Sun Angel Classic Yields State Leads In Tempe

On Saturday, the high school events at Sun Angel began with the high hurdles in which Myreanna Bebe (Queen Creek, So.) lowered her meet record with a new PR of 14.11, now ranked 2nd in the State.

Starting off the afternoon final for high schoolers, we saw Buena nearly edge out Liberty in a wire-to-wire 4x100m Relay, but in the end, it was Liberty who came out on top in 47.822 to 47.826. Great finishes by both teams. The boys race certainly didn't disappoint as we saw the top three teams all within .05 of each other! Pitman High School took home the gold in 43.00 while McClintock took second in 43.03 and Camelback with the bronze in 43.04.

Liberty dominated the Girls 4x400 as they lead during all four legs with Hamilton and Highland chasing a couple meters behind. In the end, Liberty took first in 4:01.12 with Desert Vista (4:02.39) and Highland (4:02.45) going 2-3 in only a .06 difference. In contrast the guys race seemed more compacted since the start with all teams within a second apart from the first leg. McClintock came out on top in 3:21.30 and right behind was the Millennium Tigers in 2nd with a 3:22.02.

In the women's 100-meter race, featured the Cinderella sprinter Dorian Nesby (Valley Vista, Sr.) racing head-to-head with the returning favorite Jae'Nisa Heckstall (Kellis, Sr.) in which Nesby took first in 12.18 to Heckstall's 12.26. Senior Asiah Fields (Liberty, Sr.) took home the bronze in 12.37. In the boys' 100-meter dash Trayvion White-Austin (Sahuaro, Jr.) held an early lead but was edged out by Kelee Ringo (Saguaro, Sr.) in 10.71 to 10.78. Jalan McKeaver (Millennium, So.) finished 3rd followed by Jordan Rule (Higley, Jr.) both dipping just under 11 seconds. Ringo and White returned to the 200-meter dash for a rematch with the Saguaro sophomore taking the victory in 21.72.

The Girls' 400 Nesby and Fields ran neck-and-neck for the majority of the race but in the last home stretch it was Asiah Fields (Sr.) from Liberty who managed to pull away in a new AZ #1 time of 54.59. Verrado Senior Samantha Deane made a surge down the home stretch to overtake Nesby for silver in 55.77 while the Monsoon Senior Nesby settled for 3rd in 55.93, all now ranked top 5 in the state. We saw a thrilling race in the boys 400 in which Cesar Chavez super-frosh Eric Chambers snatch the gold in 49.35 over Shaun-Anthony Hill (Phoenix Central, So.) who clocked in at 49.73.

After dominating the low hurdles on Thursday, Ma'Kayla Dickerson (Fairfax, Jr.) opened a lead in the 200-meter dash that couldn't be matched to secure the victory in 24.31 (now ranked second in Arizona). Meanwhile in the chase, Nesby, Fields, Lauren Miller (Buena, Sr.) finished in that order all within 5 one-hundredths of a second of each other.

In the Girls 800m, Samantha Deane (Sr.) led Willow Canyon's Allison Veloz (Jr.) through a 66-second first lap. In the final 200 meters, Deane put 6 seconds on the competition to win in 2:14.11. Freshman Selema Ortiz (McClintock) came from behind to take silver over Veloz in 2:20.85 to 2:20.88. The boys race had a tight pack go through the 400 in 58-59 seconds with Xander Witthus (Desert Ridge, Sr.) in the lead. Witthus took 1st in a 1:58.56 performance and led six other guys under 2 minutes.

For the girls' race, we saw Highland super-sophomore Caroline McLeskey break the meet record on Thursday during preliminaries and returned to the finals to break it again! She took it out hard with a 69 second first lap and opened an indomitable gap on the field. She clocked in at 5:03.26 which ranks her 2nd in the state for 1600m. Mavleen Mann (Pitman, Jr.) placed 2nd in 5:10.88.

As if one Highland sophomore wasn't enough, two for sure completes the package deal for the Hawks. Leo Daschbach (So.) took it out hard with a 62-63 first lap and never looked back. The Highland sophomore barely missed the meet record of 4:13.53 clocking in 4:14.77 which ranks him 3rd in the nation among all sophomores. Lee Nasewytewa (Desert Vista, Jr.) placed 2nd with a huge PR of 4:20.41. Joel Mendez (Desert Edge, Sr.) finished 3rd in 4:21.33 and Daniel Avila (Centennial, Sr.) 4th in 4:21.74.

Coach Dave Montgomery said of Daschbach and McLeskey, "They are both great students and do a good job of keeping their priorities straight of following the process, having a life, being great teammates, and having fun."