Bartz, McCroskey and Beckaroo in the girls 200m. Photo Contributed by Kent Vincent.
During the 2nd week of state qualifying invitational meets, wind returned to Southern Arizona. The Inaugural Desert Tune-Up Invitational took place at Marana Mountain View High School and featured 20 teams and over 1500 entries. Suffice it to say that the athletes' performances and attitudes were not dictated by the windy conditions.
The meet began with Alex Palacios of Mountain View running 15.63 in the 110HH set the tone for his Mountain Lion squad. Shortly afterward his teammate Justice Somerset won the HJ with a leap of 6'6" to clinch a Division 2 automatic qualifying spot. These two athletes were just getting their day started. Mountain View stepped on the track with a 4x100 that laid down almost a two second win on the rest of the field with a winning time of 43.86. Somerset went back to work winning the long jump with a mark of 20'7.5" and a 1st place in the 400m dash in 52.16. Palacios cam...