Chandler freshman phenom S'Niyah Cade taking after her mom on the track

She is shy, her words few and barely above a whisper. So shy that she sometimes asks her mom to order the food for her when they go out.

"Talking to people is not her strong suit," said Keri Suell, S'Niyah's mom. "When ordering food, she's like, 'Mom, can't you just order it for me?' I talk to her, 'When you go to college, what are you going to do?' She says, 'You're going to have to come with me.' " I said, 'You've got to get used to doing stuff on your own now.' "

There is nothing shy about Chandler freshman S'Niyah Cade on the track. She's poised to break her mom's best times at Chandler High when she ran two decades ago.

Cade quickly burst out of the blocks and onto the Arizona high school track and field scene this spring and heads into Saturday's finals of the Arizona Interscholastic Association Division I state championships with the No. 1 time in the 100 and 200 meters.

Her time of 11.71 seconds in the 100 is closing in on her mom's time of 11.60, which she ran as a senior in 2002 at Chandler, a race Keri Suell says she ran on a fractured tibia.

Cade's time in the 200 is 24.29 seconds.

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Whoosh. That's blazing. Especially for a freshman.

She'll have lot of time to think about taking down the state high school records for girls in the 100 and 200 that are currently owned by Peoria's Jessica Onyepunuka (11.31 in the 100 in 2003) and Chandler's Ky Westbrook (23.60 in the 200 in 2013).

Westbrook has the Chandler record in the 100 with the second-fastest time in state history at 11.33, set in 2013.

Onyepunuka and Westbrook ran those times at the World Youth Games.

But no pressure.

"She lets me be who I want to be," S'Niyah said about her mom, who works big track and field high school meets in the state and coaches the youth program the Arizona Cheetahs, many of whom have come out to build the Chandler High track and field dynasty over the past couple of decades.

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Chandler has won 14 of the past 15 state championships.

Eric Richardson coached Cade's mom in high school and now she is coaching S'Niyah.

"They're exactly the same, explosive as all outdoors," Richardson said, when asked to compare S'Niyah with her mom when she ran at Chandler. "I had her mom when she was 8. Pretty comparable."

She also has tremendous genetics from her father's side. Darius Cade played football and ran track at Chandler. She is related to Mossy Cade, who was a state-record breaking hurdler at Eloy Santa Cruz in 1980.

The 11.71 in the 100 that S'Niyah Cade ran on April 20 at the Chandler City Championships was slightly wind-aided, Richardson said. She hasn't run much since then, so she should be ready to break out for another PR on Saturday.

"I can't wait for state," Cade said.

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Cade said she never envisioned winning individual state championships as a freshman, but when she was younger, she heard a lot about the Chandler track legacy, and "I couldn't wait to run for them."

Suell ran her fastest her senior year when she lost to Jessica Onyepunuka at the state championships in the 100.

"I thought I had shin splints, then we found out it was a fractured tibia," Suell said. "It was even more of a shock.

"It took some time to get there. I see her passing that as she continues to trust in herself."

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Richardson has no doubt Cade can not only pass her mom's 100 time but maybe Onyepunuka's state record.

He believes Cade has it in her to break her own PR this Saturday in the both the 100 and 200.

"She gets off well and relaxes through her phases," Richardson said. "She's going to run fast.

"If she runs 11.71 as a freshman, I think the natural progression with her gains and strengths, and knowing how to execute her race better and better, I think 11.30 could be a mark. If her mom didn't get hurt, she definitely would have been in the 11.30s and 11.40s."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Chandler freshman phenom S'Niyah Cade taking after her mom on track