Alena Ellsworth thrust herself back into the conversation of fastest 400m runner in the state with her eye turning performance at the Red Mountain Rampage. Arizona Milesplit Photo.
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Whether it was Highland's Alena Ellsworth setting and Arizona best 55.69 in the 400m or Skyline's Amarii Keyes blistering 38.67 in the 300H, the Inaugural Red Mountain Rampage was a display of some of the best that Arizona Track has to offer.
The Rampage's two session format allowed for teams to enter up to 5 athletes in each event. Their newly rebuilt track allowed for several unusual relay events in the morning from the SMR to the 4 x 200m relay. There were outstanding performances within those events from some of Arizona's finest.
As the sun began to set on the day, the heat on the track started to rise. Corona del Sol swept the first event of the evening, putting down two excellent mid-season 4 x 800m relays. Daniel Bish, Graham Everdsen, Johnathan Lopez, and Colt Sample ran an 8:26.37 followed by an Arizona #1 mark of 9:40.10 by Renee Clary, Mackenzie Harder, Jackie Martin, and Kelly Naumann.
Out on the elevated pole vault runway Highland's Nicole Baker put on a display in clearing 12' 6" and just barely missing 12' 10". Just hours before that, Connor Stevens did Hamilton proud by winning the boys Elite Session with a jump of 15' 6" before missing at 16' 1".
The ladies and gentlemen of the throws added their best efforts as well. Sophomore Kayleigh Conlon set a Mountain Pointe girls' discus record and moved to the number one Arizona throw to win girls discus at 135' 10". On the boys' side, Mesquite was able to place first and second in the Discus with two one hundred fifty plus throws by Blake McGee and Colton Root.
Speaking of Mountain Pointe, Paul Lucas cruised to a win in the 400m posting a 48.63 just ahead of Highland's Daniel Egbo. But as the ladies stepped to the line, few knew that Alena Ellsworth would position herself in rare company with her 55.69, a nearly three second win in the event.
Another dominate race was the girls 1600m. Red Mountain's Taryn Estavillo and Highland's Allison Girard raced together for the better part of two laps before Girard was able to pull away from Estavillo, she put 9 seconds on Estavillo en route 5:09.74 in the 1600m
The Mountain Pointe girls, including Chynna Simmons, Tria Seawater-Simmons, and Rees Young stole the show at the girls at the long and triple jump pits. In triple jump, the three ladies swept the medal stand, scoring 24 points for the Pride. The long jump was thee same song second verse as they corralled another 24 points for Tim O'Neil's squad.
Although there were numerous personal bests, state qualifiers and marks of great for individual programs, the Corona del Sol boys were able to hold off the Hamilton boys for a title, while the jumps and sprints of Mountain Pointe carried the Pride to a victory over an impressive all-around performance by the Lady Coyotes of Skyline.
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