When discus throwing is under discussion, Buena Vista (Colo.) senior Mason Finley could aptly be called “The Franchise.”
Earlier this spring, the 6-foot-8, 330-pounder set the national high school record with a monster throw of 236 feet, 6 inches during the High Altitude Challenge in Alamosa, Colo. The standard of 234-4 had stood since 2001.
University of Kansas assistant track coach Andy Kokhanovsky predicted one year earlier that Finley would set a national record before he graduated.
“He had the physique and is very fast for his size,” the Kansas coach told MaxPreps. “If he stays healthy, he’s going to be the No. 1 thrower in the United States.”
Mason Finley, Buena Vista (Colo.)
Photo by Kirby Lee
While many major colleges were recruiting Finley, University of Nebraska assistant coach Mark Colligan said almost reverently, “Whoever gets him will have an awesome responsibility. He has a great combination of size, athleticism and dedication to the ultimate cause of being the best thrower.
“Kids get steered toward football and have not been encouraged to do throwing events like he has. When one comes down the pike with his profound potential and rare combination, he’s pretty precious. And our sport has the utmost responsibility to see that talent get developed to the utmost. It’s a coveted responsibility.”
Well, UCLA coach Art Venegas won the “Finley Sweepstakes” and now the responsibility belongs solely to him and his staff.
A track coach for over 30 years, Venegas told MaxPreps, “He is a once-in-a-lifetime recruit for me. Mason is just about the finest thrower I’ve ever seen – not just in high school. He’s a really, really special talent. He is a pure thrower. I’ve seen a lot of 6-8 guys, but you don’t find kids that height and weight who have such a feel for the sport. His father (Jared) has done a great job.
“He’s not raw. He’s so balanced. He has leverage, thickness and the multi-sport experience. He’s intelligent and not much rattles him. He loves the activity – not just the winning – and is very much a team guy. These kind of guys are an anchor to your (entire) program.”
Venegas also has an “ace in the hole.” His name is Matt Kosecki, an incoming recruit from Humble (Texas) who also is among the top throwers in the nation. He will room with Finley and they will push each other every day.
“Their goals are to get beyond college with track,” Venegas said proudly.
Surprisingly, Finley’s first sport was soccer (he was a goalie) as a third grader. He didn’t encounter a discus until he was in fifth grade, even though his father, Jared - who is 6-foot-7 and 350 pounds – was a state champion. Jared had thrown the discus 198 feet while starring at Wyandotte (Kansas City, Kan.) and also competed at the University of Wyoming.
Even then it was a very makeshift discus because Jared took two frisbies, put some sand in between them and tied them together.
“I just remember it was something fun to do with my dad,” Mason recalled. “Later I got a rubber one. I always had a pretty good feel for the discus. I threw 80 or 90 feet in sixth grade and 152 feet in eighth grade. We just practiced so much and watched so must video of Olympic athletes.”
Though the shot put “has always been a little harder for me,” Mason confessed, he still established the Colorado state record this spring with a toss of 71 feet, 3 inches.
“I’m into little moves,” explained Jared, who has coached his son since Day One. “I try to get torque built up. I had to convert him into using more of his lower body. He was difficult for me because he would go back to using his upper body and it was difficult to tell because I was naturally a lower-body thrower.
“I started him spinning with the shot put when he was in fifth grade, because I knew it would transfer into balance and footwork (for the discus). He kept beating everything I did (at similar ages).”
Mason, who also began playing football and basketball in sixth grade, entered Salida High – a Class 3A school of 400 students - as a freshman. He placed seventh in the state discus throw and his best effort that year was 154 feet.
Finley winds up at the Arcadia Invitational in April.
Photo by Kirby Lee
He exploded as a sophomore, winning the state title with a big toss of 186 feet, 10 inches. He also won the shot put, beating the defending champion in both events.
Then Mason began to make his name nationally by winning the discus and shot put during the summer at the Junior Olympics in Walnut, Calif. “That was really cool, because I wasn’t expected to win,” he said.
