Things continue looking up for Phelps
Jack Phelps’ time through the 200 meters at the Iceberg Invitational on April 17 was 22.57 seconds, which tells you that the Columbia Falls sprinter can fly.
Just wait a couple years.
The senior, owner of the second-best 200 in Class A and the No. 4 time in the 400 this season, recently signed to run for Rocky Mountain College’s track and field squad. In a happy non-accident, he also plans to enroll in Rocky’s aviation program.
The bug to fly airplanes possibly caught Phelps when he was just 2 years old; he doesn’t remember it but has a picture of him sitting in an airliner cockpit as proof.
He’s dreamt of getting those wings a long time.
“I went down there to discuss their flight school,” Phelps said of visiting the Billings campus. “Their coach (Alex Oddy) was excited to talk to me. Next thing I know I’m signing with them.
“They gave me a free flight to kind of tour the program, and I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ I’ve always liked flying.”
Running track is more of a recent interest: Phelps didn’t do it junior high and if hadn’t been for friend Alex Branstetter, who knows if he’d have started. Branstetter was a sophomore distance runner and told the then-freshman he should give it a shot.
“I tried it and fell in love with it,” Phelps said. “I wasn’t going to go distances, though. I was all about the sprints.”
He made the State A meet in the 400 as a freshman and has lowered his best times from 53.28 that year to 53.13 as a sophomore and 50.44 as a junior. The latter came at the Archie Roe Invitational; he won there ahead of placing fourth at the State A meet with 50.52.
If Phelps was overshadowed a bit last season by fellow Wildcat Malaki Simpson, who ran the fastest 200 meters in state history last May, that speed should have been enough to get Phelps on the Frontier Conference radar.
Last fall, Phelps noticed the blip that is Rocky.
“I actually discovered their school,” he said. “There was a job fair and I went down there (to Flathead High school) and met with the recruiter. She noted they had a flight school, and I was like, ‘Oh, hey, that’s something I want to do.’ “
The other thing he’d like to do: Set the school 400 record. Phelps clocked 50.36 at Columbia Falls’ Iceberg Invitational, which he feels puts him in range of 49.75, which was run by current Wildcats basketball coach Chris Finberg in 1998.
“I feel like I’m getting really close to that,” he said. “I”m just trying to get faster, you know? Every day.”
He can try again Saturday, at this year’s Archie Roe Invitational at Legends Stadium. Not far from where that job fair took place, Phelps can get in the blocks and let the dream take flight.
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or at fneighbor@dailyinterlake. com.