AIA Boys Track and Field State Champs: DI & DII Meet Preview


       (Photo by John Hays)

Division I Boys

DI Sprints

To start, Trey Johnson (Tolleson, Sr.) leads the State in three events; 100-meter dash, High Hurdles, and Long Jump. At Chandler Rotary he ran a 13.65 which was only .03 seconds off Devon Allen's meet record and then ran 10.57 to win the 100, only 15 minutes later.

Chandler, Desert Vista, and Red Mountain each have 2 sprinters who have each run sub-11 for 100 meters under wind-legal conditions. Desert Vista's Ryan Bender and Talib Mudiwa are ranked 5th and 7th in DI, respectively, and while Joseph Romero (Red Mountain) ran 10.68 with a tailwind at Arcadia, Kendon Walker ran a wind-legal 10.77 at Chandler Rotary.

DI Hurdles

Edwin Adams (Chandler) and James Smith (Westwood) will go head to head in the 300 Hurdles. T.J. Green and DeCarlos Brooks are ranked 2nd and 11th in DI and will be shooting to score some big points for the Chandler Wolves.

DI Distance

In the Boys 1600, five boys are sitting within 3 seconds of each other. Brophy seniors Luke Mason & Hociel Landa lead the DI 1600 and 3200 meter rankings respectively, Mason with 4:20.94 and Landa in 9:09.79. Mason's the returning champ for 3200 and has 9:12 strength as well. Also mix will be Thomas Cain (Cibola, Jr.) who ran 9:16 for 3200 at Mt. SAC along with Desert Vista's Aksel Laudon (9:27.29, Jr.), Reece Donihi (9:33.46, Jr.) and Chris D'Angelo (9:38.28, Sr.).

DI Throws

Elijah Mason (Desert Vista, Sr.) stands as the heavy favorite in Disc and Shot as the only other boy in the State who's thrown over 200 feet for Discus (212-11), and will be looking to lead his teammates to collect some major points in the throws. Desert Vista's Deshon Toney (Jr.), Marcos Figueroa (Jr.) and Cole Laulis (Sr.) are ranked in the top 10 for DI Shot Put.

DI Jumps

Imani Lee's (Chandler) mark of 47' 11.5" leads the State in the Triple Jump and Division I by over a foot. Along with the High Hurdles and the 100, Trey Johnson is the State leader for the Long Jump. Most recently, he jumped a state leading 24-06 in the Long Jump at Tolleson District Champs on April 19th.

Pole Vault

Cole Riddle (Valley Vista, Sr.) vaulted a quarter inch over the pole vault state record at Last Chance on Wednesday. We look forward to his attempts at another record smashing vault on Saturday.

Relay to Watch

For Boys 4x100, Chandler is ranked at the top with a time of 41.42. Red Mountain Boys are 2nd with 41.85. Mountain Pointe's and Tucson Magnet's teams have also broken 42 seconds in the 4x100 and will contend for podium finishes as well.

Teams

Last year Chandler edged out Desert Vista and they will likely be neck and neck the whole meet, though they can't afford to ignore the Brophy Broncos from Central Phoenix or the dark horse out of Mesa, the Red Mountain Lions.