Bryce Lamb

Several Arizona athletes will be heading to Albuquerque New Mexico for the Great Southwest Invitational this weekend. Nationaly ranked Larissa Matthews from Chandler will be competing in the 100 and 300 hurdles before heading to the USA Track and Field Junior Nationals in two weeks. Super freshman Hannah Carson from Dobson is seeded first in the Javelin, 7th in the Shot Put and 12th in the long jump and sisters Ashley and Amanda Weber from Sierra Vista are seeded 1st and 2nd in the Hammer Throw. Sprinters Serene Williams (Peoria) and Terra Evans (South Mountain) are both schedule to compete in the 100 and 200 elite races and the 4 x 100 relay. Top Arizona Pole Vaulter Cara Carpenter from Mesa Mountain View is seeded third in the Pole Vault. On the boys side top National Triple Jumpers Will Claye (US#3 Mountain Pointe) and Bryce Lamb (US#4 Chandler) are ranked 1 and 2 in the triple jump and 2 and 3 in the long jump. Sprinters Allante Battle (Desert Vista) and Giorgio Giurdanella (Mountain Ridge) will be running in the 100 and 200. Battle and Giurdanella faced off against each other at the State Meet with Giurdanella winning but the two will not be racing against each other on Saturday as they are in different heats. To see a full list of Arizona runners competing at the Great Southwest..... click on the title.

Wow! That's all that can really be said to sum up this past weekend's performances across the nation. With great weather, peak performances and deep fields, some of the results simply impressed. With nearly ten seperate state meets to cover, and numerous other top-tier invitationals, we've decided to merge it all into one big article, a new feature we're going to call The Awards Stand. Each week for the rest of the season we'll recap what the top performances were in each event grouping. See who made it this week. (Photo of Texas' Kyle Clemons by Alex Aldaco)

5A-1 Finals Three Footlocker finalists toed the line Thursday evening at the 5A-I State Championships. US#9 Nadya (pictured middle) and US#15 Nastia Bishton (pictured far left), seniors at Mountain Ridge and US#10Jessica Tonn (pictured right) a sophomore from Xavier Prep pushed the pace right from the start.....they were there to race. By the time the three of them crossed the 200 mark they had already separated themselves from the rest of the field crossing the half way mark in 5:09. With one lap to go an offcial held up the 2 lap sign by mistake causing a few moments of confussion and the crowd to jump to their feet. Tonn won the race with a time of 10:30.55 breaking the sophomore state record of 10:33.11 set by Sarah Gordon in 1998 and winning her second 3200 state championship. Nadya Bishton finished second in 10:31.97 while Nastia finished in 10:35.42. A late surge by junior and Xavier teammate Sarah Penney put her in fourth place.

Weekend Highlights Chandler City Meet   Last week was the week of City and District meets though out the state and even though the top athletes were separated by districts there were still some very impressive times and great head to head match-ups. In the Chandler district meet Quiana Jackson (Chandler) won the 400m race in a blistering time of 56.53 which moved her into the number one spot in Arizona. Her teammate Larissa Matthews won the 100 hurdles in 14.20 and the 300 hurdles in 46.52.

As the sun went down and the lights came on at the Arcadia Invitational in California, two Arizona runners toed the line for the men's 800 Invitational. Two weeks ago at the Chandler Rotary James Eichberger (Catalina Magnet) and John Kline (Desert Vista) gave the stadium crowd a race to remember.