Division 4 State Meet Recap (Saturday)


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. After a short night of rest the division 4 meet started back up with the 4x800. Logan Pinkerton closed hard for Gilbert Christian but was not able to overcome the lead Scottsdale Prep and Glendale Prep had going into the race.

Speaking of Scottsdale Prep, their lady distance runners did very well. While freshman phenom Maya Smith ran away with the 1600m, Amber Miller was able to snag the second position. In the 800m Amber Miller closed out her high school career with a victory. The 26 individual pointers Amber earned at the state meet certain played an important role in helping Scottsdale Prep claim their second straight team title. She was not alone though. Teammate Haley Everroad also scored third place finishes in the mile and two mile to tack on another dozen points.

The Scottsdale Prep ladies didn't just have to rely on the distance events to get it done either. They picked up 2nd place finishes in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Who won those relays? None other than Chandler Prep.

The boys side was dominated by a single athlete…Trey Malone from Yuma Catholic. He was able to snag 40 points all by himself by winning the long jump, 110H, 300H and 200m. The rest of his team added 23 points for a second place finish. Like the girls though, Scottsdale Prep was able to win the team race. One of the big point getters for the Scottsdale Prep boys was Weston Wright. He was able to win both the shot put and discus titles.

Like in the girls, the Scottsdale Prep team was able to put up several points in the distance races behind Hayden Shelly. While Adam Wong was able to come out on top in the 3200m, Hayden was able to snag eight points in the event. With his second place finish in the 1600 and third place finish in the 800m he was able to add 22 points for the Scottsdale Prep team as an individual.

While Scottsdale Prep girls repeated for the guys they had to defeat the defending state champions from Arizona Lutheran Academy. Led by junior Gabe Galvan victory over Yuma Catholics Donovon Rooks in the 400m, Arizona Lutheran fell to 4th place as a team this year after getting hit hard by graduation.

One of the most dominant victories of the meet was Skylar Cavanaughs win in the pole vault. Her jump of 10-9, bested Scottsdale Prep duo Ali Goodson and Hannah Tolson. On the flip side one of tightest events of the meet was Arete's Akpede Crystal's photo finish in the 200m. After the official took a second look at the tape it was determined that she had just edged 100m dash champion Kelby Brown from Pima. Akepede had aslo won the 400m dash earlier in the day over Lindi Gardner from Joseph City.

In the guy's 100m, while close it was fairly clear that Edwin Lovett from Pusch Ridge Christian won the 100m dash over Dujuan Lawrence and Frankie Alvarado. His time of 11.38 was aided by a strong 4.0 wind and neatly matched his season best of 11.36 set at the Southern Arizona State Championships.

All and all it was a strong finish to the year for many athletes. It was nice for many Phoenix area small schools to not have to compete against D1 and D2 school, rather get a chance to shine against schools their size. Photos and results are available on the meet pages.