Men's TF Misses Region Title by Half a Point

Friday, May 5, 2023 - 11:00 am | Dylan Kessler

Mesa, AZ - The Thunderbirds men's track & field team fell to the Pima Aztecs by half a point in a tightly contested battle at the 2023 NJCAA Region I Championships Thursday evening.

Sophomore Yotuel Garcia was named the Most Outstanding Male Performer for the meet as he scored 30.5 points.

Y. Garcia was a three-time region champion in the 5000m, 10,000m, and 4x800m relay. He also earned runner-up honors in a fourth event, the 1500m, where he broke the school record with a time of 3:51.07. The previous record of 3:54.25 was set in 1985 by Andy Johnson.

Tyson Tippett was the region champion in both the 100m dash and 200m dash. He ran a personal-best time of 10.20 seconds in the 100m dash and broke the meet record by one-one-hundredth of a second.

Donovan Castillo was the region champion in the 400m dash with a time of 47.14 seconds. He was also the anchor leg on the 4x400m relay (Jacob Samford, Joshua Boehm, and Joshua Anderson) and won the event with a season-best time of 3:12.66.

The T-Birds had two additional region champions on Thursday. Noah Miller in the shot put (15.99m) and Ernest Green in the 800m run (1:51.17).

Mesa also had five additional All-Region honorees on Thursday. Khamis Hassan (second place - 100m dash), Miles Fears (second place - 110m hurdles), Samuel Green (second place - 800m run), N. Miller (second place - discus throw), and the 4x100m relay (M. Fears, K. Hassan, Dwayne Barrow, and T. Tippett) in second place.

M. Fears was also fourth in the 400m hurdles. Devin Jackson was fourth in the 110m hurdles and fifth in the 400m hurdles.

D. Barrow and Jaylyn Martin were sixth and seventh in the 100m dash. K. Hassan was fourth in the 200m dash. J. Samford, J. Anderson, and J. Boehm went 5-7-8 in the 400m dash.

Javier Garcia was fourth and Yael Caballero Ferro was seventh in the 5000m. Hayden Gelder finished in eighth place in both the 1500m and 800m. Alex Hernandez was sixth in the shot put and eighth in the discus throw.

The T-Birds scored 273 points to Pima's 273.5 points. Central Arizona was third with 142.5 points. Paradise Valley (73 points), Glendale (54 points), and Phoenix College (two points) rounded out the team standings.

Mesa will close out the 2023 season at the NJCAA Div. I Outdoor Championships in Hobbs, NM, from May 18-20.