Carl Hayden secured the Boys Varsity Team Title on Tuesday afternoon. - photo by Tori Randich
Carrasco And Morfin Dominate With Their Teams In Central Phoenix
The district meets continued into the following week beginning on Tuesday. Central High School in downtown Phoenix played host to the Phoenix Union District Meet for the athletes in south and central Phoenix. Though the runners started and ended the race at the football field and on surrounding track respectively, the majority of the course ran along the adjacent Steele Indian Park.
Early on in the Girls' Varsity race, Anette Carrasco Cota (Maryvale) pulled took the lead and ran almost entirely from the front with a handful of girls strung out behind her and ahead of the remainder of the field. Carrasco handily blew through the remainder of the course and clinched the victory in 20:44. It was a minute later, before Elizabeth Ramirez (Carl Hayden) would finish runner-up over Carrsco's teammate, Mia Avelar.
Maryvale and Carl Hayden each had their top four girls among the first 25 finishers. Though Carl Hayden's fifth girl finished ahead of Maryvale's, Wendy Martinez and Jaqueline Felix Verdugo were able to add enough weight to the front of the race for the Maryvale Panthers to hold off the Falcons with 67 points over Hayden's 78.
Following the girls' race, the boys' field maintained a strong peloton at the front for the first half of the race, with Hanibal Haile (Phoenix Central), Salat Ibrahim (Alhambra), and Ben Morfin (Carl Hayden) at the head. As they approached the hill for the second time around, Morfin pulled ahead to take the lead over his district rivals.
Through the latter half of the race, Morfin extended his lead and powered through the finish, clocking in at 16:14. Twelve seconds later, Ibrahim took the runner-up spot followed by Alazar Getahun (Central) as the top finisher of the host team. Fellow Bobcat, Hanibal Haile came through over twenty seconds later and soon after Jorge Corona (Maryvale) came through as the final boy under 17-minutes.
Teammates Isai Solano and Omar Prieto of the South Mountain Jaguars took 6th and 7th place finishes, and soon after Jose Diaz, Jeff Sumaili, Essaih Diaz all cracked the top-ten for the Carl Hayden. Less than thirty seconds later, Alexis Zazueta closed the door for Carl Hayden to dominate the meet with just 39 points.