The Desert Vista boys and girls teams with Coach Hanson (Left) and Coach Messer (Right) - All photos by Margot Kelly
Records are meant to be broken. Some records stand for a long time, others do not. Former Xavier Prep standout and current Stanford runner Jessica Tonn’s state course record lasted for a mere five years. She did not seem to mind though as she was the very first to congratulate Desert Vista’s Dani Jones (photo right) over social media. Dani’s 17:26 effort on the Cave Creek Course bested Tonn's by 2 seconds.
“She has been a great role model for me, she is someone I look to and say ‘this is where I want to be ‘” explained Jones after the race, “When people say Sarah Fakler and Jessica Tonn, and they put me in with that group, that’s a big honor for me. It is weird, since I have always looked up to them and now to think I am falling into that group and following in their footsteps.”
Dani deserves every bit of those accolades not only did she win, but she won running solo on a very warm, even by Arizona standards, November day “I felt it [the heat] bothered me more on the back end, but you notice your legs and that pain more,” recalled Dani concerning the conditions. “I think it effects you overall with the time, but you don’t necessarily think ‘oh it’s hot.’ It is a factor, but I try not to pay attention to it.”
While she may not have noticed during the race, her Coach Dr. Jeff Messer had it on his mind going into the meet, “These are tough conditions, it has been cooler the last 10-14 days,” explainer Coach Messer. “The game plan changed, we hoped to be more aggressive in the race a couple weeks ago, but as the forecast was revised upward we knew we had to be more conservative.” Whatever the game plan was going into the race it turned out to be the right one. Not only was Dani the individual champ but the team scored 30 points to run away with the title over Xavier Prep (83) and Highland (140).
“Messer walked out here when we felt the heat and told us we needed to go for the title and there was no need to get team goal record times, just focus on place. I turned around and saw them all come in. I was incredibly proud!” Dani explained of the team goals afterwards. Hopefully this is not the big race for the Desert Vista team. Coach Messer said that they are looking forward to the Nov 22nd Nike Southwest Regional meet, run on the same course as the Twilight meet. With regards to their chances of advancing to the national meet Messer stated, “Utah and Colorado have some exceptional team, Davis, Ft. Collins, Monarch, there are so many great teams in this regional. We have to run our best race every step every minute. If we do that we will be in the conversation.”
Coach Messer was not the only coach from Desert Vista to bring home a championship today. Coach Chris Hanson’s harriers also ran their way to a state title led by senior and captain Ben Davis. Going into the race Coach Hanson was not worried about other teams. “We knew if we ran our race we would be in contention. Corona del Sol and Mountain View are really good teams. They are tough. They can really bring it. They were gunning for us, but I knew if we focused on our race and ran what we were capable of we would be fine.” While Mesa Mountain View (96) and Corona del Sol (126) did bring it, neither could match Desert Vista’s team score of 46.
Ben was personally dissatisfied with his finish but proud of his team, “I couldn’t breathe very well, I just cramped up because of the heat. I didn’t have my top race, but the team ran well.” Coach Hansen elaborated on Ben’s sentiments, “Ben is a second year runner we got from base
ball, but we are really glad to have him. He is the rock of this team and he may be disappointed but he shouldn’t be. We built off of him. Each meet our younger guys got better and better. We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for him.”
Like the girls team they hope this is not the last good race of their season. “I think we are excited to run at NXR, it is the Twilight course and we tend to run well there,” explained Ben.
Unlike Dani’s domination of the field, the boy’s individual honors were not decided until the final 300m when Corona del Sol’s Marcus Wheeler (bib #314)put on the afterburners. With a kick that would make Bernard Lagat proud, he sped past Mesquite’s Tyler Day (bib #721) who had led most of the race to win in a time of 15:36. Marcus’ kick reversed their sectional result. “It’s hard to believe. I am so happy,” reminisced Marcus Wheeler afterward. “My team really believed in me, and I felt like I could do anything.” Despite competing against each other frequently the two runners are not bitter rivals, “We are good friends, we live near each other and its nice knowing someone that wants it just as bad as I do” explained Wheeler. Hopefully we will see more of these two and Dani at NXR and on the track in the spring.