Miami Northwestern Girls, Hillsborough Boys Steam Roll Competition At USF/Steinbrenner Invitational

USF/George M. Steinbrenner Invitational
Andy Warrener

On-Site Coverage

The Miami Northwestern boys team graduated enough athletes to pull them back down to earth in 2015. The girls team, however, is a dynasty in full bloom as their split squad, what coach Jimmy Harrell called his "gold" squad had plenty enough to win the 72-team USF-Steinbrenner Invitational on Saturday.

"We're very talented and we have depth like no other team in the state," Harrell said. "When we have two meets on the same weekend, we split the team so we can get more work in (for the individual athletes)."

It wouldn't be much of a surprise to know that Northwestern's "blue" team won the Bob Hayes Invitational in Jacksonville as well. At USF, the "gold" team out-paced St. Petersburg's Admiral Farragut 79 to 49. The full team will be going for their seventh-straight state title in May.

Their strongest event was the 200m where they took first, second and fifth with freshman Shamarah Shannon, Alexis Harrell and Robyn Jones, respectively. Shannon's 24.29 led the field. Ulani Toussaint, a freshman, was second in the 100m finals (12.00) and Harrell was fourth (12.16). Ariyanna Val won the girls 300m hurdles in 44.31 and the Northwestern girls swept the two relays they ran. The 4x100m went 47.56 and notched the fourth-best time in the state, the 4x400m went 3:56.28.

On the boys side, Tampa's Hillsborough carried the day, thanks in large part to Virginia Tech football signee Dwayne Lawson scoring 24 points on his own en route to a 47-34 victory over Naples. Lawson, the state leader in the triple jump, went 45-6.5 to win the event. He also went 6-2 to take second in high jump and 22-8 to take third in the long jump.

Two athletes from Tampa made resounding statements Saturday as they cracked the national leader boards in their respective events. First, it was Plant's Jack Guyton. Guyton, the Class 4A defending state champ in the 1600m, got off to a great start with some familiar competition. Tampa Robinson's Jack Rogers, Ocala Vanguard's Joey Fitzpatrick and Tampa Sickles' James Zentmeyer all stocked the race and foretold an epic ending. It was just that as Guyton moved in front after the second lap, splitting 63 seconds even into the final lap, his signature, burn-out lap where Guyton ran a 62-second split and finished in 4:13.16. Gunlap Guyton reset both the state and national leader board with that time and knocked the meet record and his PR down with one swift stroke.


Gaither's Samson Moore caused the clean up crew to sweep up dropped jaws on Saturday as he set the tone in prelims, running a 37.60 in the 300m hurdles to set down the meet record and the best time in Florida this season. Moore reloaded for the finals and blasted it out in 36.96 taking over the second-best mark in the country this year.

"I was not going to coast (in the finals), it was no mercy," Moore said.

Guyton didn't run the boys 3200m but Zentmeyer, Fitzpatrick, Pasco's Zach Weaver and Seffner Christian's Noah Perkins did. It was bound to be one of those cross country state placers that won the race, right? Wrong. It was Port Charlotte's Tyler Fisher. Zentmeyer took the lead at the half-way point with Perkins hot on his tail. Into the final lap, Zentmeyer held the lead with Fisher moving into second. Then USF-Steinbrenner history was made as Fisher made a move on the back stretch the put him on par with Zentmeyer. Then, into the final turn, Fisher threw in the jet fuel and raced past Zentmeyer, streaking all the way home in 9:21.16 shattering his PR, the meet record and the school record by almost five seconds. 9:21.16 and set the second-best time in the state of Florida this season.

"I give huge credit to (James) Zentmeyer, he had me scared after the 1600," Fisher said. "But I gave it my all, even collapsed at the finish line - I left it all on the track."

Fisher certainly did leave it all on the track. After collapsing, he left whatever he had for lunch on the track, too.


Tampa's Riverview pulled into sixth on the boys side with 25 and fifth on the girls side with 40 but had some individuals shine. Sean Manhertz won the 110m hurdles in a PR 14.11, now the second-best time in the state, improving on his 14.50 that had held as the fifth-best time in the state. Manhertz actually ran a 14.07 in prelims that undercut his finals time. Riverview freshman Bailey Hertenstein swept the distance events, going 5:10.49 in the 1600m and 11:19.13 in the 3200m.

"Each lap hurt a little bit until the last one I was all-in," Hertenstein said.

Riverview's J'Nai Taylor cracked the 12-second barrier to win the girls 100m in 11.99. Taylor, a sophomore has a promising career in front of her. She also took third in the 200m (24.62).

Tampa Bay Tech's Malik Wright made former Gibbs track star and US Olympic hopeful Trayvon Bromell's 200m meet mark from USF-Steinbrenner look mortal. Bromell's 21.07 is still safe but Wright blasted out a 21.21, a PR by half of a second to win the boys 200m.

"It's unbelievable, I keep looking up at the scoreboard to make sure it's real," Wright said.

Northwestern's "blue" team did not include their top ranked 4x800 relay. It mattered little to Steinbrenner or East Lake as Steinbrenner's Emily Petrus, Tiyera Joseph, Kamryn Andrerson, and Morgan Sheer went 9:30.70 to take first place and the second-best 4x800 time in the state this season. It broke the Steinbrenner school record and pulled East Lake's Jennifer Lima, Erica Lersch, Sabrina Siegel, Margaret Woodward to a 9:38.78, the third-best time in Florida this season and a new school record for East Lake.

Seffner Christian thrower Jamari Johnson came within a few of the meet record in the discus and set a new PR in the shot as he swept both events. Johnson, a runner-up at states in the disc last year, is hungry with the taste of a state championship from 2014.

"I just want to shut down all distractions and pull off a double (win in both shot and disc) at states," Johnson said. "It just makes me work that much harder."

Johnson is in line to do it as he has gone 167-1 this season, that mark is the fourth-best in Florida this year. His new mark in the shot, notched at USF Saturday, is 52-5.25 and that ranks as the fifth-best throw in Florida this season.

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