4A State Meet Coverage Headquarters

FHSAA 4A Outdoor State Finals
Jason Byrne

Highlights and coverage from Saturday's 4A state meet in Jacksonville with on-site coverage from Todd Grasley, Randy Settle, Andy Warrener, Raul Ramirez, and Dean Headley.

On-Site Coverage

Highlights by Andy Warrener

The boys team title was largely a race between Olympia, defending champ St. Thomas Aquinas and Colonial. Colonial High senior Andres Arroyo scored 30 of his team's 38 points on his own and Aquinas and Olympia duked it out as the running events, pole vault and high jump all finished at nearly the same time. Olympia senior Clayton Washburn tied St.Petersburg senior Cayman Ellis for the pole vault title in the final event of the day, scoring a big nine points for his team and helping them clinch the title with 49. Aquinas was second with 42 and Colonial third.


 
Headlining the Class 4A meet on Saturday was Arroyo going for a triple crown in the 800m, the 1600m and the 3200m. It would be a feat that had only been done once for Florida boys since been duplicated since the metric system took over the sport sports (Justin Taylor did it in 2006 for 2A). Coming in Arroyo had the top national time in the 800m and third fastest in the 1600m. He was largely favored to complete the task, but the weather conditions through in another unexpected variable. The typhoon-like conditions forced meet managers to alter the schedule last minute, going to a timed finals accross all running events (no prelims) and moving the start of the finals four hours earlier than planned. 
 
The Colonial senior actually was forced to laced up and run in a teammate's track spikes because his parents didn't get the memo about the schedule change.
 
Arroyo was unphased, cruising to a comfortable win in the 1600m (4:15.50), leading the entire way and finishing more than four seconds ahead of the field. Just seven races later, Arroyo lined up for his shot at the 800m. Boyd Anderson sophomore Javon Patterson led the field after the first lap but Arroyo closed on the turn, passed him on the back stretch, extended his strides and finished home for his second title in 1:54.09. Arroyo then walked off the track, got a drink, let the 200m races go and then after one heat of the girls 3200m was back on the track again for his longest and likely most challenging race of the day. After a few laps in the back, Arroyo separated and with just over a lap to go had established all the lead he would need to make history. With about 420 meters to go, Arroyo looked to his left and right, saw no challenges and finished in 9:30.75 to win by more than four seconds.
 
"I was feeling a little sick before and I think I got a little too excited with everything going on but I just tried to think and focus on my times," Arroyo said. "It's thanks to the hard work, training hard no days off Monday to Sunday."
 
Arroyo will go down as one of the greatest prep distance runners in Florida state history--perhaps even the unrivaled the best ever.
 
"It's amazing, I'm so glad that I could be an inspiration to younger athletes coming up," Arroyo said. 


 
Exerting hurdle dominance was Park Vista senior Christopher Grinley. Grinley claimed titles in both the 110m hurdles (13.93) and again in the 300m hurdles (37.47). 
 
 
The sprints were not dominated by any one athlete but a surprising effort from freshman Amir Rasul of Columbus, positioned him as the top male sprinter of the meet. Rasul, who slipped out of the blocks, won a photo finish in the 100m edging out John Franklin of South Plantation and Brandon Carnes of Manatee. All three were separated by just one-tenth of a second. Rasul followed it up by taking second place in the 200m (21.44) behind South Broward's Kahlil Henderson.
 
"(the slip) It did mess with me a little but I knew I wanted to give it my all," Rasul said.
 
Caleb Collins, a senior from Winter Park won the long jump (22-10) and placed second in the triple jump (46-3). Alex Gomez of Olympia finished a quarter of an inch behind Collins in the long jump.
 
Reggie Glover, a senior North Carolina-commit almost missed out on a title in the 400m. Glover set out to an early lead and had a clear track down the final stretch when he blew a tire and had to hobble the last 20 meters. He still finished just in front of Kenneth Lane of Lake Brantley in 48.62.
 
Manatee senior and USF football commit Derrick Calloway braved the slippery conditions to repeat as shot put champion with a throw of 58-5. 
 
On the girls side, St. Thomas Aquinas unseated reigning champion Boyd Anderson scoring 92, Boyd Anderson was runner-up with a very respectable 82 points. Reflected in the team win were the Raider girls wins in the 4x400m and the 4x800m. Sophomore Alon Lewis anchored the 4x800m team and turned in a dominant leg that helped the girls top their regional qualifying time and finish in 9:25.41. The Raider girls were never in danger in the 4x400m, cursing to a comfortable win topping their top seeded mark with a 3:45.01 finish. The Raider girls already own the top national mark in the event, a 3:40.74. 

