On-Site Coverage
No one besides Plant, Hillsborough and Wharton has won the Vernon Khorn Hillsborough County track championships, boys or girls, for the last three years. Tuesday at Jefferson ushered in a changing of the guard as the Steinbrenner girls comfortably out-paced the field with 91.5 to second-place Wharton with 78. Freedom girls were third with 61.
“We kind of scored everywhere today,” Warriors coach Ladd Baldwin said. “It’s important how to put together depth, where people can score.”
Baldwin and the Warriors put it to the test Tuesday as they won the very first meet of the day, the girls 4x800m in a eye-popping 9:36.24, more than 17 seconds faster than their time from just a week ago. Then Baldwin sent his runners into their individual events. 4x800m runner Emily Petrus (pictured above) went out and claimed second in the open 800m and then third in the 1600m.
Other shining stars on the girls side were Janae Caldwell of Spoto. After claiming both the 400m and the 200m last week at the divisional meet, Caldwell followed it up with wins in both events at the county meet, Tuesday.
Alonso’s Lynette Robertson jumped out of her shoes, Tuesday, winning both the triple jump (36-1) and the long jump (17-7.5), going more than three feet over her jumps from a week ago.
In the sprints, it was Middleton’s Deja Rodgers back in the driver’s seat, winning the girls 100m in 12.26, her fastest time of the season. Rodgers backed it up with a second-place finish in the 200m (24.98). She also took a leg on Middleton’s fourth-place 4x100m relay.
Freedom’s Anel Smith won the 300m hurdles in 45.29, resetting her personal record and fighting off a hard charge from Riverview’s Maia Carter. Carter claimed the 100m hurdles title in 14.90.
In the distance events, the Plant girls Bailey Sullivan and Anna Montgomery ran stride-for-stride through seven of the eight laps of the girls 3200m and easily out-paced the field in 11:34.71, Montgomery was second at 11:49.31 and Chamberlain’s Maggie Parrish was third in 11:55.83. Wharton’s Bryana Rivers was in a melee with Armwood’s Lindsay Shealy and Wharton’s Mariah Henderson until the final straightaway where Rivers kicked past Shealy and Henderson for the win.
“She (Rivers) did the same thing last week (over took two runners in the final straightaway),” Wildcat coach Anthony Triana said. “They gave her the number two (race sticker), I told her, ‘you’re not number two, are you’.”
Rivers would go on to win the girls 800m in 2:26.36.
The Warriors scored big in the field events, along with the races. Lauren Scherschel was runner-up in pole vault to Plant’s Rachel Goding. Goding went 10-6, Scherschel went 10-0. The Warriors grabbed second and third in the long jump as Nicole Dorsey went 16-8 and Taylor Hotchkiss went 16-5. Hillsborough’s Jada Roberson and Faith Brown chased Alonso’s Robertson for triple jump and improved on their marks from last week, 35-9 and 35-6.5, respectively. Cloe Jones of Hillsborough won the girls shot (39-9.25) and Ashley Wilson of Freedom won the girls discus (118-3).
The boys team competition was not decided until the final heat of the final event, the 4x400m. Up to that point, Newsome, Hillsborough, Jefferson and Armwood were separated by less than four points. Bloomingdale, East Bay and Blake all came in and then a furious race for the remaining points ensued. Newsome, Gaither and Armwood pounded it out for the last 100m and it was Newsome’s Todd Jackson (pictured above) that edged the others for fifth place, just enough to bump his team over the top and win it with 61.7 points to Hillsborough’s 57. Armwood would come in third with 55 and Bloomingdale, after winning the 4x400m, jumped up to fourth with 52 points.
Middleton’s Shug Rhynes exerted almost complete dominance over the boys sprints. Rhynes won the 100m in 10.68 to reset his personal mark on the season. Rhynes fell just short of East Bay’s James Hambrick in the 200m, Hambrick winning it in 21.85 with Rhynes on his heels in 21.89.
Through middle distance, Newsome’s Jackson from the 4x400m relay won the open event in 49.01 with Blake’s Jermal Wiley right behind at 49.24. Bloomingdale dominated the 800m with Matt Butler and Kevin Heron taking first and second, Butler in 1:57.56 and Heron in 1:57.76. Butler, in his first year running track, knocked three seconds off his time from a week ago.
In the distance events, Plant’s Jack Guyton and Sickles’ James Zentmeyer crushed their respective fields. Guyton ran a blistering fourth lap in the boys 1600m to take first in 4:20.01. Meanwhile, Zentmeyer got out in front and never looked back, cruising to a dominant 9:39.30, almost 20 seconds faster than his time from last week.
Riverview’s Sean Manhertz nearly cracked 15 seconds in the boys 110m hurdles, going 15-flat and taking first. Armwood’s Jordan Green had aims at unseating Gaither hurdling sensation Samson Moore in the 300m hurdles. Paired in the same heat in prelims, Green stuck his head across the line to top Moore but in the finals, Moore was too much. Hoping to run in the 39’s while still coming back from a hamstring injury, Moore, with a heavy push from Green, ran a 37.59. The mark was just tenths of a second off Gaither’s school record set by 2012 state champion Paul Barrett and it set down Desmond McGill of Brandon’s meet record from 2009. Green broke Armwood’s school record with his 37.62.
In the field events, Hillsborough’s Dwayne Lawson won the boys high jump, clearing 6-4. Runner-up Aaron Covington, who gave away six inches in height to Lawson, cleared 6-2 to take second place. Lawson also grabbed second in the triple jump (44-10) to Spoto’s Marc McCoy (44-11.50)
In the throwing events, Jefferson’s Juwuan Brown shattered his mark from last week by more than four feet, going 51-2. Runner-up Byron Cowart of Armwood threw 49-00 in shot and 128-10 in disc, taking second. First place went to Brad Smith of Gaither who threw 145-7.
“We filmed some of my throws and looked at technical things that I was doing wrong and went back and fixed them,” Smith said. “It showed today.”
Elite Performances
Girls Highlights
Boys Highlights