A state gold medalist’s career is at an end.
After a solid first three years for Panther track and field, Jonas Phillips burst onto the scene as a senior, winning a 5A title in the 300-meter hurdles. Recently, the Wofford College commit discussed his breakout campaign. Part I of the two-part interview is transcribed below, lightly edited for clarity and length.
How long have you been running track now? How’d you get into it?
I started in seventh grade here at the middle school, and I mostly just did sprint events, relays and stuff like that. I'd been running cross country for longer than that; I ran cross country from sixth grade to my sophomore year. That was the last year that I ran that, and then I decided just to focus more on track.
How did you get started doing hurdles?
Last year during outdoor season, Coach Matt [Harlfinger] thought it would be a good opportunity for me to try out something new, and we started working on it then, just kind of practicing it. I think my PR [personal records] my junior season in the 110 [meter hurdles] was like 16.5-something [seconds], and then in the 300 it was like 45-point-something. So to be able to put in the work and go from 45 seconds to 38 seconds in the 300 hurdles in one year, that was pretty relieving to see it pay off. It was a pretty big jump.
To that end, you mentioned a couple weeks ago that you were taking track more seriously this year. What prompted that?
I just felt like I owed it to myself to start working harder and really focus on it as much as I could. With how long I had been doing it and it being my last season, I just wanted to try to give it my all.
[Head coach Matt Harlfinger] said you studied a bunch of film this year as well. What's your process for that?
I don't know if I'd call it film; I just would watch some YouTube videos on the form and everything, and try to get it down as much as I could. I just like watching track as a sport in general. I'll watch the college championships; I think those will be on soon. I just like to watch people that are better than myself and if I can pick up anything from that, it's kind of like a bonus for me.
Will you ever watch video of yourself or other guys you're going to race?
Yeah, my dad has taken a couple videos of my races, so sometimes I would go back and look at those and see if there was anything I could do better. At certain points in the race, there are touchdown times off of each hurdle, so you can kind of project what your finishing time would be. So I could kind of see where I was losing time throughout the race and then try to focus more on that specific segment of the race, so that was pretty good to be able to go back and do.
Tell me about the [Adidas Outdoor National meet in Greensboro June 18-21] coming up? What made you want to do that?
I kind of just wanted to see, mostly just because it's my last season and I've never actually been to a national meet, because there are times that you have to run throughout the season to qualify for it. So to be able to go and get that experience was definitely something that I always wanted to do. I'll be running the 400 hurdles, so if I could get another PR in that, that would be pretty good.
How many times have you run the 400 hurdles before?
I ran it twice this season, once at a meet we went to in South Carolina and once at this college meet that [Harlfinger] entered a few of us into where I ran under like MoveMore [Harlfinger’s gym at which many Panther track and field athletes train] instead of Franklin. But I think in both of those races, I definitely came out of them feeling like I could have executed it better and ran faster. But then again I didn't actually have any real practice in that event leading up to it; on our track here there aren’t 400-meter hurdle marks for where you put the hurdles because they don't run that in North Carolina. So I measured out where the marks are, I put some tape down and I've been practicing over those, so I think that'll be a big help.
What division will you run in?
The Championship. I think I actually just missed out on that mark to qualify by like .2 seconds, but [Harlfinger] was able to still enter me into it because it just depends how many people are already entered into it.
Will it be cool to race some of those guys from elsewhere around the country?
Yeah, I'm not sure who all has entered into it yet, but I'm sure there's going to be some pretty fast guys running.
Have you been in touch with your coaches at Wofford?
Yeah, a little bit. I've talked to Coach [Johnny] Bomar over the phone a little bit just about what’s expected from me over the course of the next couple of months, what summer training looks like and stuff like that – just kind of getting me situated as best as possible.
Has he been sending you any workouts to do?
No, not yet. I think after nationals he probably will because I'll definitely be taking it easy for a couple weeks after nationals because I've just been going for so long. Obviously I’ll still be getting some workouts in, but definitely not on the same level as what I've been doing over these past couple weeks to try to prepare for nationals.
Has he told you what events he wants you to do?
No, we haven't talked about that yet. I think I definitely will be doing the 400 hurdles in college; I'm not too sure if I'll be doing the 110s or the 60-meter hurdles yet, but I guess that's the conversation we'll probably be having.
What made you want to go to Wofford?
That was one of the first colleges that actually reached out to me. I had a few other choices but I decided to go there, because when me and my dad went on the tour there, it was just a lot nicer than a lot of the other colleges I had been to. They're getting some new facilities next year on the weight room; they'll have a kind of extension onto that, so that'll be nice. They just kind of impressed me with everything that they had going on there.
Will Woolever can be reached at sports@thefranklinpress.com