The field is looking even stronger than reported last week. Stars from throughout the indoor track & field deprived Southeast are heading to Gainesville, Florida as we speak for tomorrow's big meet. The Innagural Gainesville Indoor Classic will start at 9AM at the O-Dome on Saturday. State champions in various events from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama are on the entry list, along with many others. Olympic hopeful and Palm Bay alum, Xavier Carter, who has been training in Gainesville under Coach Mike Holloway, will be there as well signing autographs. Jamaica olympian Novlene Williams will also be signing autographs for fans.Flrunners will be on site with a team of four to bring you photos, vidoeos, results, summaries, and interviews!

Amanda Perkins is a Junior at Spruce Creek high school in Ormond Beach, Florida. She recently finished 5th at the 4A state Cross Country meet and was the 5th florida girl at Footlocker South with a time of 18:04. She ran 5:02 for the 1600m last track season and is looking to go sub 5 this season. Here is what Amanda had to say about her running.

On Saturday, at the Daytona International Speedway they hosted a different kind of race--the kind that doesn't omit any polution into the air.  A big field of 634 runners and around a thousand walkers turned out for the Daytona 5K.  Ralph Epifanio was there and wrote this race summary, along with some photos.

Several state champions and competitors ranging from 8 to 64 years old highlight over 200 entrants in the inaugural 16 event Gainesville Sports Commission Indoor Track and Field meet scheduled for February 2, 2008 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on the University of Florida campus.

Going up against the best high school distance runners in the nation, including four of the top five at Foot Locker CC Nationals, Joseph Franklin finished in eigth place out of eleven with a time of 4:14.82 for the full mile. He finished ahead of Footlocker runner-up Chris Derrick, but certainly not the kind of finish he was hoping for. Luke Puskedra (Utah) took the race out hard and only Colby Lowe (Texas) went with him. The difference in the race was pretty much decided there, as the two kept their lead the entire race. Lowe would challenge with 800 meters go to and took the lead for about a lap. With 600 meters to go Puskedra took it back and the lead changed several times before Puskedra took the lead for good in the last 100 meters. Puskedra finished in 4:08.77 to Lowe's 4:08.99. Kyle Merber of New York was third in 4:12.42. Race Summary & Photos by ArmoryTrack, our New York affiliate More Meet Coverage & Results

Ryan Harris of Oak Hall beat out Michael Wallace of Bishop Kenny 4:28.78 to 4:29.32 in the only high school indoor track & field mile race that will be contested in Florida this year. On the girls side, it was a notably young race with the majority of the field being freshmen or younger. Grace Vandegrift finished in first with a time of 5:18.88, ahead of local friend and former teammate Mallory White of Lakeland Christian who finished in a second place 5:19.62. Jana Stolting of Maclay was in third 5:22.04. Full High School and College Results...

Joe Franklin, along with his father and Coach Sumner, arrived in Boston on Friday. There they were warmly greeted by Reebok with lots of branded materials, which were very well received, especially the custom-made shoes with "Franklin" printed on them. The Godby senior will face off tomorrow against perhaps his toughest challenge yet, the High School Mile race at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games. That field will include four of the top five boys from Foot Locker Nationals last month: Michael Fout, Chris Derrick, Colby Lowe, and Luke Puskedra. Many of you have been following Franklin lately in his daily blogs with us. He has extraordinary plans for himself this spring in the 1600/Mile... 4:00 to be exact. It's early in the season yet and this race is indoors, but we should see an extremely competitive and fast race as many of these guys kick the dust off of their track spikes for the first time this year. The race will go off at 7:15PM Eastern. The Girls race is an hour earlier, but involves no Floridians. Check out this article for photos of the boys and girls fields, along with a look at some of the gear the athletes got. Be sure to read the latest update to Joe's blog as well. Good luck tonight, Joe!

