By Eric Villanueva ’11
THE ROUNDUP

Varsity Track and Field started the season with an even record of one and one after a narrow victory at Corona Del Sol March 3 and a loss at Red Mountain March 10.

The team also made a name for itself with top finishers at a March 13 invitational.

Brophy eked out a close 72-69 win over Corona Del Sol Wednesday, March 3 and set a few records along the way.

The meet at Corona Del Sol was “a good start to this season,” said coach Mr. Bill Kalkman in an e-mail. “Many of our athletes performed great.”

Freshman Devon Allen ’13 won the 100-meter sprint with his time of 10.9 seconds, and outperformed the 10 year-old school record of 11.02 seconds held by alumnus Johnny Marshall ’99. However, this does not officially count as a record because it would have to be electronically timed at an invitational.

State champion Harry Danilevics ’10 finished the 300-meter hurdles more than half a second under his championship time of 39.14 seconds.

In pole-vaulting, Alex Bishop ’10 came within four inches of breaking the school record of 16 feet set in  2007 by Jeremy Lashinske ’07 with his 15-foot 8-inch vault.

Mr. Kalkman said to watch for Bishop to set the school record in pole-vaulting.

In the mile, Will Firth ’11 placed first and Tommy Williams ’11 placed third.

Firth beat his freshman track record in the mile of 4:35, set in 2008, by three seconds.

As a junior this year he will be shooting for the varsity track record, according to Mr. Kalkman.

Josh Dennard ’10 placed first in both the quarter-mile run and the long jump.

A week later, bad weather played a role in the loss at Red Mountain March 3 72-69.

Mr. Kalkman said the meet was cold and windy.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature was 51 degrees while wind speeds reached 19 mph in Mesa during the meet.

“I really felt that the weather affected my running,” said Dan Valenzuela ’11.

Valenzuela said the wind chill dropped the temperature, which made it cold to run in light athletic shorts and shirts.

He added the wind definitively hurt the shot-putters and discus-throwers.

But the weather did not seem to affect Geoff Roxbourough ’10, who placed second in both discus and shot-put events.

Roxbourough threw the same distance of 145 feet in the discus event, but threw a foot short of his first place 46-foot shot-put toss at Corona Del Sol a week earlier.

Allen, the freshman runner, tied his personal best of 10.9 seconds in the 100-meter sprint, but it was not enough to secure first at Red Mountain.

Firth and Williams placed second and third respectfully in the half mile.

Unlike the meet at Corona Del Sol, Brophy won two of the three relay races.

Besides the weather, the diminished force of the team may have been another reason for the loss.

Mr. Kalkman said the team pulled some of its runners to rest them for an invitational on Saturday, March 13.

“We put together race combinations to prepare our varsity runners for Saturday at the North Canyon Invitational,” Mr. Kalkman said in an e-mail.

At the invitational, Brophy qualified six for the state meet, while several runners and vaulters beat school and national records.

In the 300-meter hurdles, Danilevics placed himself second in the nation with his 37.84-second finish, and beat the school record of 38.4 seconds held by Ray Polk ’08.  

“I am definitely proud of myself for working hard and reaching my goal of a 37 (second finish) early on (in the season),” Danilevics said in an e-mail. “I am going to keep working until I reach a time in the high 35s or the low 36s.”

Danilevics said running those times will keep him ranked in the top five nationally through the end of the season.

Bishop tied the school record in pole-vault with a 16-feet high vault, which broke the invitational record and placed him first in state.

Allen beat the record of Johnny Marshall ’99 in the 200-meter sprint by two one-hundredths of a second with his time of 22.01 seconds.

Out of 17 teams in the region, Brophy is currently ranked second behind Chandler High School after the results of the invitational.