Arizona high school track: Come one, come all to the 75th Chandler Rotary

The underlying theme at the 75th annual Chandler Rotary has pretty much been the same over the last few years:

Put as many great track athletes as possible together in one location and see how the competition level — as the crowd gets more and more into it — rises throughout the night as some of the nation's top track try to out-do their peers.

"I plan on just watching Saturday night," Rotary race director Dave Shapiro said. "I am hoping, definitely, going to try and watch it. It can be one of those years that could be pretty special."

Every event in the meet, which uses a non-scoring and finals-only format, is going to have a national-level competitor in it, but some will have more than others according to the heat sheets.

Anything involving Mountain Pointe (Phoenix) sprinter Paul Lucas and Brophy College Prep (Phoenix) hurdler Isaiah Oliver is going garner some attention.

Another event that will bring some attention will be the boys 1,600-meter run behind Rio Rico standout Carlos Villarreal, Page's Jeffery Miller, Perry's (Gilbert) Cade Burks and out-of-state runners like Hunter Davila of Kelly Walsh (Wy.) and William Mayhew of Cheyenne Mountain (Colo.).

Highlights for boys events

The 100 meter dash features seven sprinters who were seeded on times better than 10.90 including Lucas at 10.42, and Chandler's D.J. Ware, who has a seeded time of 10.73 and is coming off a PR time in the 60-meter run at the New Balance Indoor Nationals.

"It prepared me for Chandler rotary and the rest of the season by giving me the mindset that I can compete with anybody," said Ware, who clocked a 6.93 in New York. "I need to just run my race and stay relaxed because everybody gets beat, and at end of the day, it doesn't matter who beats who.

"It matters what time you ran."

* Oliver should have a good back and forth with Carson (Calif.)'s Justin Collins in the 110 meter and 300 hurdles as their seeded times .21 and .54, respectively.

The girls side is hardly lacking for some good story lines despite the graduation of multi-event stars Ky Westbrook (Chandler) and Ashlee Moore (Hamilton).

* The 200 meter dash has four runners separated by 0.10 of a second based on seed times as out-of-staters Courtney Davis (E. Roosevelt), Kaelin Roberts (Long Beach Poly), Jasmin Reed (Serra) and Autumn Wright (Long Beach Poly) all come in with times between 24.20 and 24.30.

* The pole vault battle between Desert Vista's (Phoenix) Vanessa Davis (13-0 feet) and Highland's (Gilbert) Nicole Baker (12-06). This will just be a continuation of what is to come this season between these as they look to break the state record 13-4.

* The featured event could very well by the 1,600-meter run as it features four Gatorade cross country runners of the year for their respective states.

As Air Academy's Katie Rainsberger (4:39.10, Colorado), Desert Vista's Dani Jones (4:41.00, Arizona), Big Fork's Makenna Morely (4:47.00, Montana) and Herriman's Lucy Biles (4:55.00, Utah).

"I think it will be the best field in the nation this year," Shapiro said of the event that features 11 runners with a seed time under five minutes. "It's stacked. It's conceivable that we could have four or five runners in the 4:30s."

Jason P. Skoda, a former Arizona Republic and current Prep Sports Director for 1013 Communications, is a 20-year sports writing veteran. Contact him at jskoda1024@aol.com.