Walt Disney Invitational: Teams Gather from Near and Far

Disney Invitational
Donald Lamb

 

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY DONALD LAMB

Donald is a devoted elementary level coach and teacher in Kissimmee, regular photographer on flrunners.com, and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brother of flrunners.com founder Jason Byrne.

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Complete Walt Disney Invitational Results and Coverage

Photo Album by Donald Lamb (221 Photos)

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The rain dampened my plans for the morning, I was all set to run the Winter Park 10K, Sponsored by Track Shack. Since I was home much earlier than anticipated, I was able to catch some more action at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.  The House of Mouse was in its second day of action for the Walt Disney Invitational. The meet hosted several Florida high school teams, a handful of schools from the Southeast and some high schools from as far away as Canada. In addition to the wide regional range of teams represented, there were also had several smaller colleges competing, among them, Jason and I’s alma matter, Florida Southern College out of Lakeland, FL.

After one day of competition on the girls side, Lake Worth had a 28 point lead after nine events over Ransom Everglades. Lake Worth won three of the four relays contested with Ransom taking the other. They also scored a win when Tiah Sanborn won the high jump. Clearwater Central Catholic and Leesburg were close behind in third and forth respectfully, just a few points away from second place.

The boys division was a slightly different story with Liberty High School of Kissimmee mounting a 34-point lead over second place Dade Christian, third place Bearden (Knoxville, TN) and forth place Clearwater Central Catholic. The Liberty boys earned points in seven of the nine contested event finals, winning two relays in the process. 

On day two at the WWOS, we didn’t see many changes atop the leader board. I personally watched in awe as Lake Worth continued their dominance in the relays events, taking the 4x400 and 4x800. Those two wins gave them a total of five of seven relay wins. Ransom Everglades and George Jenkins took the other two. The won the meet win 128 points, 46 points more than second place Ransom Everglades. Clearwater Central Catholic came in third with 50 points.

Liberty continued its ways from Friday by earning medals in nearly every contested event. They earned points in all but two of the 21 events. They racked up an impressive 155 points, Dade Christian came in second, close behind was Bearden High School. The jumpers (Marion Brown and Joshua Wilson) mounted up some serious points for the second consecutive week.

"I'm proud of our team," Liberty head coach Robert Pauley said, "our depth really shows. With obc's & state series coming up, our team and coaching staff is cranking on all cylinders."

Other meet highlights from the two-day event include:

Three boys triple jumpers going over 45 feet each. Three girls long jumpers sailed over the 17-06 ft mark.

The 100 and 200 saw familiar foes in Marshall Nunn (South Lake), Wallace swift (Edgewater) and Devarious Turner (Liberty). Swift  won the 100m over Nunn. The South Lake sprinter then battled back to win the 200. Turner, a sophomore, respectfully took third in both races. Their respective squads are all district opponents in 3A, making that District meet on April 18 all the more intriguing.

Kaylin Whitney, a freshman out East Ridge, came back for her second consecutive at Disney to get another win. Last week she won the 200m and got second in the 100m; this year she won the100m in 11.98.

Britney McGee of Admiral Farragut High won the 100m hurdles with a 14.64 mark. That is just a hundredth of a second off her Class 1A state leading time.

State "Bronze" Elite Performances

Girls

Boys