The fall of his junior year Mason transferred to nearby Buena Vista – Another 3A school with around 350 students - because of disagreements he and his father had with the Salida coach. The transfer cost him one-half of his football and track seasons.
Buena Vista coach Kyle Graff, of course, was quite familiar with Finley, but never dreamed he would be coaching him.
“We had a couple of real good eighth grade throwers (Corey Orth and Jordan Graff, his son),” he noted. “They went to a junior high meet and I asked them, ‘How’d you guys do?’ They said, ‘Coach, we’ll never win another discus meet (because they had lost to a seventh grader from another school – Mason Finley).’ ’'
Despite missing the first half of his track season, the young superstar never missed a beat because “Me and my dad practice all year round,” he pointed out. He not only repeated as state champion in the discus and shot put, but in the regional he fired off a spectacular 222-foot winner which was No. 3 in national high school history.
That summer he captured both events at the Great Southwest meet in Albuquerque, N.M., and also won the discus at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C.
Mason’s senior track campaign reached a bump in the road when he had three meets in a single week for probably the only time in his career. On a Monday he fired the shot 71-3 and the discus 223. On Wednesday his numbers were 70 and 214.
On Saturday of that week, he revealed, “My shoulder was really sore and I told my dad I didn’t really feel like throwing.” He also was nervous about being two hours away from his Senior Prom, which was scheduled that evening.
Today Mason couldn’t be happier that his father made him compete, because that was the day he broke the national record he had relentlessly targeted since seventh grade. “I was just being patient and working on my form until I got it,” he described.
His first toss that day was a personal-best 223 feet. “That was pretty easy,” he related. Watching his second toss soar far away, he noted, “I knew it was going to be far. While they were measuring it, my dad was hovering over it. He started screaming at me that I had the national record. I was shocked. I just put my hands on my head. I was just so happy that I finally got it after all that hard work.”
Jared added, “It takes a lot to get that monster throw. It was like a dream kicked in – like a bomb went off. It was the happiest moment of my life.”
It should be noted that Mason’s third throw was far from a letdown. He threw the discus 225 feet – the second best of his career – then skipped the finals and headed for his prom.
If he wasn’t before, Mason Finley definitely has been a huge celebrity since that record-setting day. As he puts it, “Ever since then, swarms of people come over to talk to me, get autographs and take pictures. The state meet was pretty wild (he defended both titles successfully). Cameras followed me everywhere.”
It’s no surprise that coach Graff says, “We’re real close and it’s been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.”
Mason also stars off the field, carrying a 3.78 GPA. His favorite subject is chemistry, which he wants to major in at UCLA. Some day he might even consider coaching. He definitely is one of the best role models in the state, if not the country.
He has a very unusual hobby – spelunking. “It’s pretty tough,” he laughed. “It’s just really fun. I’ve gone five times. I got stuck once, for about five minutes. I just started wiggling and using my hips.”
Jared told MaxPreps, “This is news to me. There’s always something you don’t know your kids are doing. He knew I would go nuts if I knew he was crawling through unstable mine holes.”
In June Mason will compete in four national events before heading to college. Following in the footsteps of his idol, Olympian Casey Malone, Mason says,“I want to break all the records I can in college and go to the Olympics.”
Surprisingly, Mason has not done a lot of weight lifting. “In college he’s going to make some big jumps (due to increased strength training),” Jared predicts. “By the second year he’s going to hit the 230s (with the slightly wider, heavier college discus). I’ve done all I can do for him now.”
Jared’s next project is twin daughters Matia and Rebecca, who already have thrown the discus 85 feet as sixth graders. “They’re going to be 6-foot-2, minimum, and they’ve already passed their mom (Lisa)” he noted. “I’ve told them they can flip hamburgers or get a scholarship.”
Down the road, coach Graff predicts, “When Mason starts doing weight lifting, he’s going to be amazing. He’s going to win the (Olympic) Gold Medal in 2012. Maybe he’ll set a world record some day.”
