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May 11, 2008 - 1:30AM
Bowers leads Q.C. girls track to third place
By Greg Demmitt, For the Tribune
It would have been great if Queen Creek could have defended its state girls 4A-II track title with a win in the 1,600-meter relay at the end of Saturday’s meet at Mesa Community College. But after Wednesday’s performance in the preliminaries, coach Shaun Hardt saw little chance for a repeat performance.
SLIDESHOW: See photos from the 2A/4A State Track and Field Championships
“Greenway had it from the get-go today,” said Hardt, whose Bulldogs had won four titles in a row and five of the last six, “We only scored 12 points on Wednesday.”
Phoenix Greenway won with 99 points. Glendale Raymond Kellis finished second with 83 and Queen Creek followed with 63. Gilbert Higley finished ninth with 29.
Junior Mariah Bowers captured Queen Creek’s only individual title with a win in the 400 and also ran on its first-place 3,200 relay team but came in a disappointing ninth in the 800.
“We had a lot of letdowns,” Hardt said. “We lost our best hurdler (Noel Brown) before the regional. Mariah usually doubles in the 400 and 800. Savannah Buck, the favorite in the triple jump, missed the board.
“We just had an off week.”
The Bulldogs’ Ashley Workman took third in the 1,600 and 800 and Shannon McCullough took third in the shot put.
Coronado’s Shauntrell Johnson finished second in the 100.
“I think I got out of the blocks too slow,” said the sophomore. “I have two more years. This is just practice.”
4A-I
Scottsdale Chaparral edged neighbor Saguaro for ninth, 26-25, in 4A-I, thanks to two first-place performances in the field events. Gabrielle Siltanen won the high jump with a leap of 5-foot-2 while Liz Portanova won the pole vault with a vault of 10 feet.
“My teammates did some research and told me that I could win, but I didn’t believe,” Portanova said. “Last year, they were going over 11 feet.”
Portanova said the team’s top-10 finish came as a surprise as well. “Pretty much everything we qualified in, we placed,” she said.
Scottsdale Saguaro’s Loren Wynn and Carolyn Brown finished third and fourth in the 1,600. Brown finished fifth in the 800.
Cave Creek Cactus Shadows was 16th in team standings.
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