Sat, Nov 07, 2009

high school sports

TRACK & FIELD

Results in prelims upset two of Tucson

By Michael J. Craven
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.14.2009
MESA — If nothing else, Sahuaro's Miranda Brower and Marana's Michael Kivi can sympathize with each other.
They both appeared to be in excellent position to win their preliminary events at Wednesday's Class 4A track meet. But both were shocked with last-second losses.
There were some local bright spots, however.
The meet was primarily to determine seeding for Saturday's finals in most of the 4A-I and 4A-II running events, but some other events — like Brower's long jump and Kivi's triple jump — were sprinkled in as finals.
Swollen ankle and all, Brower jumped a personal-record 17 feet 11 inches on her final try. After hearing her distance, the senior jumped up, screaming, "Woo!" and followed with "Yes!"
But the final jumper, Avondale Agua Fria's Jaquaisha Hickman, also jumped 17-11, and Brower knew instantly she had lost on a tiebreaker, which was determined by the next best jump.
It was the second consecutive year she finished second after another jumper beat her when her jumps were complete.
"My ankle is swollen and big, and I didn't even think I was going to be able to do anything out here, but then I popped that 17-11," Brower said. "I was like 'OK, maybe this is gonna secure me', and then all of a sudden, here she comes."
Around the same time, Kivi was walking to the fence separating the track and the grandstands to inform the Marana coaches of his miraculous triple jump of 46-9.
Kivi jumped another 46-9 on his third try before taking a seat to watch the remaining jumpers, making sure his distance would stand up.
But Glendale Independence jumper Najii Mayberry soared 47-flat, crushing Kivi's hopes of winning his first state title.
"That's probably the last time I'm ever gonna do it, which makes it even more disappointing, because I'm not going to continue on and do track in college," Kivi said.
Kivi will, however, attend Henderson State in Arkansas on a football scholarship.
There was some preliminary success for locals on Wednesday, setting up what could be a Tucson-dominated finals on Saturday.
Santa Rita's Chris Correa and J.J. Holliday won their races and are clear favorites to win 4A-II titles this weekend.
Correa ran a 14.55 in the 100 hurdles, while Holliday breezed to an 11-even in the 100 for second behind Patrick Foley of Scottsdale Notre Dame. The same two also ran 1-2 in the 200.
Catalina's Daniel McIver cleared the high jump at 6-6 to win the 4A-II final.
Alex Evans of Sabino won the 1,600 4A-I final in 4:19.61.
Cienega's Derek Coker ran the 100 in 10.98, which seeds him first on the 4A-I side.
Canyon del Oro's Kala Stepter easily won the 100 hurdles in 14.81 and the 300 hurdles in 44.11. She is the favorite to capture both hurdles events on Saturday.