G.B. West’s Wright closing in on lofty marks

Jason Wright has the numbers memorized.

The distance is 58 feet, 11 inches.

The year was 1960.

The Green Bay West sophomore doesn’t want to look at them anymore on the school-record board.

“Right now, I’m shooting for the school record,” Wright said about the shot put record set by Don Hendrickson, who won the Class A state title in 1960. “All I have to do is shoot a 59. I believe I have that in my arm. It will come.”

Wright has already come a long way in a sport he originally thought he would never compete in.

The sophomore leads the Green Bay area this season in the shot put with a throw of 55-9, which ranks fourth in the state, according to Athletic.net.

Wright won the Bay Conference boys shot put title May 12.

It’s believed to be the first conference title Green Bay West has claimed in a boys event in at least 10 years, according to longtime coach Don Buntman.

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Wright will take aim at becoming the team’s first WIAA regional champion since 2007.

Andrew Wickman won both shot put and discus titles that year on the way to finishing eighth in the Division 1 shot put at state.

Prior to Mitchell Kaquatosh placing at state in the boys wheelchair division for the 100 the last two years, Wickman’s state appearance in 2007 was the last time the West boys team had a WIAA state qualifier.

“I really didn’t want to do track,” said Wright, who also competes in football and basketball at West. “But now that I think about it, I’m glad I got into it. I got into the groove of it, and I like it a lot.”

Wright credits Jason Thomas, a football coach at Franklin Middle School, for encouraging him to go out for track and field.

Wright begrudgingly tried it and ended up breaking Franklin’s school record in the shot put with a throw of 49-10. Note, a middle school shot put weighs less than the boys high school shot put.

During his freshman season, Wright achieved some early success, firing off a throw of 50-7¼ using the glide technique.

Although he didn’t eclipse that mark for the remainder of the year, switching to the spin-rotation release helped him become more consistent with his throws and qualify for sectionals.

“We just decided it was the time to make the change, and he’s just been growing ever since,” said Kim Noskowiak, who coaches the throws at West with Vong Xiong.

Currently, Wright has the second-best throw from his sectional, which features Kimberly’s Boyd Dietzen, who has a season-best mark of 65-5½. The top three finishers from Division 1 sectionals advance to state.

A state trip is not only within reach for Wright, but he could possibly become the first competitor from the West boys team to step onto the state podium in La Crosse since 2003, when Matt White placed fourth in the long jump.

However, Wright knows he still has plenty of work to do to accomplish those things this year. He also knows he can’t have a performance like he had at the Bay Conference meet.

Although Wright won the Bay title in the shot put, he would be the first to tell you he didn’t have his strongest performance. He was seventh heading into finals with a throw of 42-2 before winning with a throw of 47-8.

“This number today is not normal,” Noskowiak said at the Bay Conference meet. “His new normal is 55. If we can see that new normal again, absolutely, I believe (the school record) is within his reach this year. I believe it’s there for him if he wants it.”

Wright earned second-team all-conference honors as a defensive lineman in football.

He also possesses a fun-loving personality and is usually all smiles before competing at meets as he jokes around with his teammates and competitors alike.

In fact, he injured the pinkie finger on his throwing hand a few weeks ago playing catch with a football at a meet.

“He is goofy,” Xiong said. “He is kind of the show of practice. But when it comes time to compete, he is very serious. He has a good time, but he competes. He gets his mind right and knows that he has to get those numbers.”

While his numbers thus far are impressive, Wright won’t be able to get the numbers on the school-record board out of his head until he breaks them.

“It’s paying off because of all the work I’m putting in the weight room, stretching, running,” Wright said. “It’s a lot of work I put in just for those numbers. It didn’t just come.”