Senior Amber Block said that she had to go "airborne" to save her team from disqualification.

"I had to jump in the air to get the baton in order to avoid stepping over the line and being disqualified," Block said.

Block and her teammates moved past their relay’s early glitches to sprint their way to a well-deserved, second place victory at the 4AII State Competition held on May 13-16 at Mesa Community College.

The 4X100 relay was comprised of seniors Block, Annie Kitch, Ayshia Gray and junior Tanisha Crawford.

"I was nervous after seeing the other teams. They looked like tough competition," Block said. "But we were able to pull it off after only placing 5th during preliminaries."

Kitch sprinted her way to two victories by placing 5th in the women’s 200-meter dash and 6th in the 100-meter dash.

"Since it’s my final year of high school, it made me want to win even more," Kitch said. "With this emotion and my team’s support behind me, I knew I could pull off the best ending to my track career."

Irwin also noted that "great" performances were turned out by the women’s 4x400 relay composed of seniors Block, Gray, sophomore Brittany Marshall and freshman Fatima Sy.

The girls’ outstanding performances led them to place 6th overall in State.

In addition to winning track events, field athletes were also able to successfully charge their way to the top of the pack.

Senior discus thrower Christopher Cormier took 3rd in State with 137-7, setting his new personal record.

"It was awesome to be one of the top competitors in the State,"
Cormier said.

Senior Danielle Coleman also placed 4th in State in her discus competition.

"Don’t underestimate what you can do," Coleman said. "I wasn’t really sure if I would make it to State."

"We had a very large team this year which enabled us to pick up points in the third, fourth and fifth places," Head Coach Randy Irwin said.

Irwin noted standouts on this year’s team including Kitch, Kharyee Marshall, Gray, Coleman, Cormier and Sy.

"I had a great season, but in order to make it to State I had to show up to practice daily and train hard," Marshall said.

Next year, Irwin will be faced with a rebuilding year as many of his senior athletes are graduating.

Irwin, however, said that he attributes this season’s success to his freshmen team effectively maintaining an undefeated record.

"The men’s and women’s Junior Varsity teams maintained their undefeated record which will help rebuild the team next year," Irwin said.

Earlier in the season, the women’s Varsity team placed second in Region.

"The women’s success at Region was due in large part to having so many run and throw," Irwin said.