Manatee County Varsity Championships Coverage, Sponsored by On A Shoestring

Manatee County Varsity Championship
Jason Byrne

On-Site Coverage Sponsored by On A Shoestring

Thank you very much to our sponsor at On A Shoestring in Bradenton, we were able to send photographer Jeff Adams down for great photo coverage. He took over 2,000 photos at the meet!

Photo Album by Jeff Adams

Subalbum by Event:

Meet Summary by Jason Byrne

The team battle was one of full-on domination by two different schools. The Lakewood Ranch girls and Manatee boys each laid down big performance after big performance on their way to county championships. But the way they achieved those championships were polar opposites!

It should come as little surprise to anyone paying attention, the Mustangs of Lakewood Ranch earned a high percentage of their points in the distance events.

Those points started out with the 4x800 relay, which saw Olivia Ortiz smile her way to the anchor leg victory in a measured 10:24.43. Obviously from the photo, Ortiz is just happy to be back out on the track competing after her injury! She was joined on the county championship relay team by her sister--fresman Julia Ortiz--along with Elizabeth Chandler (also a freshman) and junior Michelle Last.

Senior Kristin Zarrella had a heck of a day, winning three golds with the 400m (60.88), 800m (2:28.61), and 1600m (5:23.82) victories. Last took second in that 1600 (5:31) and sophomore Katie Wray and Julia Ortiz made it three in the top four for Ranch in the 800m. Wray came back in the 3200 to give Lakewood Ranch another distance win (12:21.76) with teammates Emily Perez and Elizabeth Chandler in third and forth to continue to pile on the points. 

The Mustang ladies also added wins in the pole vault (Cree Lotterer 8-6), triple jump (Rheya Jackson 32-2), 100 hurdles (Talia Falco 16.22) and 4x100 relay (52.14).

Meanwhile, the Manatee boys secured their victory on the backs of a strong sprints, jumps, and throws contingent.

Senior Daren Ardis took first int he long jump (21-6) and second in the triple jump (41-2.5). With teammates Kelvin McKnight and Malik Brooks close behind, they really nailed a lot of points really quickly with the horizontals.

Thor Miller (what a great name for a thrower! I hope he throws the hammer sometime!) got the win in the shot, followed by Derrick Calloway in the discus. That gave them another 20 right there in the throws.

Calloway had the overall best performance of the meet--by pure elite status--when he nailed a new season best by one inch. His toss of 56-3 to win the count shot put championship ranks the seniro fourth overall in the state.

Those events alone were almost enough for the "V", but the hits just came coming with Darryle Brookins and Christopher Whitaker going 1-2 in the 110 Hurdles AND the 300 Hurdles.

Manatee senior Brandon Carnes finished first in the 200 (21.79), second in the 100 (11.04), and helped the team to a 4x100 county championship in 42.05 to really clinche the deal.

Carnes traded wins with Palmetto's Josh Hicks in those sprint events. Hicks nipped him with a lean in the 100m for an 11.01 win, anchored his team to second in that 4x100 (42.99), and laid down another elite performance in the 200 with a 21.82. The junior was within .03 of Carnes again in that one. What a series battles between those two!

Not surprisingly, the boys distance races were dominated by Canaan Meester-Kitterman. The junior from Bayshore won the 1600m with ease (4:41.38), but had a little company in the 3200m with a 10:28.76 victory to Mitch Arnold of Lakewood Ranch (10:32.75) and Matthew McFall of Braden River (10:33.80). Those two were also second and third in a close battle in the 1600 with times of 4:46.30 and 4:46.39, respectively.

Canaan contributed the second leg of Bayshore's narrow victory in the 4x800 over Manatee--8:28.47 to 8:28.90.

 

State Bronze Elite Performances

Girls

Boys