It was a gorgeous day for a track meet at St Cloud High School for the Orange Belt Conference Championships, bringing together the schools of Osceola County. The clouds were back and forth, just enough to give us shade and a rain scare, but a little shade throughout the day.
On the girls side, Harmony (shot & discus) and Liberty (high jump & long jump) take titles in the field events. Gateway also watched in awe as Amber Jackson won the triple jump with a PR of 38-05.5. that jump puts her just a single inch off the leading jump in all of 4A. Jackson lost the long jump by a mere ¼ inch to liberty rival Kadijah Brown (winner of the high jump and second in the triple). Brown had a great day overall, leading the meet by scoring 36 points on her own.
Other girls highlights include Christine Infantolino winning the 1600 and 3200 races.
Harmony’s Christina Moodie took home gold in the 200 winning in a time of 25.99
Gateway’s Tricia Davis had never competed in the 100m dash until today. Usually a 200-400 runner, Davis took home the conference crown with a victory in the 100m dash
As great as those performances all were, the Lady Kowboys took home the team trophy with a dominating performance in the sprinting & hurdle events. Senior Jodiann Crooks led her team with 24 individual points, and anchored the 4x100 team to a win, giving her Kowgirls 34 of the winning 167 points.
Senior Deara Thomas also went under 15 seconds twice in the hurdles to claim another win.
The Liberty boys came in as the favorites over cross town rival St Cloud. Having won the previous three OBC meets, they were looking to send the seniors out with a fourth. Things got started in the field nicely for St Cloud claiming the shot put, discus and long jump. But Liberty picked up valuable points in all the field events to keep things close when the races started. Marion Brown finished first in the triple jump and second in the long jump. He also won the 400 and finished fourth in the 200 to give Liberty 33 points on the afternoon.
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The Liberty boys took the early 4x800 in a season best time of 823. They were anchored by sophomore Rogelio Araiza (the reigning OBC XC champ). Araiza also picked up wins in the 800 and 1600, contributing 30 points to the Liberty winning total of 245, a school record for points scored in a meet.
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Devarious Turner (also a sophomore) took titles in the 100m and 200m. In both of the sprint finals, he had to compete against three other Chargers which shows incredible depth on Liberty’s part.
Celebration’s Jhonny Victor and David Akins got the crowd excited in their respective events. Victor watched almost the entire field finish before he opened with a 6-02 jump, he ultimately hit 6-07 and narrowly missed 6-10.
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David Akins watched the field finish the pole vault before he opened at 13-06. He finished up with a 15-00 vault, also narrowly missing the next height. Both of those respective marks are currently ranked in the top 3 for class 3A.
Poinciana’s Christian Ramos earned every bit of his 3200 win, going down to the last 20 meters with Liberty’s Tyler Haase, who gave him a serious run in the last 2 laps.
The Athlete of the day has to go to Travon Williams of St Cloud. Williams won 3 events (long jump, 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles) and finished 3rd in the 100m dash, that 100m dash final coming less than 5 minutes after his 110m hurdle finals victory.
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Liberty Coach Robert Pauley had this to say about his teams performance today…
“our depth really showed, being able to place 4 athletes into events. Scoring 245 points was a nice way to cap off a 4-peat. Our coaching staff had an excellent game plan that was executed at a very high level all day. It’s just a great day to be a liberty charger!!”
PS - Our hearts are with Osceola High junior Destiny Merckling who suffered a serious leg injury as she finished the 1600 mile. Please keep Destiny, her family, and her teammates in your thoughts during her recovery
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