PUEBLO — Anyone standing next to Mason Finley, Buena Vista High School’s mammoth discus thrower, might wonder if he could take baby steps in anything.
At 6-foot-8 and 331 pounds, the 17-year-old junior seems capable of taking only big steps. But Saturday at the Class 3A state championships, Finley didn’t take the big step he sought in a quest to become the best high school discus thrower in the country, even though he set state meet records in the discus and the shot put.
It was no secret Finley was aiming at the national high school record of 234 feet — or at least improving his state record throw from last week.
“It’s so touchy when you get out there in the ring,” Finley said after winning the discus in 211-6. “Just a little thing can make you or break you. Next year, I’m pretty confident that I’m going to get the national record in the discus and the state record in the shot put.”
Friday in the shot put, Finley set the 3A state meet record with a heave of 64-9 1/4; the overall state record is held by Jim Banich, who threw 66-3 1/4 in 1982 for Arvada.
Finley’s discus throw Saturday was a 3A state meet record to go with his all-classification toss of 222-1 last week at regionals. The best throw in a state meet competition was 192-5 by Westminster’s Todd Austin in 1977.
The state meet directors moved Saturday’s discus event from Dutch Clark Stadium to Pueblo South High School because the area at Dutch Clark Stadium wouldn’t hold Finley’s distance. His best throw came on his first attempt in the final round.
“Conditions are great today,” said Mike Carr, Finley’s coach at Buena Vista. “There was no reason not to go for it today.”
After his best throw, Finley lost technique and one of his tries went out of bounds and into the spectator area. No one was injured.
With the two state records, Finley ended a year of turmoil on a happy note. Last year, he set the 3A state record with a throw of 186-10 while competing for Salida High School. He moved about a discus throw up the road to Buena Vista this year after a dispute with the Salida coaching staff. He had to miss the first five meets of the season while gaining eligibility to compete at the new school.
While Finley was the individual star of the meet, Platte Canyon’s boys team won the state title with 52 points and Classical Academy won its third straight girls title with 89 points.
Sam Berggren of Middle Park set a record in the girl’s 400-meter dash of 55.94 in the preliminaries. And Peak to Peak’s girls 400-meter relay team set a state mark of 4:05.12.
The day was emotional for Platte Canyon team, winning the school’s first boys state championship in any sport. The school was hit with a hostage tragedy almost two years ago in which a student was killed.
“We prefer not to bring that into it,” coach Chris Hendrick said. “Things like this help the healing process.”
Irv Moss: 303 954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