 
Floating the already buoyant team scores for the Raiders was freshman Shanell Atkins winning the shot with a throw of 42-11.5, more than five feet beyond the second place throw. Junior Kendall Ellis defended her crown in the 400m in 54.96. The Raiders also got a runner-up finish from sophomore Krystal Sparling in the 200m (23.81).
 
Aquinas' sweeping team accomplishments could not overshadow some amazing individual accomplishments.

 
Dr. Phillips senior Bridget Blake wowed the crowd at the University of North Florida with first place finishes in the 1600m (5:00.51), the 3200m (10:58.43), and a runner-up finish in the 800m (2:16.59). Blake had no challenges in the 1600m but fought off several athletes to claim the 3200m. The only reason Blake didn't nab the distance triple crown was that senior Michelle Howell of Seminole Ridge ran a 2:10.12 that shattered her own personal record and was more than six seconds ahead of Blake. 
 
Like everyone else, the schedule change took Blake by surprise... perhaps even mid-bite.
 
"I got a text when we were at Panera about the rolling races and had to rush back over here and only had about five minutes of warmups," Blake said. "(in her 1600m race) I just wanted to go out hard and if anyone wants to come they can come."

 
Boyd Anderson senior Kali Davis-White capped her high school track career by dominating the girls sprints. She was pushed by Sparling in the 100m but ran a 200m that cemented her in the record books. In the 200m final, Davis-White put an exclamation point on the meet, her event and her prep career by shattering a 12 year old record set by Ericka Whipple in 2001. Whipple's previous state record of 23.36 and the national mark of 23.39 were set down in deplorable conditions by Davis-White who finished it in 23.05.
 
"(when told about her record time) Oh, my God, I'm so happy, I don't even know how to act right now," Davis-White said. "I was worried, I have like two spikes left in my shoes but it turned out wonderful…wonderful."
 
 
Killian senior Ebony Morrison won two state titles Saturday. First stepping out into the swampy jump pits and winning the long jump at 19-4.5 and hitting on just two marks. Morrison followed up the performance by winning the 100m hurdles and de-throning Boyd Anderson junior Daeshon Gordon by running a 13.82. Gordon came back an claimed first place in the 300m hurdles. Aquinas senior Toria Levy gave her a good run but Levy clipped the second-to-last hurdle and crashed face first on the final hurdle. 

The Days of Inside-Out Umbrellas

The weather gods kept things fair for the 4A state athletes. The same driving rain and wind that hampered Friday's state finalists challenged Saturday's athletes. 
 
A note on adverse conditions.
 
Running full speed down a narrow runway, then jamming a 15 foot pole into a plastic box and sailing through the air over a bar that is higher than a basketball hoop is dangerous enough on its own. When the runway is wet, when the box is a puddle, and when the pole that keeps you airborne is slippery wet, it borders on the insane. Yesterday in the girls pole vault, the event official had to award dual state titles to both Julia Fowler of Charlotte and Christina Wiggins of Pine Forest. Both girls managed to clear 11 feet but a jump off in the conditions proved impossible as neither could clear a higher height. 
 
The high jump results reflected the conditions, too. In Friday's 3A finals, only two of the 16 athletes cleared any height whatsoever. The champion, Bobby Harris of Springstead, cleared just 6-2, more than six inches off his PR.
 
"I think everybody jumping yesterday was worried about slipping on their approach because of the sloppy conditions, I just kept reminding myself that I worked hard all season to get here and i tried to put the conditions out of my mind and trust my spikes - it seemed to work," Harris said.
 
The infield slowly devolved into a shallow swimming pool, making throwing events, nearly impossible. Implements didn't bounce, they stuck fast in the muck and just trying to make a dry throw was a challenge for every athlete. 
 
"I had to fight to keep my hand, neck and shot dry, it was a huge factor," 3A shot and disc champion Austin Droogsma said.
 
Droogsma repeated as state champ in both events but his throws of 183-3 (discus) and 57-2.5 (shot) were far off his personal records but plenty good enough to win both events. 
 
On Saturday, the event already endured one postponement and faced the same challenging and dangerous conditions. A second postponement was called after an athlete was injured in warmups. In the afternoon the entire preliminary running queue was scratched in favor of a timed finals. It further condensed the meet and proved that human beings are indeed at the mercy of mother nature. 
 
The high jump nearly turned disastrous when in warmups, one of the jumpers slipped on the approach and crashed into the pad and nearly crashed into the standard. 
 
The pole vault was delayed on two occasions and wound up being the last meet of the day to be completed. The conditions stymied a jump off between boys co-champions Cayman Ellis of St. Peterburg and Clayton Washburn of Olympia. Both cleared a very respectable 14-6 in spite of the conditions.
 
"It was really cold, it was mental game," Ellis said. "You just have to do what you have been doing and not let the weather affect you, which I did, I jumped really well and felt I could have kept going but I have to say I'm happy about it."
 

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