Reeths-Puffer track star Mason Darke is apparently fully healthy again and ready to make another splash as the state level before he graduates next month.
Darke, who finished fifth in the 300-meter hurdles at last year’s Division 1 state finals, emerged from an injury last Friday and won the championship in 110-meter hurdles at Friday’s O-K Green Conference championship meet.
Darke and Marvin Moore (400-meter dash) were the Rockets’ only individual champions at the meet. R-P’s 4x200 relay team also won the title in its event.
Mason Darke, right, with R-P track coach Parker Aerts.
Darke’s winning time in the 110 hurdles was 14 seconds flat, which is a new school record.
Now he will set his sights on doing even better on Friday at regionals in Zeeland, even though his season will not depend on how he does that day. Darke has already qualified for the state finals in the 110 hurdles, based on his times this season.
He will try to qualify for state again in the 300 hurdles, which he did not compete in at the conference meet.
Darke was noticeably absent from the R-P lineup for the past few weeks, nursing a pulled hamstring, but his great performance at the conference meet told everyone he will be 100 percent for the most important part of the season.
Marvin Moore
“He missed the GMAA meet and the last duals against Jenison and Muskegon,” said R-P boys track coach Don Ketner. “But he kept working and getting rehab to be ready to run fast for regionals and the state finals. We are very excited and hopeful to see more records fall in the next three weeks of the season.”
Darke’s new school record in the 110 hurdles broke his own record of 14.32, which he set at the Ram Classic at Rockford High School in April 17.
The 14.32 mark broke the old record of 14.33 that was set by Parker Aerts back in 2018, when he was a Reeths-Puffer senior.
Ethan Rolewicz
Aerts, now the R-P girls track coach, has worked closely with Darke over the past two seasons to help him break the record he held for eight years.
“Nobody was more proud of (Darke’s) performances than Coach Aerts.” said Ketner, who also coached Aerts in high school. “Coach Aerts has really assisted and coached Mason to be a top hurdler in Michigan and to be ready for the challenges he will be facing next year in college!
“I am proud of the way these two have worked together and the sacrifices both have made to give Mason a chance to be highly successful! I am very proud of watching Coach Aerts help someone destroy his old record and celebrate every moment of this journey!”
Emcee McLaurin
The R-P boys finished fifth out of six teams at the conference meet with 57 points. Jenison won with 177.5 points, followed by Caledonia (173.5), Byron Center (100), Mona Shores (83), R-P and Muskegon (41).
Moore, R-P’s other individual champion, was also returning to the track after a recent groin injury.
He won the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.97 seconds. He had to run hard to squeak past Jenison’s Kole Bassler, who finished a very close second with a time of 50.10.
London Rankin
“It was a pretty impressive, gutsy performance,” Ketner said about Moore’s victory. “He really had to dig in a lot. It was a real close race.”
The 4x200 relay team of London Rankin, Moore, Emcee McLaurin and Ethan Rolewicz also their event with a time of 1:29.80. The R-P squad narrowly beat Jenison, which came in at 1:30.78.
Darke, Moore, Rankin, McLaurin and Rolewicz all earned All-Conference honors for their efforts.