Osceola County Owns 4A District 5, Kowboys & Lady Bulldogs Victorious

Apr 16, 2014

(Photo by Chen Wang/Celebration High School)

On-Site Coverage

District competition has begun for the big schools throughout Florida. While the small schools begin the march toward Jacksonville with regional events being held this week, it’s merely the first step in that journey for the 3A & 4A schools. What strategies will the coaches pull to help advance their team to the next level? Athletes might wind up running a different program then they are used to, because even though we compete alone, the points count for our team.

Two familiar foes squared off with each other for the right to be crowned champion on the girl’s side. St. Cloud won the XC district title over George Jenkins back in the fall and narrowly beat them at the regional. Jenkins did have a higher finish at the state meet however. Obviously track is very different, but each team had a strong distance core that would ultimately decide the meet and pad up the points to separate themselves from the other teams. St Cloud came out on top tonight after some strong wins in the 800 (Gonzalez) and 3200 (Solorzano). The final tally was 156-135. Both teams depth proved strong tonight, but as the meets get bigger, elite mark begin to take over, keep an eye on Haines City next week in Tampa.

The boy’s side wasn’t nearly as close. The Osceola boys are trending upward with 2nd year coach Ray Hines at the helm. He brought in a new style and has the Kowboys in a great spot moving forward. Being a football coach (with a perennial powerhouse), he developed a solid rapport with his players and it’s working. His team is loaded with underclassmen that are scoring points. Seniors Akiel Hamilton and Traquel Hazley led the way today, but the future is bright in Kissimmee. Osceola scored 161 points to take the win over county rival Celebration.

Other meet highlights include:

Jhonny Victor of Celebration had a tremendous day with wins in the long jump (22-6) and high jump (6-8). He took 2nd in the triple jump with a 44ft effort. He ran the 2nd leg of the 4x100 (which took 7th) to contribute 30 points toward his teams total.
Amuru Patterson & Deja Hillman of Haines City performed well today and will advance to regionals in 3 events each. Patterson won the 100 and was 2nd on the 200. Hillman won the long jump and took 2nd in the triple. The ladies combined to lead the 4x100 team as well.
Daja Clayton of Gateway won the hurdle double again for the ladies. She set a PR in the 300 and has her sights on the school record. She contributed to the 3rd place 4x400 team as well.