Upward Trajectory

Elijah Mason and Jonah Wilson have the best discus and shot put marks at UW in over a decade.

By Washington Huskies

May 8^th, 2019

SEATTLE – Elijah Mason is not surprised. Jonah Wilson? Well, maybe just a little bit.

Washington’s second-year strong men (Wilson a sophomore, Mason a redshirt freshman) are both enjoying breakthrough seasons that have them ranked in the top-10 in the NCAA, with marks among the best in a storied Husky throwing history.

Mason, from Casa Grande in Arizona, currently ranks eighth nationally in the discus with his career-best toss of 199-feet from the Beach Invitational. He and Wilson were two of the top-ranked discus throwers in America when they finished their prep careers in 2017 and committed to UW, so being nationally ranked in the NCAA seems like a natural progression.

“It wasn’t anything that we weren’t expecting,” Mason says. “It is a little early to be up amongst the seniors and stuff, but as far as our class goes, this is just where we’ve been since high school.”

Wilson broke the California state record in the discus as a senior with the sixth-best mark in U.S. history. But where the surprise comes from the Clovis, Calif. native is that he is ranked in the top-10 this year in the shot put.

Wilson was certainly no slouch with the shot in high school, as he won the California state title and ranked 10th nationally, but his huge improvements going back to this indoor season still caught him a little by surprise, and have made this season “really fun.”

“I actually didn’t come in expecting myself to excel this far this early in my career, but (Assistant Coach Andrew Ninow) has certainly helped a lot. At the beginning of the year I talked to Ninow on the phone and he asked me what I expected to be throwing this year and I said 19 meters max in shot put, and I expected discus to be my event.”

He surpassed that mark in the second meet of the indoor season, going 19.28 (converting to 63-feet, 3.25-inches) and then added over another foot to his PR at his outdoor opener, going 64-7 1/4 at the Stanford Invitational (19.69-meters).

That mark has Wilson ranked ninth nationally this outdoor season. It’s also nine feet farther than his best throw from his freshman season, a product of some very purposeful food choices in the offseason.

“I was a 220 pound thrower last year,” says Wilson. “That’s not really ideal body weight for someone who is throwing a 16 pound shot and a four-and-a-half pound discus. I came into the summer lifting and eating a whole lot. The big thing was gaining weight and it’s really paid off for me so far.”

Getting bigger was Wilson’s goal; for Mason the 2017-18 season was all about getting healthier, then carrying that in to his first official collegiate season.

“The big thing was making sure to do my best to take care of my body,” says Mason, who says he made his intention to redshirt his first season known to all the schools that were recruiting him.

“Everything that has come to me or that I’ve done or been blessed with, has all been while I was some kind of injured, so we were thinking if I was doing this hurt, let’s see what I can do close to healthy.”

Feeling healthy towards the end of his redshirt season, Mason made the choice to go for a spot on Team USA for the World Junior Championships, and achieved it with a runner-up finish at U.S. Juniors. He then competed at World Juniors in Finland in July, taking eighth in the final as the top finishing American, keeping expectations high for his official collegiate debut.

Wilson and Mason had their visions for how to take the next step in their second seasons, but a coaching change last summer forced them to reset and form a new bond with Coach Ninow, who came to Seattle from the University of Kentucky with some new methodology right from the start.

Even something as seemingly basic as Ninow’s warm-up routine had Wilson “questioning, because it was super hard for a thrower to do a warm-up like that. I was dying after my first week of just warming up!” he laughs.

“But eventually Ninow changed a lot of things in my technique. There were some things I knew I needed to change and I was definitely open to changing them, but there were a few little things he told me to do that I was not sure I wanted to do because I’ve always been told not to do them, but I trusted Ninow and I’ve become a better thrower because of it, and ultimately I trust the guy 110 percent with all my throwing, and it has made me believe in myself more as a thrower overall.”

Mason says the transition was really easy and they quickly hit it off. “He is a one hundred percent nerd, and by far the smartest throws coach I’ve ever encountered, and really wise, wise beyond his years even though he looks old (laughs). It’s been a really good transition.”

Coach Ninow

The two first approached each other on their recruiting trip to Washington. Prior to that they had competed against each other at the Arcadia Invitational in California, but Mason says that as the only thrower from Arizona, he saw “a bunch of these California guys that all knew each other, so I wasn’t approaching any of them.”

They swapped contact info on their recruiting trip and the next time Arcadia rolled around, they were future Dawgs rooting each other on to big PRs.

They’re also linked in their “best since…” superlatives. Wilson’s shot put PR was the best by a Husky since 1998, and third-best in school history. Mason’s discus mark was the best since 2007 and seventh-best in school history.

One of the names that Mason bumped down a spot on the top-10? Todd Wilson, Jonah’s father, who finished fifth at the 1991 NCAA Championships in the discus to earn All-America honors.

“My dad’s been my coach since third grade and everything I knew in track I learned from him,” Jonah says. He never felt pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps, however. “My decision to come here didn’t really stem from him, but I came up here on a visit and really liked it. He said if you want to go there, go there, but don’t feel inclined to just because he went here. He’s played a really big role in my life and I can’t thank him enough.”

On meet day, Wilson and Mason take very different approaches.

Wilson’s way of hyping himself up is “kind of unconventional,” he admits. “I like to yell at myself, hit myself a little bit, get myself a little mad. I don’t know if most guys would do that but I just think that’s the best way to throw far, put some thoughts into my head that make me a little mad. It’s worked this far so I’m just going to keep with it.”

Mason will feed that fire for Wilson when he is a spectator, saying, “I know that my teammates like for me to scream at them, so I do that when they need it.”

But when it’s his turn in the circle, he likes to think about nothing … literally.

“I’m not thinking about anything, and if I am thinking about anything it’s just thinking about not thinking about anything. I’m really calm and my killer mindset comes moreso in practice than in a meet. I don’t go into a meet and do anything that I haven’t done in practice, so practice is really important.”

The two will now get to test themselves against the best of a deep and talented Pac-12 Conference this weekend in Tucson, as they look to firmly establish themselves as power players in the Pac-12, then they’ll move on to seek their first NCAA Championship bids. If they reach Austin, they would be the first Husky men to make Nationals in the discus since 2006 and in the shot put since 2000.

“I’m excited for the postseason,” Wilson says. “The most important part is just staying healthy, eating good, getting a good night’s sleep, keeping up with school. Can’t get too wound up about it, but I’m looking forward to competing with some of the best guys in the country.”

Adds Mason, “Just going to do what I’ve been doing and take every meet one at a time and not think too much about it. Just trust that I can go throw a nice easy 56 (meters) and after that I can kick it up a notch. But get the consistency part down really well, that’s the most important part to me.”