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When he was a sophomore, Ro’Derick Spears was running pretty good times in his hurdling events. But his older brother, Roderick, was getting all his stats, courtesy of a mistake on flrunners.com, a website that tracks the times of every high school runner in Florida.
“He would tease Ro’Derick a little bit saying, ‘look at everything I did,’ ” said North Port High track and field coach Tony Miller.
“It was funny because you can only compete in four events in a track meet and Roderick was shown as competing in seven.” Ro’Derick finally got his pub the following year because his brother graduated.
“We fixed it up,” said Ro’Derick, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound athlete who looks like he barely breaks a sweat after completing a 110-meter hurdle race.
“(At first) everyone was like, ‘Oh Rod, I see you, you’ve got all these stats and your brother doesn’t have anything. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, just stop.’ ”
That mixup would have mattered a lot more now because Ro’Derick is putting together a pretty nice little finish to his high school career.
He ran elite times in the 110- and 300-meter hurdle events on March 16 and has the fastest time in both in Southwest Florida. He has won both events at every meet he has entered this spring except for a meet in Tampa. He also has the fifth fastest time in the state in Class 4A in the 300 (39.42) and the seventh fastest in the 110 (14.52).
At one point this season, Spears held the fourth fastest time in the state in all classifications.
“I knew I was good, but not that good,” said Spears, who hopes to shave more off his time as the postseason approaches.
His wins this season have helped lead the North Port track team to a near-pristine record. The Bobcats have won every meet they have entered except for the George Steinbrenner Invitational in Tampa, which attracted 80 teams from across the state.
“We’ve always been good, finishing in the top five in meets, but this is the first time we’ve won every meet we’ve been to . . . a new plateau for us,” Miller said.
“It’s going to be interesting to see once we get into April to see what transpires. Most of our main group of kids are seniors and they’re just putting an awesome year together.”
That includes Cody Janski, who has the fastest time in the area in the 400 meter (50.53), and Robenson Saintaird, a sprinter whose times in the 100 (11.23) and 200 (22.54) are the fastest in Sarasota County.
“All these guys are key to our success this season,” Miller said.
But which one is the most important?
Janski and Spears had a competition at practice last Monday to decide.
“We were all arguing about who racked up the most points,” Spears said, “so we tried to see who could throw the discus the furthest. Cody beat me — a couple of my throws were off — but I beat him out last Thursday night when I won overall male athlete at our meet.” Spears won three events, helping his team score 30 points.
