4 state records fall on final night of AIA's first Open state track and field meet

Saira Prince heard the pop of the gun and felt the agony from the girl in the lane next to her Saturday night to start the 300-meter hurdles at Mesa Community College.

This time, it wasn't the Gilbert Williams Field senior who got disqualified for breaking out of the blocks early.

Once it restarted, Prince was off and running and clearing every hurdle perfectly on her way to a second state record in two days, winning the girls state title with another state record.

After she saw her time — 40.90 seconds — Prince dropped to her knees and folded her hands, thanking God.

From DQ'ing on her start in the 100 hurdles preliminary Friday to breaking her state record in the 300 in 41.08 in her preliminary less than two hours later to taking it home Saturday as the first female athlete in Arizona high school history to break 41 seconds in the 300 hurdles, Prince went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.

"It was like a dream," said Prince, who has signed with Arizona State. "I've had so much mixed emotions. Anger, sadness. I put it all into this race."

Prince was one of several amazing stories in the Arizona Interscholastic Association's first Open track and field championships that took the top 18 athletes out of the five divisions for the ultimate meet. The meet was held on successive days at MCC. It was not for the faint of heart, especially for those breaking state marks.

There was Queen Creek senior Catherine Littlewood, nine weeks removed from having surgery, breaking the girls state record in the long jump at 20 feet, 7 inches.

There was Phoenix Mountain Pointe and ASU-signee Jayden Davis pouring it on in the boys 400 for the second straight week, breaking his one-week old state record in 46.25 seconds.

There was Mesa Red Mountain's Tyler Mathews breaking his state record in the boys 800 meters with a nation's fastest time in high school this year at 1 minute, 48.72 seconds. This came a night after he led off Red Mountain's state-record 4x800 relay with a 1:48 split. And it came about an hour after he won the 1,600 in a personal-record 4:12.11.

But it was Prince who came out with a mission after Friday's prelims started in nightmarish fashion, when she left the blocks too early in the 100 hurdles, an event in which she broke the state record at the Arcadia (California) Invitational last month.

Prince was on fire Friday night after being disqualified in the 100 hurdles preliminaries for jumping the gun. She channeled that less that two hours later by crushing her state record in the 300 hurdles at 41.08 seconds in her preliminary heat.

To break that record in a span of 24 hours was phenomenal.

"It's just unbelievable," Prince said. "Right now, I'm dizzy. It's a lot right now. I'm so excited I was able to do this."

Mathews had a perfect game plan Saturday after leading Red Mountain's state-record distance relay.

"I purposely went out and ran conservatively in the mile," Mathews said. "I wanted to do really well in this (800) race. This one I just ran my guts out and gave it everything I had."

When Mathews broke the Arizona record in the 800 at the Arcadia meet in California, he didn't win the race. Now he knows he's No. 1 in the nation.

"It feels good to now be No. 1," Mathews said. "The state record obviously was what I was going for, whether or not I had a better time than other guys in the nation. I'm happy for it."

Mathews' efforts gave Red Mountain the boys team state championship with 45 points. Desert Vista was second at 41, followed by Mesa Mountain View at 37.

First, Davis did his thing, going 46.25, a week after he broke his state record at the Division II meet in a time of 46.37.

Even though he had the state's fastest 200 time this year, Davis didn't enter the 200 to focus on the 400.

"It had to do with how my body felt," Davis said. "After breaking state a week prior, it was close and I had to pick and choose what I wanted to do.

"I still have more races to run and I can't afford to burn out right now. Going into every race, I feel I can go faster and break my own records. Really, I just wanted to give people a show today."

After Davis broke his record, Prince broke her record, followed by Mathews breaking his on Saturday. Very similar to the Arcadia meet, when those three athletes combined to break four Arizona record (Prince set state marks in both the 100 and 300 hurdles) within an hour span.

"I was excited watching them," Mathews said. "It did kind of help me. I had to keep the streak."

