Kofa's Hudson, Nieves bring home area's lone 5A Division II medals

PHOENIX - Local athletes might not have racked up the medals at the 5A state track meet, but they certainly proved they could compete among the best on a day when longtime records fell.

Cibola runner Jeremy Barr already broke the school mark in the 400-meters earlier this year. He nearly reached the medal stand on the final day of the 5A-II meet Saturday at Desert Vista High in Phoenix.

Barr got off to a fast start and led for nearly half the race before placing just out of medal contention in fourth place.

"In the prelims I didn't do so good coming around the second turn, so Coach was telling me to pick it up in the first 200," Barr said. "This time I picked it up and I was in first place but I didn't last all the way."

Desert Vista, one of the top track programs in the country every year, was way out in front in the 5A-I boys team results with 182.5 points to second place Mesa-Mountain View's 54.5 after 14 events.

Horizon was on top in the boys 5A-II with 87 points, while Marana Mountain View had 64.5. Kofa was in 13th place Xavier held a slim lead on Chandler 91-87 in the girls' 5A-I meet, while South Mountain had a firm grip on first in the girls' 5A-II meet, with Kofa in 16th and Cibola in 18th.

Kofa's Lex Black had a strong showing in both hurdle events. He finished 6th in the 110 at 15.76 seconds and fifth in the 300 at 41.23. Yuma's Bridgett Soares placed 6th in the 300 hurdles at 47.62, while Kofa's Erin Camacho placed seventh in the 100 hurdles (16.17).

Kofa brought back the only two medals for local area schools on Wednesday when Roman Hudson placed third in the discus and Amanda Nieves also won a bronze in the shot put.

Hudson's best throw in the shot put on Saturday wasn't good enough to get him to the finals, but the senior finished his high school career on the medal stand in consecutive years. He placed second in the discus last year.

"I wanted to win state (in the discus)," Hudson said. "If I had gotten a good throw out there I would have easily won it, but I just wasn't able to do it."

Yuma coach Curt Weber said he was excited that his young team - mostly juniors - got some state championship experience.

In addition to Soares' strong finish in the hurdles, Steven Rojano took 11th in the ong jump at 20 feet, 2 inches and Aisha Abedi finished ninth in the girls high jump at 4 feet, 8 inches.

The Desert Vista boys 3200 realy team set a new all-Arizona record, while the Chandler boys 400 realys squad crossed the finish line at 41.09 to break the previous state mark of 41.33 set by Maryvale in 1992.

"We're real pleased. The kids are performing the way we were hoping for at the beginning of the season," Cibola assistant coach Kris Norton said. "We set some pretty good goals for the kids so when they got to the state finals they could run with the best, and they really did a nice job today."