Chandler XC siblings to the extreme -- 1 set triplets, 3 sets identical twins, 5 sets siblings (AzPreps365 photo)

 

Chandler High cross country's most decorated runner is junior Morgan Foster. In her third season competing (a triple gold medalist in state track last year), she's often far ahead of competitors in races so is a loner in a way. But Foster does her best to mingle and blend with the family culture that literally is Chandler cross country. She has a close friend in fellow teammate/classmate Becca Taylor. 

"Becca is my sister," Foster said. Not a blood relative, but you understand Foster's meaning in context with nearly half the team. They are surrounded by all sorts of brother-sister combinations -- a set of triplets, three sets of identical twins, two sets of brothers, two sets of brother-sister and one set of sisters. 

"We are a family," Chandler head coach Matt Lincoln said, vastly understating the state of his cross country squad.

"I looked at it the other day and 21 of our 47 kids (45 percent) are brothers, sisters, twins what have you," assistant coach and longtime cross country guru Dave Shapiro said. 

The triplets are juniors Becca Taylor, Ryan Taylor and Justin Taylor. The three sets of twins are seniors Kerri and Kylie Welch, juniors Austin and Tynes Holland and sophomores Gabriel and Gunner Garcia. The brother pairings are senior Alex and freshman Christopher Ishac and senior Bennett and sophomore Kellen Chipman. The sister duo is junior Tanaeya and sophomore Teya Johnson. And the brother-sister tandems are senior Graham and sophomore Brooke Eversden and junior Angela and freshman Manuel Mendoza. Two more teammates are identical twins whose siblings compete in other sports -- freshman Sarah Plant with a sister who swims for Chandler and senior Leeban Cabdullahi,  with a brother who attends Corona del Sol.

Teammates confirm Foster and Becca Taylor act like sisters. Some say it's Becca's chance to separate from her brothers who she sees plenty of. The triplets also share cross country with swimming. The two programs work together to juggle practices and meets to make it happen. That's a family aspect of the athletic program as a whole.

With the bevy of twins on the roster, coaches have a tough time telling them apart. The toughest - until recently - were the Hollands.

"One of them just cut his hair, so I know there is a difference," Shapiro said. "Not sure which one it was that cut his hair though."

The mystery of telling twins apart applies more to Shapiro. Team members for the most part have no problem identifying who is who.

As for the Welches - move-ins from Texas back in the spring -- Shapiro has noticed one has a facial freckle the other does not. They take the twin-thing pretty far. They have identical class schedules and finished 1-2  and 11 seconds apart two weeks ago in the Chandler Invitational senior race.

And the Garcias? It's who crosses the finish line first that's the key indicator. Gabriel has Gunner's number so far.

Suffice it to say harmony seems to abound. But a good portion of the team's top female runners are the singular folk -- i.e. those with no brothers or sisters or more on the team. The most successful have come from the girls team -- the D-I runner-up last year and the D-I champs in 2015. Six runners on this year's girls team have raced on varsity in the state meet for those first-- and second-place teams -- Foster, Becca Taylor, Mihajla Milovanovic, Ava Hamilton, Brooke Eversden and Netawn Marsoobian. The remaining team members this season are Cydney Maxson, Daniela Montufar, Victoria Hernandez, Erika Alvarado  Anna Foreman, Melanie Hindenes and and Jessica Martinez.

Chandler's boys qualified for state last year after missing out in 2015. Those who competed for the boys team last year (13th-place finish) are Chris Ruiz, David Manuel, Ryan Taylor and the Garcias. All are back this year. Graham Eversden finished 30th in 2015, but was competing for Corona del Sol that year. The rest of the runners on this year's team are Carson Smith, Tomas Soqui, Carlos Arroyo, Edgar Suarez, Tomas Martin, Trey Lewis, Griffin Kannberg, Dylan Romandia, Kaleb Ross, Kevin Parra and Michael Delarosa.

 

About the photo: Standing from left -- the Mendozas, the Taylors, Chandler coach Matt Lincoln, the Garcias, older gentleman behind Garcias coach Dave Shapiro, the Eversdens, Sarah Plant, the Hollands in front of Plant the Welches,next to the Welches the Johnsons. Front row kneeling -- the Chipmans and the Ishacs.