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Speed leads to strength: Anderson continues Dysart’s hoops, throwing connection

Posted 4/8/19

Richard Smith

West Valley Preps

Forgive Ivory Carson if he will be scouting next year’s Dysart girls basketball team for his next thrower.

The Demons’ top three shot putters of this …

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Speed leads to strength: Anderson continues Dysart’s hoops, throwing connection

Posted

Richard Smith

West Valley Preps

Forgive Ivory Carson if he will be scouting next year’s Dysart girls basketball team for his next thrower.

The Demons’ top three shot putters of this decade arrived on the El Mirage campus thinking of themselves as hoopsters.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve noticed that every one of our throwers that was really good was a basketball player,” Carson said. “I noticed quickness and speed is truly important in the shot put and discus. You look at Chandler. They had a girl that was the 100-meter champion and the shot put champion. Even though power and size is important, if you can compensate with it with speed and quickness, you’ll do well.”

Senior Kiara Anderson is the latest and best of the bunch. She set a program-best mark of 39 feet 8.5 inches for juniors in 2018 and finished second in Division II that season.

Two-time state champion Maritza Murillo set the Dysart record of 41 feet 9 inches in 2013. Guess who was the Demons’ leading scorer in girls basketball that year?

“My goal was to get the school record in shot this year. I’ve been wanting that for a while. And I want to really work on my technique,” Anderson said.

She only played basketball at home before her freshman year, then decided to try out for cross country that fall.

Somehow, Anderson’s short distance running career led to sprinting, which was only a way station to throwing.

“When she was a freshman and ran cross country, I noticed she had a whole bunch of speed. I knew she was going to be a sprinter on the track team. As far as being a thrower, we really didn’t know that until she started trying it. Currently, she has the freshman record in the shot put,” Carson said.

Anderson shined in the shot put and sprints as a freshman, posting the Demons’ top 100-meter dash time and throwing the shot 34 feet 8 inches within two months after picking it up.

She added discus sophomore year while peeling back on sprinting — though she had Dysart’s top 200-meter mark in 2017.

“I noticed that I had unknown potential. I came back next year and tried another throwing event,” Anderson said.

Earlier in her sophomore season, Dysart girls basketball squeaked into the 4A playoffs.

That team fell back to four wins in 2017-18. But Anderson’s throwing career was taking off, even if her newest event was not.

Anderson still dabbled in the 100 and 200 last spring. She also long jumped as junior, though it was short lived.

“She got injured long jumping so we decided her senior year, she shouldn’t long jump at all because it would potentially affect her future,” Carson said.

Thus far, her senior year has been the first where the basketball season went smoother than track. Dysart won the Black Canyon Region for the second time in three years and finished 12-11, reaching the playoffs.

Anderson credited new assistant coach Dustin Borst for the boost he gave Thomas Vesey’s staff.

“We had a new coach and he expected more from us. In order for us to start building a team, we had to act like a team. That’s what made it more fun,” Anderson said.

Track has been a bit tougher at times. She is focused on the two main throws this spring and has the fifth best shot put toss in the state.

About a month before state, though, Anderson admits she is not where she wants to be.

“My sprints have always helped a lot. I feel like since I haven’t done a sprint this year, that’s affected me,” Anderson said. “When I was a freshman, I was more open to everything. It was easier to teach me because I didn’t know what I was doing. Now I have to break bad habits.”

The focus on throws does not extend to the state’s newest throwing event.

Bring up the javelin and Anderson only worries about the potential for accidents involving inattentive athletes.

“There’s so many people who don’t pay attention to the shot and discus, and the javelin freaks me out,” Anderson said.

She said she realizes track is her future, and hopes that her best marks for Dysart are in the next month.

Millennium senior Alania Diggs, also more known as a basketball player, sports the top Division II tosses in both events.

“I’m looking forward to state after I get my stuff together,” Anderson said.

College track programs are in contact with her, though Anderson declined to get specific. She plans to choose soon after the season ends.

Anderson said she wants to enter a pre-medicine program and minor in communications.

“As a coach, I just want her to get to the next level and not have to pay for college. In terms of this season, the sky’s the limit,” Carson said.