Saturday brought unseasonably cool temperatures to John D. Riggs stadium at Mesa Community College, the site for the division 1, 2, 3, and 4 state track and field championships. With two days to rest and recover after the prelims on Wednesday, the division 1 athletes were ready to turn up the heat themselves in the finals. After day 1, the Desert Vista boys were in the lead at 34 points with Tucson High in second at 22, and Mountain View and Corona tied for third with 17. The Desert Vista girls were also in the lead for the team title at 52 points while Mountain Pointe was second and Chandler was third with 37 and 18 points, respectively.
The day kicked off in the field with the girls long jump and discus. With Mountain Pointe and Chandler both having several girls in each event, there were some valuable points to gain right off the bat. In the discus, just as she did in the shot, Corniesha Mitchell (Chandler) established herself early as the one to beat with a big throw on her first attempt. She would follow that up with a distance of 135'4" which would hold up as the best throw of the day and earn her second state title. Kayleigh Conlon of Mountain Pointe was 2nd with a throw of 130'8" while Dana Hinrichs (North Canyon) was 3rd at a distance of 113'10". Mountain Pointe also took 7th place, giving them 10 points to match the 10 gained by Chandler. In the long jump, Jai Gruenwald (Chandler) had a monster 3rd jump in the second flight as she leapt out to a mark of 18 feet 11 inches to take the top spot into finals. No one else was able to match that jump, with Tria Seawater-Simmons (Mountain Pointe) coming closest at 18'5.5" and Tasia Marshall (Cesar Chavez) at 18'1.25" for silver and bronze. Tiana Poirier-Shelton (Chandler) was just behind in 4th, picking up some more precious points for the Wolves. The two events had now put Mountain Pointe and Chandler right on the heels of Desert Vista heading into the rest of the meet.
The boys hurdles was the first event on the track and it didn't disappoint. Isaiah Oliver (Brophy), Cory Anderson (Skyline), and William Winfield (Chandler) all ran a great race with Oliver finally edging ahead over the last two hurdles. His winning time of 14.05 was the best in the state this year with Anderson running 14.12 for 2nd and Winfield 14.21 for 3rd. The girls hurdles also saw the fastest three times in the state this year with Autumn Smith (Mountain Pointe) running 14.23 seconds, China Simmons (Millenium) 14.40, and Shanice Tremble (Liberty) 14.55 for the gold, silver, and bronze.
In girls 4x800m relay, Desert Vista and Corona went to the front immediately and stayed even through the first two runners. Desert Vista opened up a lead on the third leg before anchor Dani Jones put it out of reach for everyone, bringing the Thunder home in a national leading time of 9:01.51. Corona took second in 9:19.69 while Chaparral, Xavier and Chandler all had a great battle over the last 400m to decide 3rd place. They changed places a few times before Xavier moved ahead for good in the last 80m to secure 3rd for the Gators in a time of 9:30.34. Next up was the 100m dash where the Chandler Wolves saw their athletes burst to the front out of the blocks and never look back. D.J. Ware ran 10.68 seconds to take gold on the boys side and teammate Natasia Peevy ran the fastest time in the state this year at 11.75 seconds for gold in the girls.
The boys 1600m was a tight race most of the way until the front 5 started separating themselves going into the final lap. Logan Jones (Highland) timed his kick perfectly as he exploded into the last 200m and gapped everyone by 10m before they even had a chance to respond. He held on easily up the homestretch crossing the line in 4:17.30. Ben Davis (Desert Vista) was 2nd in 4:20.28 and Ryan Wolff (Millenium) was 3rd in 4:20.95. A Thunder athlete also placed 5th picking up big points for DV in the team chase. Tucson High had a great anchor leg on the 4x100m relay as they were able to sprint past Desert Vista in the last 30m to take the win in 42.17 seconds. For the girls, the Mountain Pointe Pride ran 47.34 seconds to win by almost a full second over Buena and pick up another 10 points for their team.
The boys 400m dash provided a great race between the favorites after the prelims, with Tavian Ross (Tucson) narrowly emerging victorious over Maj Williams (Horizon). The winning time of 48.01 by Ross was the second best time in the state this year. The big 3 way battle in the girls 400m didn't quite live up to its billing as Jasmine Stauffacher-Gray was too much for anyone to handle and she cruised to the state title in 54.36 while Alena Ellsworth (Highland) was a full second and a half back in 55.88. Anna Foreman (Chandler) took the bronze and kept Chandler's title hopes alive as Mountain Pointe was starting to pull away. In the 300m hurdles, Oliver (Brophy) was the class of the field as he found his rhythm early and powered his way to a 36.54 seconds and his second title of the day. Anderson would have to settle for silver again while his teammate, Amarii Keyes, took home the bronze. The girls 300mH may ultimately have been the fatal blow to Chandler's title hopes as Mountain Pointe's Autumn Smith ran 42.94 for the victory and her teammate, Danielle Burns, came 4th; both finishing ahead of the Wolves runners.
In unconventional fashion, the boys 800m state champion came from the first heat, which is composed of the slower seed times. Jacob Onofrio (Corona) ran a great race in first heat to run 1:57.65 and then had to sit and wait for the second heat to run. Inexplicably, the second heat went out slow and came through 400m in 60-61 which opened the door for Onofrio. Although they closed hard, none of the athletes were able to dip under the mark from the first heat, which made Onofrio the state champion. Ideally, it would be better not to settle the state championship on timed sections, especially in the 800m. In the boys 200m dash, Marcus Parker (Centennial) won in 21.91 and DV athletes Ryan Bender and Justin Trotto came 2nd and 3rd, respectively; all but assuring their team of victory.
The girls 3200m was, again, the Dani Jones show as she capped a sensational high school career with another state title in a time of 10:19.62. For a better perspective on how good she has been and how fast she has run, if she ran the entire 3200m against most high school s 4x800m teams she would still win! Her younger sister, Baylee, held off Ali Kallner (Chaparral) in the last 50m to take home silver in a time of 10:36.68. As with the 300mH on the girls side, the shot put was probably the definitive event on the boys. Desert Vista piled up the points in the ring taking 1st, 3rd and 6th to score 19 points for the Thunder. The winning throw was a heave of 57 feet 3 inches by Torrey Hickel. Also out in the field, the boys triple jump was won by Kyle Brost (Dobson) with a distance of 47'1.5" which was the best jump in the state this season. The girls high jump was won by Alhambra senior Zarreia Willis in a height of 5'8" while Conner Stevens soared over 16'4.75" to win the boys pole vault.
Going into the 4x400m, Mountain Pointe held a 9 point lead over Chandler, so barring disaster, the 3rd seeded Pride was poised to dethrone the reigning champions. Chandler came out and won the relay in a state leading time of 3:52.58 but Mountain Pointe came through strong and finished in the silver medal position to secure them the state title. In the boys race, Brophy learned from their mistake of making a move too soon on Wednesday in the prelims and waited until the last 100m to pull ahead of O'Connor for the win. Brophy ran 3:18.55, the fastest time in the state this year.
Once all was said and done, the Desert Vista boys were your state champions with 109.5 points. Tucson High Magnet School was 2nd with 52, Mountain View 3rd with 47.5, and Chandler 4th with 41. For the girls, Chandler saw it's streak of 9 consecutive state championships come to an end with Mountain Pointe taking over as the new champions. They scored 108 points, Chandler had 101, Desert Vista 87.5 and North Canyon was 4th with 33.