Some athletes do the talking with their mouths, some runners talk with their legs. Alexis Center does her speaking on the track. In fact, her running did quite a bit of talking this season. Alexis did not lose a single 100m race this spring, including the prestigious Chandler Rotary Invitational. Arizona Milesplit has selected her as the Division 2 girl's athlete of the year for this dominance on the track this spring.
Alexis is certainly one of the fastest runners in the entire state of Arizona. Despite this success she isn't satisfied though. She wants to be better, faster and stronger. After winning the state title in the 100m dash at the state meet she talked about things she could do better, “I like to improve, I need to keep working on my ending, and keeping my knees up." Previously this season she mentioned to me that she wanted to improve the last 10-15m of her race. Alexis is truly a student of the sport, focusing on each phase of her sprints. Her attention to detail and worth ethic helped her shave off .14 seconds from her best time last season this spring and made her almost a half second faster than any other division 2 athlete in the state.
Arizona fans can hope to Alexis at least one more time this season at the Great Southwest Invitational. How well she fare at another large invitational meet? Hopefully pretty well. “I hope to be in the mix," Alexis commented on her chances at winning one of the largest invitational in the west. If her body of work so far this spring is any indication there is no reason to think she can't be mixing it up for a title in Albuquerque.
Honorable Mentions
Bridgette Doucet: a very good distance runner and class act. While she has been among the top distance runners in the state over the past 4 years, Bridgette will also be long remembered for greeting all of her competitors at the finish line.
Jessica Shinkle: One of the best shot putters in the state. The state champion had a season best of 41-7.