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BISBEE — With a string of 10 state track and field championships in 14 seasons Bill Taylor, Sr. was among Bisbee High School’s greatest in a long line of solid track and field head coaches.
On Saturday, he was honored as the school renamed its meet the Bill Taylor Bisbee Kiwanis Invitational. It was the 47th Bisbee Invitational.
“It’s a great honor,” Taylor said. “I’m just tickled to death. The track and the facility is super.”
 Bisbee senior John Taylor competes in the pole vault during Saturday's Bisbee Invitational Track Meet. Taylor finished second with a vault of 12 feet. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
In a 30-minute dedication ceremony, Taylor and several alumni were honored at the finish line.
Taylor coached at Bisbee from 1964 to 1978, when the boys’ team was in the Class 3A Conference with Safford, Canyon del Oro, Nogales, Douglas, Globe and Coolidge. There was no girls team during those years. Taylor is a member of the Arizona Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame.
Bisbee won 13 divisional championships, nearly 200 track meets and went 187-4 in meets, including region and state championships.
“There wasn’t anybody we were afraid of,” Taylor said. “Starting in 1967 we had a crew that was undefeated for five straight years.”
Taylor was among several people at the meet who expressed enthusiasm about the new track, which is in its first year of use.
“This track may be the trigger for a rebirth,” Taylor said.
One of the alums, former Bisbee discus thrower John Bruner, talked about Taylor’s coaching. Bruner drove from Las Cruces, N.M. The 1973 Bisbee High graduate attended Western New Mexico University, where he reached a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference meet.
“He was tough but he was a great coach,” Bruner said. “We had a tremendous amount of respect for him.”
Bisbee finished fourth in both the boys meet and the girls meet. The boys scored 82 1/2 points, the Lady Pumas had 65 points. Thatcher won the boys meet with 153 1/2 points, followed by Safford with 136 points.
Tombstone was eighth out of 13 teams with 26 points. The top eight individuals in each event scored points in the 10-through-1 scoring system.
Safford won the girls meet with 139 points, with Benson as the runner-up with 118.33 points. Tombstone finished fifth with 56 1/2 points.
“I think we had a lot of good performances from a lot of people on our team,” said Jenny Taylor, Bisbee’s first-year head coach and granddaughter of Bill Taylor. “It was really nice to have this back in Bisbee. It’s good to be home.”
The Bisbee Invitational was held at Benson High School last season.
The Pumas’ lone boys victory was Matt Metli’s throw of 132 feet, 8 inches in the discus. John Taylor had a solid meet. He finished second in the pole vault (12-0), afterhe had one miss to Safford Dallin Gordan’s zero and 12 feet vault. Taylor was the runner-up in the 400-meter dash with a personal record time of 53.45 seconds.
“A lot of people did pretty good,” Taylor said. “Everyone’s falling over the finish line, giving it everything they got.”
Prido Polanco came in fourth in the 800 (2:10.71) and third.
Yellowjackets distance runner Cody Rosengarten finished second in both the 1,600-meter run (4:53.32) and the 3,200-meter run (11:00.46).
“We are getting better,” Winslow said. “Cody was outstanding for the mile and two-mile runs. Jess Ann may have qualified for state in the triple jump. I thought the kids did real well.”
Tombstone’s girls stood out in quite a few events. Amanda Fuller won the pole vault (8-0), while Jess Ann Robison finished second in the triple jump (31-2) and third in the 1,600-meter run (6:02.98).
All-purpose Yellowjacket senior Jaqi Bell came in third in the discus (99-3), fifth in the high jump (4-6) and fifth in the 200-meter run (30.08).
The 400-meter relay team of Tamika McFayden, Priscilla Mendoza, Robison and Bell came in second (54.15).
“It was the best,” Mendoza said. “It was neck-and-neck. It was intense.”
Despite running with a sore right ankle, Bisbee girls runner Ana’s Cordova finished a close second to defending state champion Dani Higgins from Benson in the girls’ one-mile run. With one lap left, Cordova led. But with nearly 200 meters left, Higgins kicked it into a faster gear to win, 5:59.78 to 6:00.58.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to be scared,” Cordova said. “I tired out at the end. That’s the closest I came to beating her.”
Bisbee’s foursome of Jenna Herrera, Adria Rascon, Gloria Ortega came in second in the 4 x 800-meter relay (11:12.21). Rascon was third in the pole vault (7-0).
Paulette Yates was third in the two-mile run (13:53.59), and Ortega (14:38.51) was fourth. Buffy Munn of Bisbee (14-5 1/4) was third in the long jump.
Dakota Johns of Thatcher, who set a team record with a high jump of 6-foot-10, won the most outstanding male athlete of the meet award. Puma senior Eric Encinas was second (5-10). Krista Rogers from Morenci won the female MOA award.
“We had excellent balance between our hurdlers, jumpers and distance people,” Thatcher head coach Adam Estrada said. “It was a total team effort ... this track is outstanding. It made a difference in Dakota Johns jumping 6-10.”
Eagles shot putter Derek Romney qualified for state for the third straight season. He won with a throw of 46-2 3/4. Victor Contreras of Bisbee finished second (44-2 3/4).
Wiillie wrote on Mar 2, 2009 7:42 PM: