4A State Meet: St. Thomas Sweeps Both Team Titles

FHSAA Outdoor State Finals, Saturday
Andy Warrener

On-Site Coverage

Girls Recap

If the Class 4A team title was ever in doubt, it was not for long. American and Dr. Phillips hung with Saint Thomas Aquinas during the field events but as soon at the running event finals began, the Raider girls stated to separate.

Krystal Sparling and Khalifa St. Fort finished second and third, respectively in the 100m finals with Diamond Spaulding taking fifth. The triumvirate scored second, third and fourth finishes in the 200m finals.

Senior USC-committ Kendall Ellis ran a 52.95 in the 400m finals to not just win the event but top her already national mark of 53.09 from regionals. The Raider girls scored in the 800m with Alon Lewis and Christina Kalis and the procession went on.

The girls won the 4x800m, the 4x100m and capped the night with a win in the 4x400m in 4:00.31. All told, the girls racked up 109.5. Second place Northeast had 50. It gave them their 10th team title. 

Ellis, won her fourth straight title in the 400m and became only the eighth girl in Florida to win four back-to-back titles in the event. Even Ellis' record-breaking day couldn't overshadow Northeast's Daeshon Gordon winning both the 100m and 300m hurdles. Gordon left little doubt, running the top qualifying times in both events, then winning the 100m hurdles in 13.88, just off her fourth-best mark in the nation from regionals (13.46). Gordon wasn't done, either. She went 42.15 in the 300m final to win it.

"I've been working toward it (sweeping the hurdles)," Gordon, an LSU-committ said. "Now I've got it."

East Ridge sophomore Kaylin Whitney destroyed the sprints, winning both the 100m and 200m in 11.48 and 23.69, respectively. Whiney's 200m time stands as the 10th best in the nation and her 100m time comes in as the ninth-best mark in the country. Whitney's form was impeccable ad it helped her crush her competition. 

"The first thing I work on is technique," Whitney said. "Technique beats talent any day."

Lake Brantley's Sinclaire Johnson led a ferocious 1600m race chased by Katherine MacNeal of Cypress Bay. Both girls finished under 5:02, Johnson winning it with a 5:01.49. Aquinas' Alexa Cruz took the 3200m in 10:52.44. 

Lake Mary's Erica Sergeant went 12-0 to claim the girls pole vault title in Class 4A.

Stacey Destin of Santaluces out-jumped her regional mark by nearly eight inches to claim the long jump title (18-10.75). Brittany Bowald of Atlantic Coast won the triple jump at 39-3.5, edging Ebony Luster of Lake Mary by three-and-a-half inches.

Boys Recap

Saint Thomas Aquinas was nearly as dominant on the boys side winning it with 76 points to runner-up American with 44. Dr. Phillips was a close third with 43.

Raider freshman Trevon Grimes won the 300m in 37.94 knocking more than a second off his preliminary time, along with knocking over the last hurdle en route. Grimes also grabbed fourth in the 110m hurdles scoring 15 points for his team. 

Two of the most exciting finishes in the 4A meet came in the boys distance events. Plant's Jack Guyton won both events in dramatic fashion. First it was the 1600m. Guyton made his way onto the lead pack by the third lap but by the fourth, turned on the jets and left the rest of the field behind finishing in 4:11.86. Next it was the 3200m. The field stretched way ahead of Guyton who looked to be coasting after blasting out the 1600m. However, Guyton worked up over the last few laps before he had Coral Reef's Kurt Convey in his sights. Convey had led the entire race but as Guyton's rocket final lap began to catch him, Convey didn't have the gas to keep up and Guyton zipped past him to finish in 9:20.35, more than 18 seconds faster than his regional time. 

Terry Jernigan of East Ridge and Andre Ewers of Piper battled it out in the sprints. Jernigan got the better of it going 10.51 in the 100m and 21.39 in the 200m.

Apopka senior Jamal Whittaker took his first step toward sweeping the boys 4A throwing events by topping his regional mark of 58-9, going 59-6 to win the shot put. However, he was thwarted by Aquinas' Ryan Crozier who launched the discus 164-0 to edge Whittaker by four feet.

Junior Ari Cogdell of American came in with the top 400m time in the nation, a 46.67 that held even after the first day of many state meets across the country. However, Saturday was not Cogdell's day and he slipped to fourth as Rasheed Tatham of Aquinas won the event in 47.22, now eighth-best mark in the country. 

Elite Performances

Girls

Boys