Chandler Rotary Highlights

 Seventy six teams and approximately 2500 athletes from five different states descended upon the Chandler High School stadium for the 69th Chandler Rotary Invitational this weekend.  What makes this particular meet so exciting is the competition itself.  It's a place where the best come together to better their times or even to start their season.

 

One of the best from Arizona is Albuquerque Academy (NM) is senior Curtis Beach.   Beach, known for his Pentathlon (1st at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships) and Decathlon (3rd at the USATF Juniors last June) events came to Arizona to compete in the 110 hurdles, 400 meter dash,  high jump and long jump.  At the end of the preliminaries on Saturday, Beach was seeded 2nd going into the finals for the hurdles and 4th in the 400 meter dash and found himself in a battle with Bryan McBride (Jr., Sandra Day O'Connor).  McBride cleared 6'8" on his second attempt forcing Beach to step it up a notch.  After missing his first two attempts Beach decided to go for his final jump at 6'9".  If he made the jump, he would put the pressure back on McBride to clear it in one attempt.  It looked like Beach was on his way to a 6'9" PR but at the last minute the bar fell putting him in third place.  McBride took home the gold.

 

Beach scratch the long jump event.  "I was a little tired and wanted to be fresh for the 110 and the 400.  Besides, no one is close to Bryce Lamb.  My PR is only 23.1 and his is 25.9." said Beach with a chuckle.

 

Beach ended up finishing 2nd in the 110 hurdles (14.58) and 5th in the 400 meter dash (48.41).    (Top 5 400 finishers, above from left Markus Wheaton, Spencer Chase, Chris Muncie, JD Castille and Curtis Beach)

 

100, 200 & 400 Meter Dash

 

The race of the night had to be the much anticipate 400 meter dash.  Markus Wheaton (Sr., Chandler, picture right) was the top seed going into the finals and finished with the win. 

 

"Well I know there was one hot lane in front of me and one behind me." said a very upbeat Markus Wheaton.  He was referring to senior Chris Muncie from El Paso Montwood and Stanford bound, Spencer Chase from Desert Vista.  "I got out hard and came off the curve and then I felt like I was in good shape, Muncie was a couple of feet in front of me and Spencer was coming up fast." continued Wheaton. 

 

Chase had just finished anchoring the winning 4x100 team but appeared to have enough in his tank to give Wheaton a push. With the entire stadium on their feet, the two came down the final 100 meter stretch,  stride for stride.  It could not have been a closer finish.   Wheaton won the race in 47.38 (US #3) with Chase finishing second in 47.39 (US #4)Mesa junior  JD Castille took 4th in 47.80 (US # 11).

 

Wheaton  placed 3rd in both the 100 meter  dash and 200 meter dash with a time of 10.90 and 21.75 respectively.  His 400 meter dash prelim time of 21.42 was a huge PR and put him in 15th place nationally.  Wheaton's win in the 400 meter dash also won him the male athlete of the meet award for track.

 

Hamilton senior Ryan Milus was the top seed (10.73) going into the finals with Bryce Lamb (Sr., Chandler) in second (10.80) and that is how they placed in the finals.  Milus finished 1st in 10.50 (US #8) with Lamb second in 10.60 (US #17).

 

Milus also won the 200 meter dash in 21.43 (US #17).  Wheaton, Milus and Chase made the Milesplit Elite Team with times under 21.60 and are all ranked in the top 20 nationally.

 

Larissa Matthews (Sr., Chandler) was the top seed going into the finals of the 100 meter hurdles in 14.10(US #4).  Matthews easily won the finals as she glided over the hurdles finishing in 14.12.   She also took 3rd in the 300 meter hurdles and ran in two winning relays.

 

Top seeded Peoria junior Serene Williams exploded of the blocks to post a 100 meter prelim time of 12.43 and a 200 meter prelim time of 25.02.  Williams  won both events with final times of 12.07 in the 100 meter dash and 25.09 in the 200 meter dash.  

 

 

Triple Jump & Long Jump

 

Lamb (pictured left) easly won the long jump and triple jump events.  During the triple jump, Lamb scratched on his first two jumps but leaped to a 48-07 on his final jump to get him into the finals.  He finish at 48-07.75 (US #3), 3 feet and 3/4 inches over second place Hamilton junior, Devon Carrington.  Later in the afternoon Lamb long jumped 24-02.25 (US #3).  the second place long jumper was Anders Battle (Jr., Desert Vista) with a length of 21-09.75.

 

Alexis Clay (So., Chandler) won the long jump event with a jump of 18-7.00.  Her jump popped her to the top of the Arizona leader board and put her in the Milesplit first team.  Clay is ranked in the top 24 nationally.


 

Pole Vaulting

 

Senior Alec Hsu  (pictured right) and junior Shaylah Simpson, both from Desert Vista were named male and female Athlete of the Meet for field after winning the pole vault.  Hsu matched a PR he made at a dual meet on Wednesday, vaulting to an impressive height of 16-0 (US #3).  

