Quick Hitters
Day 1 state swim results
Seven local swimmers, and two relays, qualified for day two of the Arizona Interscholastic Association Championships on Friday.
In Division II, Gila Ridge senior Ira Evans qualified for the boys A final in the 100 breast, Hawks senior Sydney Tunell qualified for the girls A final in the 100 back, and Gila Ridge qualified for the A final in the boys 400 free relay.
Evans also made the B final in the 200 IM, and Tunell made the B final in the 50 free.
The top eight from prelims reach the A final, while the next eight reach the B final. All other locals still alive reached the B finals in their events.
Gila Ridge senior Talen Osborn qualified for the B final in the 50 free and the 100 free, while Hawks junior Devon Wheeler did so in the 200 free. Gila Ridge’s boys 200 medley relay also reached the B final.
At the Division I level, three Cibola swimmers reached B finals — sophomore Ayden Dusek in the boys 100 back, junior Jalen Hernandez in the boys 100 fly and freshman Emma Amon in the girls 100 breast.
AWC men’s basketball wins season opener
Arizona Western men’s basketball started the season on a high note Friday night.
The Matadors, who are playing at a tournament at the City College of San Francisco, defeated Yuba 82-72.
The game was close at the half with AWC leading 34-32, but it was able to pull away late in the game.
Alfonso Plummer led all scorers with 34 points, Marvin Mapaga had 10 points, Andre Allen had nine points and Abderrahmane Hailouf added nine points.
The Mats will play tonight at 5 p.m. against the winner of Santa Rosa and Mt. San Antonio.
Uihlein takes lead in Vegas
LAS VEGAS — Peter Uihlein birdied five of the last seven holes for a 5-under 66 and a two-stroke lead Friday in the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open.
Uihlein got to 13-under 129 at TPC Summerlin, a day after opening with a 63. Robert Streb and Whee Kim were tied for second.
Friday’s game for Yuma Catholic didn’t start out quite the way that it wanted it to, but the Shamrocks avoided any trouble in a 3A First Round game at Ricky Gwynn Stadium.
No. 2 YC (9-2 AIA) was able to move the ball at will against No. 15 Show Low (3-7) en route to a 49-20 win.
The game ended up being one to remember for a couple of Shamrock players, but none more than senior wide receiver J.R. Henderson, who broke two 3A state records in the game. He broke the single-season receiving record with a total of 1,691 yards, and he broke the career reception record with 149 during his years for YC.
He finished the game with 11 catches for 150 yards and two touchdowns.
“It wasn’t something that I was expecting to actually do,” Henderson said. “Now that it’s a reality it’s an amazing feeling, but the first part is that I want to win a state title and get a ring and that’s what we’re out here to do.”
Henderson’s big game on Friday was just a part of the offensive barrage that his team had. The Shamrocks finished with 623 yards of offense and were able to rip big plays off whenever it wanted to.
Junior running back Ean Chavez had five touchdowns with 24 carries for 151 yards. Chavez also had four catches for 59 yards. The Shamrocks rushed for 189 yards as a team, which is well above the season average of 96.5.
“I’ve told people that we can run,” Yuma Catholic coach Rhett Stallworth said. “We can run, but we choose to work on the pass and do things like that because it causes problems for people. When we have to run, we can run.”
Despite the blowout in the end, YC did have some trouble in the first half with the Cougars.
YC junior quarterback