Cooper, Seymour, Mason & Rest Of Team FL Set For Stellar Competition At Great Southwest Classic

Great Southwest Classic
Todd Grasley

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The Sunshine State is well represented this weekend at the Great Southwest Classic in Albuquerque, New Mexico this weekend and several meet records of the potential to come falling down.

Winter Park's Alexandra Baba will be the first Floridian in action when she competes in the 2000m steeplechase on Friday night. The junior competed in the event at the Bob Mosher Wildcat Open the first week of the season and ran 8:15.22. With a stacked field of steeplers from across the country Baba has her eyes set on a new PR as the 2016 season comes to a close. Also, competing in the steeple is Bishop Kenny senior James Kaldor. According to his profile, Kaldor has never run the event. He has a personal best time of 4:40.58 in the mile from 2015.


The race of the whole meet might be the 400m dash. Heck, if three athletes in the field can break 46 seconds it would be the first time that feat has ever happened.  

Akeem Bloomfield, the Jamaican junior national record-holder (44.93 PR); Keshun Reed (TX), the 2016 New Balance Indoor Nationals champion (45.75 PR);  and American's Tyrese Cooper, the U.S. freshman national record-holder (45.94 PR) are all entered making for one sizzling race!

Article: Potentially Historic Boys 400m Field Highlights Great Southwest Classic

Cooper and coach Darius Lawshea welcome the competition and aim to compete against the best at every meet. He says they are going to make a grand entrance into New Mexico and judging by Tyrese's outfit on the flight over they are well on their way. The meet record of 
45.48 set in 2009 by Tavaris Tate is definitely in jeopardy.

The American High School standout who also owns the freshman national record in the 200 (20.68) and is the 4A state champion in the 200 and 400m dash will compete in the 200 where his 20.46w is the fastest time in the field which also includes three other athletes under 21 seconds.


Straight off a trip from Havana, Cuba the Southridge duo of Symone Mason and Kayla Johnson will take part in two races on Saturday. Mason, 4A runner-up in the 200 and 400 and was 8th at the IAAF World Youth Championships in the quarter-mile is entered in the elite section of both. Mason is one of two times under 24 seconds joining Palatka junior and 2A 100/200m champion Katia Seymour of Palatka. 23.00 is the meet record set by Diamond Spaulding of St. Thomas Aquinas in 2014.


Mason and Johnson will both run the quarter-mile. Their times of 53.50 and 53.85 rank only behind Julia Hull of Colorado who has run 53.35. It will be interesting to see if anyone can dip under 53s and break Eureka Hall's meet record of 52.99 from 1992. 

Johnson will also run the 800, but will face a heavy challenge from meet record holder Christina Aragon from Montana who owns the meet record of 2:04 from 2015 and the US#2 time in 2016 2:05.65 which she ran just last weekend to win the Montana state meet. The Southridge junior has a best of 2:09.67 so could be paced to new a PR.

If Mason vs. Seymour in the 200 is exciting, the sparks that should fly in the 100m might be even better. Seymour, an Adidas Dream 100 selection, is taking no break from Golden South and will test her skills against the best that Texas has to offer in Kaylor Harris (11.36w) and Sha'carri Richardson (11.47). Richardson and Harris went 1-2 at the Texas State Championship and will make for one of the most competitive fields Seymour has run in. The meet record is 11.11w set by former Lake Wales standout Octavious Freeman back in 2011.

Other athletes entered include:

Girls 800m Run: Bryanna Rivers (Wharton) - Seeded 4th (2:13.41)

Girls 200m Dash: Avonti Holt (Wharton), Shaniya Williams (Southridge)

Boys Mile: Nehemiah Rivers III

Boys 300mH: McKinly Brown (American Heritage)

Boys 800m Run: James Kaldor (Bishop Kenny)

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