History made at state championships
It was truly a historic evening on Saturday at Arizona Interscholastic Association State Track & Field Championships held at Mesa Community College as Gilbert senior Vance Nilsson set the U.S. high school national record in the 300-meter hurdles, running 34.83 seconds to take down the old record of 35.02 set in 2009 by California’s Reggie Wyatt. Nilsson’s performance highlighted a weekend of top individual efforts as the whole state came together to compete regardless of division. Historic marks were recorded in both the boy’s and girl’s triple jump, both by athletes who just picked up the event.
In the fight for the team title, the Chandler Hamilton girls and coach EJ Martin won the school’s first state championship in track and field with a score of 55 points, led by a handful of performers across multiple events. For the boys, Queen Creek and coach Shaun Hardt were carried by strong showings from two seniors as Boise State football commit launched a huge personal best in the shot put and Utah State commit Zachary Ripperdan came up big in the 800 meters to help the Bulldogs win with 43 points — just 1 point ahead of Chandler.
Here’s a round-up of the weekend’s action.
History made in the triple jump
Up until April 3, Tolleson senior Augustine McCabe had never put on a track and field uniform. McCabe, who plays football, asked his coach, Rich Wellbrock, who coaches both sports at the school, if he could try the triple jump. They had an opening for an upcoming meet and put in McCabe’s name.
At his first meet at the Joe Brady Memorial Marana Invitational — just two days later — McCabe went 46-3 feet. That mark immediately placed McCabe near the top of the state rankings. It was clear that Wellbrock was dealing with something very special.
“Obviously we knew we had something,” said Wellbrock.
McCabe won the rest of his regularseason meets in the triple jump, and came into last week’s AIA Division I state championships fighting for a chance to make the podium. Not only did he make the podium, but he won the state title with a jump of 47-6.5 feet. It was a surprise victory considering the circumstances.
Then, on Friday night on his very last attempt, McCabe leapt into the record books with his jump of 49-9.5 feet. McCabe is No. 4 in state history for the triple jump — just a mere 37 days after he asked his coaches to do the event for the first time.
“Every jump coach was coming up to him, every competitor was coming up to him, it was just a real positive experience,” Wellbrock said. “Auggie’s just Auggie. He’s very chill. (He) doesn’t talk about much what he does and he’s one of the elite athletes in the friendly confines of Phoenix, Arizona now.”
Wellbrock said that McCabe’s college recruiting is starting to pick up heavily with ASU showing a lot of interest.
On the following day, Glendale Copper Canyon junior Zalaya Dupre raised the stakes even higher when she broke the Arizona state record in the girl’s triple jump with her mark of 41-9. And just like McCabe, Dupre is brand new to the event. Dupre had competed in track and field in high school, but not the triple jump. The former basketball player even missed the start of this track season as she was still in the playoffs for the Aztecs.
Dupre vaults herself of some vaunted names on the list, including Chandler’s Jasmine Todd who set the old record in 2009 at 41-5.
Four weeks ago, Dupre was just starting out in the triple jump. Now’s she a state champion and state record-holder. In-state schools like NAU and ASU have been in contact.
“That’s even surreal to me,” Dupre said. “I probably won’t realize what I did until I get home. It’s been one step at a time, one event at a time, making sure I cover everything before I graduate.”
All-around effort secures girl’s team title for Hamilton
Hamilton is known as one of the top athletic programs in the state with a handful of championships won across multiple sports. But one of the few that remained with a title was track and field. That has changed as of this weekend as Hamilton won the state championship with 55 points, edging out local rival and second-place Chandler at 52 points. Waddell Canyon View was third with 41 points.
“It’s something we’ve been talking about,” Martin said. “We’ve always had individual state champions, but never that team title. And that’s something special I wanted to be part of when I was offered this program. I love a challenge. I’m excited for these young ladies, they worked hard all year long, persevered, overcame obstacles, injuries. I’m speechless.”
Leading the way was sophomore Jaiden Ware, whose second-place finish in the long jump was key. Another sophomore, Jaden Perala, was fourth in the triple jump.
The Huskies also picked up important points in the pole vault with junior Addison Kohlmeier coming in third and senior Madisyn Williams coming in fifth. Senior Jaylah McDonnell was perhaps the most important: she broke the school record in the 200 meters to finish in third, came in fifth in the long jump and ran on both sprint-relay teams that scored points.
Senior and Kentucky commit Kori Martin, who is the state record holder in the 100-meter hurdles, finished in third for the 100-meter hurdles and sixth in the 100 meters. She was also part of the third-place 4x100-meter relay team.
Omotinugbon’s big throw clinches championship
The Queen Creek boys came in the weekend with a very good chance at making the podium in the team scores with athletes spread out in different events.
But everything changed when senior Eyitayo Omotinugbon launched a personal best in the shot put of 60-6 feet to win the boy’s shot put. Omotinugbon came into the weekend with a best of 56-8. Those 10 points were integral to the Bulldogs winning the title as only 2 points separated the top three teams: Chandler (42) and Phoenix Desert Vista (41).
What makes Omotinugbon’s throw that much more impressive is that last week at the Division I state championships, he recorded a foul on all of his throws and didn’t even get to record a mark.
“When Tayo popped that 60-6, we were like, ‘Dude. We’re in there,” coach Shaun Hardt said.
Even with Omotinugbon’s big-time throw, the team battle still came down to the very last event in the 4x400-meter relay with Chandler and Desert Vista all duking it out. The Bulldogs had to beat at least Desert Vista and also be close to Chandler to win it.
It was a former cross-country runner turned sprinter in senior Caden Speck who brought it home for Queen Creek, finishing second overall — ahead of Desert Vista and just behind Chandler — in 3:15.81.
“He was a skinny cross country runner,” Hardt said. “He wanted everything so bad. I told him, ‘First you got to get muscle. And then you got to learn how to finish races.’ He beefed up — then he broke his hip last year. Nobody knew that. This year, he used all that beef and became a sprinter.”
Queen Creek was also led by senior Zachary Ripperdan’s second-place finish in the 800 meters and his legs on the 4x800-meter relay (third) and 4x400meter relay teams. Sophomore Dash Wasson finished sixth in the pole vault.
The past 12 months have been quite the year for the Queen Creek track and field program. The girl’s team were runner-ups in the first year of the new state championship format last season and Hardt was named the NFHS National High School Girls Track and Field Coach of the Year in January.
Now, the boy’s team are the state champions.
“Those boys told me if that if they win state, I have to wear shorts at school all day and I don’t wear shorts,” Hardt said, who typically only sports jeans and cowboy boots. “It’s going to be ugly, but I’m going to wear shorts.”