Woodstown’s Mason scores 400th dual meet win in nail biter against Penns Grove, the place it all began and the Hall of Fame coach made his mark
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN — The irony was not lost on Tom Mason.
Mason, the Hall of Fame track and cross country coach who came out of retirement to help take Woodstown’s program to the next level, scored his 400th career dual meet victory Monday when the Wolverines took a 72-63 nail biter on the final day of the dual meet season from Penns Grove, the school where it all began for him a lifetime ago.
“It means a lot,” Mason said. “Never thought I’d get to it. I had a lot of success at Penns Grove and St. James through the athletes and assistant coaches. I never planned on this, but when we had the opportunity to get to 400 I was like it would be cool to do it against Penns Grove, that would make it really good.
“Losing a close meet to Glassboro, the 400 would have come against Schalick and then this meet would have been moot. But losing that close meet put us in a situation beating Schalick it’s going to come against Penns Grove and it’s gonna come here to Woodstown, this is kind of cool.”
Before the meet, the spry septuagenarian walked the grounds talking with the Penns Grove coaches, all of whom ran for him at one time during his 45-year coaching career. Former athletes representing 14 individual state championships made it to the meet. Long-time coaching colleague and rival John Maniglia came back early from a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina just to be on hand for the occasion.
“It’s historical,” said Russell Willitt, the Penns Grove discus record since 1985. “The reason I say that is when I was in high school we only got to, I think, 100 dual meet wins, so he’s surpassed Jack Ware four times. That’s amazing. I didn’t want to miss that. This 400th win is monumental for not only Woodstown and Penns Grove, but for the whole Salem County.”
And those are just the dual meet track and cross country wins. He figures the cross country segment is around 160. If you counted the county (15), conference (15), sectional (7), state (4) and 11 assorted relay championships, the number would have thinking about sticking around for 500. He said he still can’t answer the question everyone has been asking him about next year yet.
Chris Robinson, who broke Willitt’s Penn Grove shot put record, had mixed emotions, but was genuinely happy for his former coach.
“You’re happy, but at the same time it’s like ahhh you did it against Penns Grove,” Robinson said at the height of the meet. “I have two ways to it, probably just like Mr. Mason does. I know his insides are probably eating him up right about now. You want to win at your new school because you have some good quality athletes out here that he believes in and then you’re going against your old team. For everybody it’s a big accomplishment.”
The meet, as Mason expected, was a battle. Both teams used their strengths to their advantage. The Wolverines led 36-27 at the completion of the field events despite Penns Grove winning four of the seven. The Red Devils led 42-39 after the 400 hurdles and 100, but the teams traded the lead three times over the next four events. The Red Devils went 1-2 in the 200 to tie the meet at 63 before the Wolverines clinched it with Pacey Hutton, Jackson Perry and Jacob Marino going 1-2-3 in the 3200.
“I knew it was really close,” Hutton said. “Our coach came up to us and was like you need to go 1-2-3 in this. I was watching the meet a lot. I think we all did really good to help work with the team to get him to where we were.”
Once the meet was decided, the Wolverines presented Mason with a poster commemorating the occasion and had a set of balloon numbers spelling out “400.” Humorously, one of the zeroes slipped out of someone’s grasp as they were positioning the numbers and it drifted away into the sky before the group could assemble for the group photo.
This story will be updated.
WOODSTOWN 72, PENNS GROVE 63
400 Hurdles: Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove 58.9
100: Kylee Goodson, Penns Grove 10.7
1600: Jacob Marino, Woodstown
400: Kylee Goodson, Penns Grove 48.6
110 Hurdles: Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove 15.5
800: David Farrell, Woodstown 2:04
200: Kylee Goodson, Penns Grove 22.1
3200: Pacey Hutton, Woodstown 10:43.8
4×400: Scratched
Long Jump: Will Roy, Penns Grove 21-4.25
Triple Jump: Bryan Garlic, Penns Grove 42-8.5
High Jump: Tommy White, Penns Grove 6-0
Discus: Aidan Taulane, Woodstown 164-10
Shot Put: JaKai Ingram, Penns Grove 47-2
Javelin: Noah Chiu, Woodstown 142-3
Pole Vault: David Farrell, Woodstown 10-0
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