The Lakewood Spartans continued their early-season streak with a dual-squad sweep of the 5th Annual Saint Petersburg City Track Championships held at Northside High School on Thursday. Naturally, the Spartans scored big points from their sprinters and even got some help in the distance events to out-pace host Northside, runners up on both the boys and girls sides.
The Spartans have a trio of elite sprinters in sophomore Jamesha Moorer and seniors Terence Ware and Jordan Williams. They score big points for their squads and knocked down several meet records on Thursday. Moorer scored 20 points on her own, 30 if you count the 4x100m relay. Moorer was in top form going sub-12 seconds (11.90) to win the 100m. Her time moves into the number three spot in the state, even if it isn't wind legal. Moorer followed it up with a personal best 24.84 in the 200m, a new meet record, then another meet record fell in the 4x100m (49.38). Sometimes lost in the eye-popping stats of their elite core, the Spartans have a great supporting cast. Shakera Thompson took second in the 100m (12.68) and put in a leg on the winning 4x100m relay.
"This is just proof to me that we're going to keep getting better," Moorer said.
The boys scored big as well with Ware and Williams scoring 38 points between them, 48 if you include Williams' winning effort on the 4x400m relay. Williams is actually an elite sprinter and oftentimes comes in second to or in front of Ware. Yet, Williams' focus is on the hurdles and he swept both the 110s and the 300s on Thursday. Williams' 14.34 and 38.31 knocked down two of current UF star and former Lakewood hurdler TJ Holmes', meet records. Both times move into the third-best times in Florida so far this season.
"Holmes keeps me working to where I can go above and beyond," Williams who was a freshman on the same team with Holmes, said. "I want to get his records and then go after some national records."
Ware got a stout challenge from Admiral Farragut's Alex Gray in both sprints. Ware won the 100m in 10.66 (a top 3 time in FL) with Gray in at 10.77 but Gray returned the favor, winning the 200m in 22.06. Ware was second in 22.35.
It would be AFA who won the 4x100m relay but it had a lot to do with the Lakewood relay missing an exchange zone. Not to be lost in the shuffle, Lakewood supporting cast members made key contributions. Lamontez Pritchett took fourth in the 100m (11.43), fourth in the 200m (23.50) and regularly contributes on what is typically the winning 4x100m relay. Stevenson Choute took second in the 400m (52.71) for the Spartans behind AFA's Alex Oi (52.48) and put in a leg on the Lakewood 4x4. Hurdler Armani Adams took second behind Williams in the 300m hurdles (41.76) and fifth in the 110m hurdles.
Last season, AFA's Brittany McGee would dominate over multiple events. This season, the BlueJackets have a pair of athletes that mop up points. Thrower Ashaunti Brown made it her third year sweeping both throwing events at the St. Pete City meet. Brown already has both meet records and came into Thursday's meet with a twisted ankle. That was not going to stop her from defending her titles as she did a standing throw in the shot and a shortened approach on the disc and still won both events, 37-0 and 120-0, respectively. Barnett, who is accustomed to sweeping the horizontal jumps, couldn't get used to the shorter runway at Northside and didn't log a jump. She did win the long jump at 17-0 and helped the 4x400m relay to victory in 4:20.82.
"I (triple) jumped 39 feet at Berkeley last Saturday and that felt pretty good," Barnett said. "I've been hitting 39-5 in practice, still not quite hit 40 yet."
Another point-scoring tandem emerged on Thursday in Shorecrest distance runners Olivia Rovin and Luke Peterson. Rovin won both the 800m and 1600m. Rovin dominated both events, taking the 1600m in 5:28.76, more than 12 seconds ahead of the field. Rovin set down the meet record going 2:26.03 in the 800m, also 12 seconds ahead of the field.
"I'm happy with how I did, I was really able to push myself today," Rovin said. "I think this (cooler) weather is good for running."
Peterson only ran the 1600m as he is still recovering from a third-place finish in the 5k at Gasparilla but his 4:33.03 set a new meet record and out-paced the field by 14 seconds. Shorecrest teammate Justin Scoby won the 800m in 2:08.76.
Gibbs' Marquez Walls and Northside's Jeff Goodwin both cleared six feet in the high jump with Walls winning it based on attempts at six feet. St. Pete's Zarria Hollis cleared 5-0 to win the girls high jump.
Jakyra Brown of Lakewood and Natalie Chapman of Northside dominated the hurdle events with Chapman winning the 100s at 16.95 and Brown winning the 300s in 48.90.
The deeper distance events had more Lakewood Spartans in the mix. On the girls side, Hannah McAuliffe won the 3200m in 12:15.37, more than 25 seconds ahead of the field. McAuliffe also took second behind Rovin in the 1600m (5:42.30) and helped the Spartan 4x800m relay win in 10:35.04. McAuliffe knocked 10 seconds off her 3200m time from just last Wednesday at the Early Bird Invite.
"I just hate losing," McAuliffe said.
AFA's Hunter McCann won the boys 3200m in 10:25.14, just a second off the meet record. Lakewood's Justin Skyler Walker took the runner up spot in 10:36.09. Walker also grabbed third in the 1600m.
In boys pole vault, St. Pete's Quinn Dudley and Northside's Marc Dagostino both cleared 12 feet with Dudley winning it based on number of attempts.
Canterbury's Iyrese Scott won the long jump at 20-9. Northside's Goodwin was second at 20-2. Goodwin also went 42-4 to win the triple jump.
In the end, the Lakewood boys, even without the score from their 4x100m relay, won 137-112 over Northside.
"This has been a big start to the season for us," Lakewood boys coach Anthony Snead said. "We try to figure out what we can to encourage kids individually, make them see the positives and what they can do better."
The Lakewood girls cruised 162-128 over Northside.