 

"I have been working really hard on getting inverted and working on the top part of my vault and having a really strong take off." said Hsu after receiving his award.  Hsu is hoping to break the Desert Vista school record of 16-4.75 set by Shea Kearney in 2007.

 

Shaylah Simpson vaulted to a height of 12-6-0 before making three attempts at 16-11 to break the meet record of 12-10.50.  Simpson looked as though she easily cleared the bar but a very slight brush brought the bar down.   After completing her vaults, Simpson headed over to ASU to watch her older sister Laryssa (Univerity of Utah) vault at the ASU invitattional.

 

Both Hsu and Simpson will be heading to Arcadia in two weeks.

 

1600  & 3200 Meter Run

 

The boys 1600 meter run had the potential of being fast and furious with several runners in the state already running under 4:40. Sherod Hardt (Jr., Queen Creek) was the top seed going into the 1600.  Hardt's  time of 4:16.88 (US #9) won him the race and beat second place sophomore Ramon Garcia (El Paso, Austin TX) by almost 4 seconds.  Desert Vista senior Adam Estavillo took third in 4:20.15.  

 

Hardt also ran the 3200 finishing 2nd in 9:21.24 behind Mingus Union senior Tim Freriks (pictured left) who finished the 8 lap run with a huge PR of  9:17.34 (US #19).   Freriks, an outstanding cross country runner has not been able to put up fast times during track but already this season he has PR'd in both the 1600 (4:19.42) and the 3200.

 

Xavier College Prep junior Jessica Tonn also doubled in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs.  Tonn took the lead from the start of the race but slowed a bit when she saw her time at the end of her first lap.  "For the first lap the time on the clock was 3 or 4 seconds fast so I kind of slowed down when I saw 70 seconds on the clock and thought I was too fast but then I realized it was 4 seconds too slow.  I had a good race and I felt good so in the end it was fine."  

 

Tonn continued on at an even pace and finished in 4:57.67 (US #8).  

 

The 3200 meter run came a couple of hours after the mile and Tonn was ready for it.  "My main goal was to win the distance double and I thought it would be really cool.  I've never run the 1600 and the 3200 in the same meet except for state and they are on two different days.  I just knew I would be kind of tired coming back from the mile and I just wanted to have a good race against Rolanda Jumbo from Chinle.  I knew she would give me a really good push," said a very happy but tired Tonn.  In two weeks Tonn heads to Arcadia in California.  "I am excited about Arcadia..............it will be good to see everyone from Foot Locker Nationals."

 

Tonn finished the 3200 in 10:44.47 (US #8).  Dominique Gerard (So., ThunderRidge, CO) was second in 10:50.39 and Blue Ridge senior, Jessica Rydberg was 3rd in 10:50.97.  Chinle freshman, Rolanda Jumbo took home a 4th in 11:03.45 and Santa Teresa senior, Jacqueline Campos placed 5th in 11:09.83.

 

 

New Meet Record

 

Kala Stepter, (Sr., Canyon del Oro) was the fastest seed going into the finals of the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 44.91. Stepter's  time of 44.26 (US #10) was two seconds faster than second place hurdler Breanna Leslie (Sr., Valley Christian) and fast enough to set a new meet record.   The meet record of 44.45 was set back in 1985 by Kristy Nore of Chaparral.

 

 

 

 

800 Meter Run

 

Brian Shrader (Jr., Sinagua) and Steve Magnuson (Jr., Ironwood Ridge), both ran in the 800 meter run.  At the end of the first lap Shrader was in about 5th place and Magnuson was almost last.  At the 200 mark Shrader made a move to the front with Magnuson in about 12th place.  After the curve at the 100 mark several runners started to kick with the lead going back and forth all the way to the finish line.  El Paso Austin, TX sophomore Ramon Garca won the race in 1:54.84 (US #10).  Shrader came in second in 1:55.51 (US #15) and Magnuson took third in 1:55.82 (US #16).   Eleven runners ran under two minutes. 

 

Magnuson also anchored the winning 4x800 Ironwood Ridge team (7:58.89) helping them get to a US #6 spot nationally.

 

Flowing Wells 4x800 team took second in 7:59.89 (US #7) and Desert Vista followed with 8:03.09 (US #10).

 

 

Sarah Penney (Sr., Xavier) was in the lead at the half way mark of the girls 800 but it was Melanie McGrath (Sr., Catalina, pictured below) who took the lead at the 100 mark and  won the race in 2:18.17. 

 

 

 

 

Shot Put & Discus Throws

 

Boulder Creek senior, Roger Dolan won both the boys shot put and discus throw.  Beating the competition by 6 feet in the discus and nearly 7 feet in the shot put Dolan finished the discus in 165-03 and the shot put in 55-07.50.  His shot put distance placed him in the top 30 nationally.