Girls Race Recap
The first race of the day was the Class 4A Region 1 Girls Championship and was on the exhilarating end of the spectrum. Fletcher's Kayley Delay played coy in her interview after the District meet- remaining even keeled and not committing to a time or a goal. With Winter Park's Rafaella Gibbons, Winter Springs freshman star Elayna Bahr, Lake Brantley freshman star, Ashley Klingenberg and Lake Mary's Daniela Urzua in the race, she would have some of her more heady competition of the season.
Many of runner a Foot Locker qualifiers have run this course with Boone's Brittiany Koziara leading Jenny Simpson(nee Barringer) and Bridget Blake with a best of 17:37.94, 17:51.89 and 17:56.18 so time was also in play for the race.
Gibbons was quick to let her presence known as she raced to the front in the first 100 meters. By the mile, Delay had separated herself from Gibbons. A quick glance at the clock by Delay at the mile mark was a distant and different demeanor from what she showed a week before where she was just cruising. Something special seemed to be afoot. Her 5:27 mile split was 4 seconds up on Gibbons' 5:31.
The lead continued to grow and by two mile she was on her own.|
"I could hear people telling me I was going to break the record," said Delay. "I wasn't sure though."
Behind her, Bahr and Klingenberg were battling hitting the mile in 5:34. Bahr would eventually break free from Klingenberg and take aim at Gibbons. Approaching two mile, she had caught Gibbons and began to press the pace on the one time state champion.
Delay was now in no woman's land running against the clock. Her two mile split was 11:12, but she still wasn't sure if that pace was going to get her a record.
Her final time of 17:37.40 was a record by the narrowest of margins and put her ahead of some storied Florida runners.
" I wanted to come out and run a good time. I'm kinds of surprised at how well I did. I am very happy with it, "Delay said afterwards.
Before this meet, there were only three who had run under 18 minutes on this course. Bahr's 17:59.30 for second place made her the second under 18 minutes for the day and was an improvement of 27 seconds over her previous best. Remarkably, Bahr has improved 2:17.3 since the Wickham Park Jamboree 2 months ago.
Gibbons third place time of 18:09.80 was a season best. Hana Herndon, Melanie White, Elizabeth Jenkins, Jennifer Coddington also ran seasonal bests to post a team score of 60 points.
"The goal was a dress rehearsal for next week," said Winter Park Head Coach Kristin McWilliams. "We never overlook any competition at any level. Our goal is on the big prize and the state championship. We're trying to win our third in a row. "
"We all know that we can push each other so we key off each other during the race," said Elizabeth Jenkins who announced her commitment to FSU in the morning.