Yarithza Soto was able to defeat Alexis Nichols in a tight 800m duel on Thursday at the Sun Angel Classic. Arizona Milesplit Photo.
[Editors Note: This weeks Sun Angel coverage will be free of charge, normally these types of articles are behind the curtain. You can read coverage like this every week starting at only $4 a month or less than $1/week! Sign up right here]
With temperatures the past two days only reaching the high seventies, it was a favorable day in April for the athletes to compete at Sun Angel Stadium in Tempe, AZ. The Sun Angel Classic is a big high school and college meet, drawing teams from all over Arizona for the high school portion as well as collegiate teams from all around the country. The Thursday session of the meet serves strictly for the prelims of the high school section while the college actions begins Friday night and concludes on Saturday evening with the high school finalists from Thursday. Almost all of the high school track events have finals being contested on Saturday this year, except for the field events, the 3200m, and the 300mh.
Kicking off the meet in the 4x800m relay, the Verrado girls ran the fastest time of the day, dipping under the ten minute mark; they were the only team to do so. Chandler and Liberty will go into Saturday as the number two and three ranked teams. On the boys side, Chandler got a fantastic 1:57.5 anchor leg from Michael Gonzales, as he was able to reel in the McClintock runner in the final 300m to seize the win and number one time in the state of 8:15.16, heading into the Saturday finals.
In the 100mh, Elsja Mecham (Summit Academy), ran a blazing fast 14.36 and will be the favorite over Arneisha Mitchell (Chandler), and Brielle Sterns (Sahuaro), who both broke 15 seconds, in the finals. William Winfield (Chandler), is the clear favorite in the boys 110mh after posting a 14.66 in prelims. He'll have some company in the finals as two of his teammates also made it through to Saturday. 12.12 was the fastest time of the day in the girls 100m by Lashira Tremble (Liberty). Alexis Center (South Mountain) and Nastasia Peevy (Chandler) will be hot on her heels in the finals. In the 200m, it's the same cast of characters, with Peevy leading the way at 24.89. Passionate Amukamara (Millenium), will also be up in the mix for this event; the finals will be hot. Alena Ellsworth (Highland) and Anna Foreman (Chandler) are setting up for a great battle in the 400m Saturday night as they each eased down the home straight to cross the line in under 58 seconds. The 4x100m has five teams under the 50 flat mark, with Chandler and Millenium under 49 seconds, so the finals will be a good one to keep an eye on.
The boys sprints also saw some fine performances with Jullian Coronado-Clark (Copper Canyon) leading the way in the 100m dash with a time of 10.88 seconds. Weston Barlow (Queen Creek) also snuck under the 11 second mark at 10.99. In the 200m, Marcus Parker (Centennial) will be the favorite heading into Saturday evening after clocking 22.09 on Thursday. Adam Patterson (Highland), Jahwar Jordan (Hamilton), and Coronado-Clark will be looking for the upset. Daniel Egbo (Highland) was the only runner to break 50 seconds in the 400m dash, with a time of 49.69 seconds. The 4x100m relay is going to be tight, with Cibola, Desert Vista, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Queen Creek all within a tenth of a second; it should be a great race.
Yarithza Soto (Maryvale) led the way in the girls 800m with a time of 2:18.37. Alexis Nichols (Chandler) followed her the whole way and crossed just behind in a time of 2:18.81. Soto and Nichols both qualified in the 1600m as well where Tessa Weiss of Xavier and Allyson Girard (Highland) led the way with times of 5:09.36 and 5:12.66, respectively. The 1600m finals will be dominated by a sea of blue and white as Xavier had 5 girls qualify for the finals and Chandler had 3. The 1600m finals should prove to be one of the better races of the night. The 3200m final was won by Lauren Gronbeck (Eden Christian Academy) who's here all the way from Sewickley, PA in a time of 11:19.48. Second went to Xavier athlete Jane Miller and third place was Weiss.
The boys 800m finals is lining up to be very good as five runners broke 2 minutes with another four or five knocking on the door. Isaih Fuel (Independence) leads the way with a 1:58.33. The boys 1600m will also be a race to watch as 7 young men broke 4:30 in the prelims. DJ Harris (Desert Vista) will look to improve upon his 4:27.78 on Saturday night. In the 3200m, Seamus White (Hamilton) did all the pace setting for the majority of the race only to see several runners pass him in the final laps as Highland teammate Logan Jones and Zach Harrach finished 1-2 in times of 9:30.81 and 9:36.98.
In the field event finals, the biggest mark of the day came from Chandler senior Corneisha Mitchell who threw 44'10" to win by over 6 feet. Mitchell also won the discus with a mark of 127'3". Zarreia Willis (Alahambra) jumped 5 feet 7 inches in the girls high jump for the win while Tasia Marshall (Cesar Chavez) was victorious in the long jump with a jump of 17'7". In the boys discus, Elijah Mason (Desert Vista), had a monster throw of 170 feet and 3 inches; easily enough for the win. Conner Stevens (Hamilton) was the winner in pole vault as he soared over the bar at 15 feet and Derrick Monroe (Cibola) had a leap of 23'3.25 to emerge as champion in the long jump.
The running events kick off on Saturday, April 11 at 2:30pm so be sure to stop by ASU and Sun Devil stadium for a great evening of Track and Field. Results from this meet and previous meets can be found on az.milesplit.com, each athletes also has their own profile. Claim your athlete profileand you will be able to see historic results. Shoot, if you want you can even edit your athlete profile to make it look spiffy.