Chronicling History: The Lady Nason Line - Florida's Top Girls Prep 3200M/2 Milers

Florida: The Warre Room: Chronicling History
Michael Warre

It was August of 1974 and the Class of '75 would become the first class of young women to be sanctioned and allowed to run, train & compete for their respective schools as athletes' in both Cross Country & Track & Field.  The Nation as a whole was in a running boom with running shoes becoming chic and at the Girls Prep level,  Florida was playing catch-up.

That first Class of '75 a limited number of schools would field teams in both sports, resulting in single class State meets in both sports.  The first three seasons of girls cross country would run races that were half the distance of their male counterparts, officially running 1.5 miles for the state meet.  In Track the first 2 seasons the girls were not allowed to run further than a mile. Thus the girls were being hindered  in much the same manner as the boys were subjected too in that '60's old school thought patterns that had prevented them from running a further distance competitively.  During the second seasons of both sports saw cross country expand to 2 classes while track would expand to 4. The girls were now off and running.

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