He first told the world about his goal in cross country. At the state meet, as long time commentator Ricky Quintana asked him about his plans for the spring, his eyes lit up. "All great miler's goal is to break four... and I'm going to go after that (this spring)" While most runners who have run competitively in the mile may dream of one day running a four minute mile, few will actually say it out loud. Fewer have the courage to announce it to the world, especially attached with a timeframe. But that's exactly what Joe did. Some say he'll get there, some balk. But whether he is successful in his quest or not, it will sure be an exciting trip, and we plan to take you on the ride with him this spring. Starting today we will get as close to walking on Joe's shoes as we can, as he tells us of the trials and tribulations, training and dedication, careful planning and emotions that he experiences in his quest. In his first entries today, Joe talks about the training he is doing this week leading up to his January 26 appearance at the Boston Indoor Games. Enjoy!

It's been an amazing year for Florida's Wellington High junior Ashley Brasovan! After finally overcoming the "Footlocker South curse", she not only qualified for Foot Locker Nationals, but won the national championship! With a fearsome and uncharacteristic late race surge, she outkicked the best the nation had to offer including two former national champions. With that performance, along with another stellar year of races including a third cross country state championship, Gatorade announced today that Ashley has been named its first-ever Gatorade Girls National Cross Country Runner of the Year. Ashley's family threw her a surprise dinner party last night to annonce the news to her, apparently under the guise of her sister's birthday party. Imagine what her reaction must have been when she found out! We have an interview scheduled with Ashley, which will be posted perhaps tonight.

Photo by John Herzog Last night national cross country champion Ashley Brasovan found out in a surprise party that she had been named Gatorade National Girls Runner of the Year. Today we asked Ashley about the honor, her training and upcoming season, and got a chance to find out a little more about this little starlet who has gone from Florida phenom to the nation's high school distance runner going into track season.

Florida fans knew they’d be seeing more than four years of collegiate racing from Atlantic’s Sean Jefferson following his record setting senior season. In 2001, Sean capped off his high school career by blowing away the 4a 3200m field and smashing his own state meet record by 14 seconds in a time of 8:59.03.

Florida State/Flagler Palm Coast grad is on her way to USATF Champs in February. There are many athletes who graduate from college and are left with the feeling that they didn't accomplish everything they wanted to during their collegiate careers. Most move on with their lives, content to hold on to those memories and to make their mark in their chosen profession. But a few just can't shake the feeling that they could have accomplished more – that if given the time and circumstances – they can do some great things. Flagler Palm Coast and Florida State University alum Alycia Williams is one such athlete. Photo by Vic Sailer, PhotoRun.net

 

Riley Egan vaulted to a big new personal best out in Arkansas this weekend.  In this morning's high school competition the St. Thomas Aquinas senior cleared 15-8 for third place and bettering his Nike Outdoor performance from last summer by almost five inches.Going into the spring, Egan is the top Florida returner in the event.  The winning vault was by Jack Whitt, a junior from Oklahoma, who cleared 16-0.  Great job to Riley to start off 2008 with a bang!  

Jeff Demps, the US #2 returning at 100 meters and is also one of the top football prospects in the country.  The 10.25 sprinter announced today on ESPNU that he will be attending the University of Florida in 2008.  After many deliberations and visits he decided on UF over Tennessee and Kentucky.

 Craig Wise of the Central Florida Gliders Club in Orlando wants to help revive a couple things that he feels have been missing in the Florida high school track & field season.  That's why at this year's Gliders Classic on May 10-11 in Altamonte Springs, one of the largest summer club meets in Florida, he will be adding two new areas of competition aimed at the high school aged athlete.

The seventh annual Flrunners.com Middle School State Championship will go on as scheduled on May 3 at 9AM.  The meet will be again held at the National Training Center in Clermont.  There were some doubts whether the meet would happen in 2008, simply for lack of time by flrunners.com founder Jason Byrne, who had been responsible for the majority of the planning for the event.

The “road” to this year’s DeLeon Springs Race(s) was actually many roads. For both the male and female winners of the half, for example, Chuck Lennon Park-- where the races were staged from--was a terminus that they hope will lead to upcoming triathlons.