Morgan Foster Demolishes Her State Record
Back in June of 2016, Morgan Foster (Chandler, Sr.) set the State Record in the Girls 800m run as a freshman. Since then she has won five Track and Field State Titles, and has regularly been a national contender in the 800-meter run during the post-season. Earlier this year, she ran three indoor performances and was nationally ranked for the Indoor 600m, 1K, and the 1 Mile.
On Thursday evening at the Brophy Sports Complex, Morgan took the pace out in 62 seconds with Madison Burciaga (Hamilton, So.) and Makyah Richard (North Canyon, Sr.) in tow. Foster held the pace as tight as she could clocking in at 2:06.13 to break her State Record by almost a full second. Richard finished 2nd place in 2:15, followed by Burciaga just under 2:20.
Later that night spectators witnessed two AZ no. 1 performances in both the boys' and the girls' 1600m races. First, Anekin Hetman (Brophy College Preparatory, Sr.) took an early lead in the second heat of the Boys 1600m run. Saul Valdez (Apollo, Sr.) made a move to take control of the race midway through, but Hetman would not accept defeat on his home track and ran down Valdez in 4:24, now the top 1600m time in the State. Then in the girls' race, Mesa superfrosh Matalyah Betz ran down Seniors Mihajla Milovanovic (Chandler) and Cassandra Ogburn (North Canyon), to clinch the victory in 5:12.
Latrell Tellis (Chandler, Jr.) edged out Elisha Brooks (Brophy College Prep, Sr.) to win the 400-meter dash in 49.09 seconds. In the fastest heat of the Girls' 400m, Dominique Mustin (North Canyon, Jr.) ran 55.41 to take over the Girls 400m rankings.
Later in the evening, Quaron Adams (Chandler, Fr.) and Jadyn Mays (North Canyon, Jr.) dominated the 100-meter dash with State leads. Adams ran 10.74 and was followed next by his teammate David Eppinger (Chandler, Sr.) and Jean Boyd (Corona Del Sol, Jr.) both running lifetime bests. Then Mays ran the first and only sub-12 second performance among Arizona Girls in the 100-meter dash, at this point in the season.
Chandler Bests North Canyon To Reclaim State Record
Finally, the Girls' 4x400m Relay closed out the night with an epic matchup between the two most recent Arizona record holders. Chandler's Armani Harris (Jr.) and Morgan Foster (Sr.) had both been part of school record 4x4 teams in the past but Jocelyn Johnson and Trinity Henderson were two freshmen recognized early on as vital to the wolfpack though it was unclear how vital they would be that night's team.
Armani Harris ran the opening leg in a 55 second split putting distance on North Canyon's Athena Montgomery. Jocelyn Johnson and Morgan Foster maintained the gap as the two middle legs. Chandler super-frosh Trinity Henderson ran the anchor-leg and in one of the best performances by an Arizona freshman in recent memory, held off the incoming State Champ Jadyn Mays to shut it down for the Wolves for a new State Record in 3:43.5. The Wolves had beaten their cross-town rivals and reclaimed their State Record.