Maybe the most amazing story of all is Littlewood, who will compete in the heptathlon next year at Stanford, just the way she overcame her injury to compete in her first meet of the season less than three weeks ago, then to break the long jump record, while also competing in three other events running events.

Littlewood said she broke a bone in her leg that had to be surgically fixed to give her stability for it to heal.

"That was nine weeks ago, and ever since then it's been non-stop rehab, cross-training and back to running again," Littlewood said.

In her first meet two-and-a-half weeks ago, Littlewood jumped 18-8.

"I got 20 so it was definitely a fast two weeks," she said. "It feels pretty crazy. I'm kind of surprised that I came back better than I was. I think it was God's plan all along. I had to take a break after the injury. Work on some motions. Make something big happen."

Littlewood's scoring in other events, helping her team to five points for a fourth-place finish in the 4x100 relay, scoring six points with a third-place finish in the 400. It wasn't quite enough to catch Gilbert Highland, which won the girls team title.

Phoenix Desert Vista junior Hayden Gorovitz wasn't close to his state record in the javelin Saturday, but his 203-feet, 5-inch toss on his last heave was the only toss by any of the competitors to break 200. Gorovitz easily won the boys state title, but he's got much bigger meets ahead this summer on the national level.

Gorovitz said he'll be in Eugene, Oregon twice for national competitions. His season will extend into July. By then, he might wind up breaking his state mark of 221-8, which he did in April at a college meet that he won in Tucson. He still is sorting which college he'll end up at.

Gorovitz also had the second-longest throw in the competition at 198-2 that he did on his second throw in his first round. He elected not to take his third throw in the first round and take his last three in the finals.

"Today, I really wasn't looking to PR or peak," Gorovitz said. "My summer season is about to start now. But I got points for the team. It wasn't the best. It was pretty hot out here. I wasn't the most prepared. But I've got to deal with it."

Other intriguing story lines over the weekend:

-- Avondale West Point, with only one sprinter who went under 11 seconds this season, tied Chandler for the 4x100 boys state championship, both team running 40.93 seconds. that West Point team comprised of David Cabrera, Christopher Anderson Jr., Kevin Seales and Olawale Olatunde, going up against a vaunted Chandler quartet of Geramiah Flunder, Sammie Hunter, Calil Valentine and Andereya Nsubuga.

"We started the season with a 43.8," Cabrera said. "The new coach came in. Had a new team. We believed our coach. We believed our training. This is what happened."

-- Blaise Nelson ended his Surprise Valley Vista brilliant career with state titles in both the boys 100 (10.70) and 200 (21.41). He is off to Northern Arizona to play wide receiver in football.

-- Chandler Hamilton junior Kori Martin, a year removed from having surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee, turned in a 13.61 state-winning time in the girls 100 hurdles, which was not far off from Prince's state record of 13.58. It was a PR for Martin.

"I'm really grateful that I'm here," Martin said. "But it was a lot of hard work."

-- Phoenix Brophy Prep senior Brennen McHenry, who has signed with Texas, could deal with the fifth-place finish in the high jump (6 feet, 6 inches), after breaking the school record and winning the boys state title in the long jump (24-10 1/4) with a top-10 mark in the nation this year. Both events were held on Friday, a tough combination. He also had to run a leg in the 4x100 relay prelim just before heading to the high jump.

"I knew I could (the long jump top-10 performance), and I just had to will it out of me," McHenry said. "I had to focus on being aggressive and attacking that board."

-- Gilbert Highland senior Zach Bingham won the boys pole vault at 16-6, a foot better than Lake Havasu's Sylvan Osman, who was runnerup.

-- A Division V competitor, Eagar Round Valley sophomore Sydnee Finch, won the girls state title in the shot put at 43-3 1/2.

-- Laveen Cesar Chavez freshman Mayen Usoro, who has the all-time fastest Arizona freshman time, won the girls 100 meters in 11.68 seconds.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Four state records fall on final night of AIA's first Open T&F meet