Senior Spotlight: Mason County Central’s Wood Takes Talents to Bethel University

MISportsNow is putting the spotlight on northern Michigan high school senior student-athletes who had their seasons cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Mason County Central senior Jael Wood was preparing to defend her Division 3 pole vault state championship prior to the coronavirus pandemic forcing the cancellation of the 2020 MHSAA spring sports season.

A three-time MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 state finals qualifier, Wood placed seventh in the pole vault as a freshman and was a state runner-up as a sophomore before taking top honors as a junior in 2019.

Wood is set to continue her academic and track and field careers at Bethel (Ind.) University in the fall where she plans to study nursing.

“I’d like to pole vault, and I was going for nursing,” Wood says. “That really kind of narrows it down to see what college has four year nursing program, a solid track program and programs that work with each other. In the end Bethel was the perfect fit for me.”

Wood leaves Mason County Central as the school’s pole vault record holder.

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