Familiar names have been popping up all over NCAA conference and regional track meets. It's all leading to what looks to be a special year for former Arizona high school track athletes at the NCAA championships.
Arizona has had a long history of successful athletes in track at the next level, but the sheer amount of big-name competitors this year has to rank among the most the Grand Canyon State has ever seen.
Jasmine Todd
Photo courtesy University of Oregon
Oregon redshirt sophomore Jasmine Todd, a
Chandler graduate, not only won the Pac-12 Female Athlete of the Year by winning several medals at the Pac-12 Championships, but followed it up the next week by posting the world's third-best time of the year in the 100-meter dash (10.88 seconds) at the NCAA West Preliminary meet.
Pau Tonnesen came out of
Tempe Prep as a solid high jumper. He's doing a lot more than that these days.
The redshirt junior is fifth in the nation in the decathlon for the University of Arizona after posting a career best 7,823 points to win at the Pac-12 Championships May 9-10. Next up is the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 10-13.
"It's been a great year, but I have to have one more good performance," Tonnesen said. "You always hope there is something bigger and better out there for you. As an athlete you don't want to reach a certain level and stop. I know I can do better."
The goal is to clear 8,000 points in the 10-event decathlon and make a run at the Olympic standard of 8,075 that would allow him to possibly make a run at qualifying for the Spanish Olympic team trials.
"I have a Spanish background," said Tonnesen, whose mother was born in Spain, giving him the chance to compete for her native country. "I've always dreamed of competing in the Olympics one day and if it somehow comes together it would be the ultimate experience."
Stanford senior Jessica Tonn, an
Xavier College Prep (Phoenix) product, has the nation's top time on the 5,000-meter run this year and cruised in the West Regional with a second-place finish to qualify for nationals. She won the Payton Jordan Invitational in 15:18.85 and then ran the regional in 16:04.31. The 15:18.85 effort met the qualifying standard for this summer's World Championships.
Another competitor ranked high nationally is Chandler grad and Texas Tech junior
Hannah Carson. She won the first Big 12 women's javelin title in school history, as the junior threw 184 feet, 11 inches to grab the title.
She also won the discus in 175-05 and added a seventh in the shot put at 48-07.25.
"I remember everyone telling me I was going to have choose some day between the javelin and the discus," she said. "It meant so much to me to win the discus, too, because I never wanted to stop doing either of them."
The javelin is the event that truly hits home for Carson. She followed up her Big 12 performance by setting a personal record at the NCAA West Region with a toss of 185-7, good enough to win the title by 14 feet. She heads to NCAA Outdoors for the third-straight year.
"It's my baby," she said of the javelin. "Before I got to Tech I never really had a coach other than my dad (Steve). They really didn't have a javelin thrower for a long time and coach Cliff Selkins has brought me to where I want to be."
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.
