Chandler high schools 1st once, 2nd often in spring finales

May 16, 2011 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


On a weekend Chandler district high schools settled for second place five times, the Chandler High girls track team did not. Not by a long shot.

Chandler girls (224.5 points) racked up a sixth consecutive big-school title, winning by a record 153.5 points over second-place Hamilton. Hamilton's girls track team joined Chandler boys track, Hamilton baseball (runner-up to Mountain Pointe), Perry baseball (runner-up to Chaparral) and Basha softball (runner-up to Red Mountain) as state second-bests in their respective classes-divisions.

Chandler girls track athletes won nine of 17 events with three taking two titles each -- freshman sprinter Ky Westbrook (100 and 200), senior Hannah Carson (shot put and discus and junior Jasmine Todd (triple jump and long jump). Sherrelle Jordan won the 100 hurdles and the Wolves were victorious in the 400 and 1,600 relays. The other double-event girls winner was Xavier's Sarah Fakler (1,600 and 3,200), who also won the Division I cross country title. Other Division I girls event winners were Hamilton's Destiny Lundy (400) and Victoria McArthur (300 hurdles) and Mesa Mountain View's Lindsay Pew (pole vault).

In Division I boys Deer Valley's Trae Armstrong  took home titles in 100, 200 and 400, but the team title fell to Brophy (77) over runner-up Chandler (73).

Armstrong was the main man, but two other athletes doubled up. Westwood's Cameron Taylor, a defending champ in the 110 hurdles, stepped up from seventh in the 300 hurdles last year to win in his senior season and repeated in the 110's. Division I state cross country champ Bernie Montoya, Cibola's super sophomore, garnered the 1,600 and 3,.200 titles, edging out Brophy's Will Firth for both titles.Firth also finished runner-up to Montoya in cross country.

The rest of the Division I boys titles went to the follwoing athletes: Brophy's Tommy Williams (800), Chandler's Michael Okonkwo (high jump), Casa Grande's Benjamin Ngonomo (triple jump), Hamilton's Just N. Thymes (long jump), Basha's Garrett Starkey (pole vault), Tolleson's Brandon Pineda (shot put) and Buena's Jeremy Tuttle (discus).