing this. It’s just crazy.”
Great choice: “I’m just really happy I came out (for the team). The coaches were talking to me about it, and I felt like I should. It’s my last year so I had to. Honestly, freshman year I wasn’t really fast, and I thought (track) wasn’t for me until this year."
Natural jumper: “I know most of it, but my technique still needs help. I only started three weeks ago. Actually in middle school I did high jump. … After that (24-1) jump, it’s an obligation now; I have to stay in it, help the team out. It kinda feels unreal. I was always doing this for fun, and actually it’s gotten really serious now. It’s really just excitement, not much pressure.”
Bigger, faster, stronger: “Probably (from being) in the weight room, and with football, and I just got taller … and I’m eating a lot more. In between sophomore and junior year I started growing like crazy. My strides are a lot longer, making me faster, and I jump farther with my legs extended too.”
Teammates again: “Our track runners are really working hard, and they’re really athletic too. They also played football with me. (So I’m) a lot more comfortable, running with people I have a bond with.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2016-17 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2016-17 honorees:
May 4: Lillian Albaugh, Farwell track & field – Read
April 27: Amber Gall, Shepherd track & field – Read
April 20: Sloane Teske, East Grand Rapids tennis – Read
March 30: Romeo Weems, New Haven basketball – Read
March 23: Jaycie Burger and Maddie Clark, Pittsford basketball – Read
March 16: Camden Murphy, Novi swimming & diving – Read
March 9: Ben Freeman, Walled Lake Central wrestling – Read
March 2: Joey Mangner, Chelsea swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 23: Isabelle Nguyen, Grosse Pointe North gymnastics – Read
Feb. 16: Dakota Hurbis, Saline swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 2: Foster Loyer, Clarkston basketball – Read
Jan. 26: Nick Jenkins, Detroit Catholic Central wrestling – Read
Jan. 19: Eileene Naniseni, Mancelona basketball – Read
Jan. 12: Rory Anderson, Calumet hockey – Read
Dec. 15: Demetri Martin, Big Rapids basketball – Read
Dec. 1: Rodney Hall, Detroit Cass Tech football – Read
Nov. 24: Ally Cummings, Novi volleyball – Read
Nov. 17: Chloe Idoni, Fenton volleyball – Read
Nov. 10: Adelyn Ackley, Hart cross country – Read
Nov. 3: Casey Kirkbride, Mattawan soccer – Read
Oct. 27: Colton Yesney, Negaunee cross country – Read
Oct. 20: Varun Shanker, Midland Dow tennis – Read
Oct. 13: Anne Forsyth, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country – Read
Oct. 6: Shuaib Aljabaly, Coldwater cross country – Read
Sept. 29: Taylor Seaman, Brighton swimming & diving – Read
Sept. 22: Maggie Farrell, Battle Creek Lakeview cross country – Read
Sept. 15: Franki Strefling, Buchanan volleyball – Read
Sept. 8: Noah Jacobs, Corunna cross country – Read
PHOTO: (Top) Salem's Mason Phillips jumps a school-record 24-1 during the New Balance Invitational at Farmington. (Photo courtesy of the Salem boys track & field program.)
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.)