The 2017 All-Arizona Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year and Boys Track & Field Coach of Year were selected by the azcentral sports high school staff.

The All-Arizona team is made up of those athletes who won their respective sports at the state championships.

The staff used statistics, rankings, observations and coaches’ comments in making its selections.

Boys Athlete of the Year

Turner Washington

School: Oro Valley Canyon del Oro

Year: Senior.

College: Arizona

Somewhere, there’s a football coach at Oro Valley Canyon del Oro who still wonders what kind of player 6-foot-4, 250-pound Turner Washington might have been. But, really, the track was always where Washington was going to wind up.

His father, Anthony, was a three-time Olympic discus thrower. So it’s no surprise, really, that Turner Washington ditched the football field for the discus circle. Smart move, too.

Turner not only won a state championship in the discus this season, but he was as dominant in his sport as perhaps any Arizona athlete. Three times he broke a state record that had been held 30 years by Tempe High’s Dwight Johnson. The third time came on his final throw of the state meet, when he launched the discus 218 feet, 7 inches.

To put his dominance in perspective, he won the event by more than 34 feet.

The state title and record were even sweeter because as a junior Washington scratched out in his final throws.

“It was big for me to come back from last year,” said Washington, who will throw the discus and shot next season at the University of Arizona. “That’s what I was happiest about.

“I felt I had a big throw left in me. I just had to go out and do it.”

Washington’s season fulfilled a prediction longtime Canyon del Oro coach Rick Glider made to the Arizona Daily Star in April of 2016.

“He has the physical ability, the coordination and the motivation to be the best that he can possibly be,” Glider said. “With what he’s got, he’s going to be a champion. It’s exciting to see what he does and how far he’s come.”

Leaving the football coach to only lament what he lost.

Boys Coach of the Year

Chris Hanson

School: Phoenix Desert Vista

Season recap: Desert Vista finished second in the Division I state championship meeting, scoring 98 points to Chandler’s 100. Desert Vista won the 1,600-meter relay and Elijah Mason won the shot put and discus. During the season Desert Vista finished first in four different meets.

Coach Hanson’s comments: “We had an amazing season. We were second by two points for the second year in a row to the same team. We always want to compete for a title and we did that so disappointment would be the wrong word. We feel as though we can keep our heads high knowing we did the best we could and a better team came out on top.”

All-Arizona Boys Track & Field team

100 meters: Trey Johnson, Tolleson, Sr., 10.57 seconds.

200: Darin Alderman, Bullhead City Mohave, Sr., 21.30.

400: Tyrees Moulton, Phoenix North Canyon, Jr., 46.62.

800: Daniel Lozano, Anthem Boulder Creek, Sr., 1:55.01.

1600: Manuel Olivo-Quinones, Sierra Vista Buena, 4:20.28.

3200: Michael Barney, Scottsdale Saguaro, Sr., 9:07.78.

110 hurdles: Trey Johnson, Tolleson, Sr., 13.65.

300 hurdles: Brandon McGuire, Glendale Raymond S. Kellis, 37.04.

4×100 relay: Chandler (T.J. Green, Jaheim Brown, Imani Lee, Kendon Walker) 41.42 seconds.

4×400 relay: Chandler (Edwin Adams, Imani Lee, Jaheim Brown, T.J. Green) 3:19.68.

4×800 relay: Chandler Hamilton (Chris Fusaro, David Nelson, Dan Darnell, Noah Creighton) 7:57.31.

Shot put: Tyson Jones, Goodyear Desert Edge, Jr., 67-6 ½.

Discus: Turner Washington, Oro Valley Canyon del Oro, Sr., 218-7 (state record).

High jump: Cameron Crandall, Canyon del Oro, 7-0.

Pole vault: Cole Riddle, Surprise Valley Vista, Sr., 17-7 (state record).

Long jump: Trey Johnson, Tolleson, Sr., 24-6.

Triple jump: Imani Lee, Chandler, Sr., 47-11 ½.