Tuba City’s Jackson outsprints top seed in 1600

MESA, Ariz.

Vaughn Jackson did not let the chance of lifetime slip away from him.

After taking control of the 1600-meter race at the Arizona Division III state track meet at Mesa Community College, the Tuba City senior held on to beat top seed Michael Barney of Scottsdale Saguaro.

“On that last lap I wanted to give it all I got,” said Jackson. “This was my last race (in high school) and even though I was hurting I just pushed to the end.”

Jackson won the event in 4 minutes, 24.92 seconds while Barney was clocked in at 4:25.43 in a photo finish.

“He executed his game plan and ran a good race today,” Tuba City coach Arvis Myron said. “He had a good strategy going in.”

As the No. 2 seed, Myron said there was not much difference between his pupil and Barney as more than a second separated them according to the state seedings.

“The margin was not much as opposed to five seconds or more,” the longtime Tuba City coach said. “At state anything can happen. With Vaughn he knew what he needed to do in those last 300, 200 and 100 meters to go to win the race.”

Jackson, who earned his first state crown, described the last 600 meters as the most “grueling part of the race” as he challenged Barney to take over the lead.

“From there it was a sprint,” he said. “He (the Saguaro runner) kind of hit my feet on that last lap when I missed my step but once I got back on track I knew I had to go all out, even though if he passed me.”

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