Mason Finley told everyone around him Saturday that he felt good and was in kind of a hurry to attend his Buena Vista High School prom later that evening.
So the 6-foot-8, 300-plus-pound senior threw the discus a national-record 236 feet, 6 inches at the High Altitude Challenge hosted by Adams State College in Alamosa.
“It was just amazing to sit there and watch him get a round of applause,” Alamosa athletic director Jerry Green said.
Finley’s mark, which he attained on the second of his three throws, was recorded by both cloth and steel tape measures.
Saturday’s effort surpassed the national high school record of 234-4 set in 2001 by Niklas Arrhenius of Mountain View in Orem, Utah.
Signed to compete next season at UCLA, Finley, the nation’s No. 1 track and field recruit, already owned the state best of 223-4, attained last season at the Gunnison Invitational.
But he surpassed the mark on all three throws Saturday . . . in the preliminaries.
According to Buena Vista coach Kyle Graff, Finley’s first throw went 223. Afterward, Graff said, “He told me he was feeling good and that he thought he could throw it far. He wanted to go for it.”
On his second attempt, Finley unleashed his record, and everyone in the stadium realized what had happened.
He gathered himself for a third toss, which went 226, then let it sink in.
“He said, ‘Coach, I’m going to cry,’ ” Graff said.
