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WEST VALLEY PREPS
Scorpions hurdler wins 2 state titles
Independent Newsmedia/Jason W. Brooks
Bellemy Amina-Harris competes in a hurdles final Saturday, May 17 at the AIA Open State Track & Field Championships in Mesa. The Desert Edge senior won the state all-classes title in both the 110 and 300 hurdles.
MESA — Bellemy Amina-Harris could feel a strong breeze just before his late-afternoon 110-meter high hurdles race May 17.
After he came out of the starting blocks in the race at the AIA Open State Track & Field Championships, he could tell the breeze and gusts would affect how well he sailed down the Mesa Community College track.
“The wind was pushing,” Amina-Harris said after he won the race. “I could feel it pushing, but I had to push through if I wanted to get the gold.”
Amina-Harris left the MCC track with first-place medals for both the 110-meter high hurdles and for the 300-meter hurdles. The Desert Edge senior’s performance at the two-day Open meet caps his career as a Scorpion that included steady improvements.
“I was still over 14 seconds (at the 110 distance) last year, so I can see how much progress I’ve made,” Amina-Harris said.
The senior finished the Open 110-meter final in 13.98 seconds on May 17, or about 0.12 seconds ahead of the runner-up, sophomore Jett Merrill of Ironwood Ridge. He had equaled his personal-best in the 110 prelims on Friday, May 16, with 13.73 seconds.
In the 300 final, Amina-Harris stayed well ahead of a solid field to win in 37.17 seconds. Again, his time wasn’t as fast as it was in prelims the day before.
At the Division II meet the weekend of May 8-10, Amina-Harris ran a personal-best 13.73 in the 110 but was listed as “DQ -- obstructed” in the 300 prelims.
Last year, Amina-Harris placed second at the Open meet, competing as a West Point High junior, running the 110 hurdles in 14.16 seconds and the 37.72 in the 300. He was runner-up in the 300 to Vance Nilsson of Gilbert High, who set a national record in the race as the first American high schooler to break 35 seconds in the event.
When asked if he’d like to keep running track in college, Amina-Harris was clear.
“For sure, that’s the goal,” he said. “I have no idea where I’m headed yet, but I’ll probably figure that out soon.”
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.
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