Lauderdale Lakes boys coach Monford Johnson got a double-bucket ice bath once the 4x400m relay times were posted and it became clear that his boy team had enough points to edge club powerhouse Miami Gardens Xpress or MGX. MGX still had plenty of points, 114 to Lauderdale Lakes' 125 to win the club title for the sixth-straight year but Johnson and company were thrilled that they'd pulled it off.
"They (MGX) are number one, always," Johnson said. "I think it started in the field events, all of our long jumpers were over 19 feet, (Robert) Ramsey won the high jump."
Ramsey would win more than the high jump. Ramsey also took second in the 100m hurdles, to Jalen Ellis of Olympia Track Club, and crushed the meet record in the 200m hurdles. Ramsey was just two-hundredths off the winning time in the 100m hurdles in a race he said he was missing spikes for. He took out a measure of revenge in the 200m hurdles, setting down the previous 25.32 with a 25.04. It was almost two full seconds better than his previous PR.
"Before I went (in the 200m hurdles), I did a little prayer and it gave me confidence in what I was doing," Ramsey said. "I passed the first person out of the blocks and I just kept going with it. When I saw the clock counting down to 25 seconds, I just kept pushing it, I wanted that record."
Johnson had high praise for Ramsey.
"Anything you teach him, he runs with it," Johnson said. "This was a big year for us."
The Lauderdale Lakes girls squad, coached by Horace Rudduck won their first team title with a deep team that nearly had the title last year.
"We lost by one point (last year) and we decided we were not going to try that way again," Rudduck said. "From the field events on up, it was tough but cross country gave us a good base."
The Lauderdale Lakes girls rolled up 79 points to Florida High's 36. It started in the 4x800m relay.The team of Daishon Spann, Junya Byfield, Dominique Spann and Kenya Thompson broke the meet record and set a new PR by going 9:49.79, a new US #1.
"We just put it together and peaked at the right time," Rudduck said.
Daishon Spann wasn't nearly finished after the 4x800m, either. She won the 100m hurdles in 15.30, teamed up with sister Dominique and Kenya Thompson from the 4x800 to win the 4x400 in 4:01.22 and broke the meet record in the open 800m. Her 2:16.82, just barely set down the meet record but out-distanced the field by more than four seconds.
"I knew I needed to run my own race," Spann said. "On the third 200m, I pressed into the curve and I was able to come around strong."
MGX got it done with a smaller group of athletes, winning their sixth-straight team title for clubs. Tyrese Cooper led the way with wins in four events and meet records in all four. Cooper teamed up with James Cook, Andy Vieux and Jonathan Fevry to set down the 4x100m meet record in 43.03. The boys got the meet record but they were one-hundredth off their personal record of 43.02, a US #1.
"We were trying to break it (personal record) but we messed up a little bit," Cook said.
The records had only begun to fall. Cooper lined up for the open 100m and won it in 10.61, a US #1 and the only mark under 11 seconds. The 10.61 would rank Cooper in the top 15 times for high school boys this year. Cooper then entered his wheelhouse, that is, if the 100m isn't it already. Cooper ran a 47.76 to win the 400m and a 21.26 to win the 200m. The top four runners in the 200m final all would have set down the meet record. The 47.76 would be the ninth-best time for high school in Florida this year and the 21.26 would be the eighth best.
"I'm tired but I still go, push, try to break records," Cooper said. "Gotta keep working harder, gotta do it again."
The middle school state track meet has only been in existence since 2002. It's not uncommon for meet records to fall but falling in the fashion they fell on Saturday was extraordinary.
"This meet gets kids involved in track early and teaches them to love the sport," meet director and founder Jason Byrne said. "A lot of kids are already getting into their team sports like soccer, basketball and football, we try to get them hooked before they get to high school and become track fans for life."
MGX head coach Darius Lawshea keeps his athletes motivated.
"When I was in middle school, all you had to do was be good to make it in college, today you have to be great and in everything you do," Lawshea said. "Good doesn't get a scholarship."
Lawshea credits interval training on grass and a never-say-die attitude from his athletes as elements of his team's success. Lawshea's 1500m runner, Artise Lewis ran a scorching 4:18.33 to set down the meet record and break his own record in the process. The second-place runner in the 1500m came in at 4:38.12. Lewis also won the 800m in 2:06.38.
"The group came out a little slower than I expected and I had to move in front by the second lap because I wanted that meet record," Lewis said. "I was actually a few seconds behind coming into my last lap and I knew I would have to pick it up on that last 100 meters."
Lewis would later team up with Cook, Fevry and Monte Parker to win the 4x400m in 3:39.76.
The biggest story in the distance domain came from Mount Dora Bible's Rebecca Clark. Clark set down the meet record in the 3,000m with a 10:07.32, more than 27 seconds ahead of the field. The 10:07.32 set down Winter Park's Rafaella Gibbons' meet record. Gibbons was the Class 4A high school state champion in the 3200m at UNF last weekend. However, Clark got all she could handle from Miami Elite's Natalie Varela in the 1500m, racing down the last 100m to the finish line and clipping her by just four-hundredths of a second (4:48.55).
"I didn't know she was coming, then with 50 meters to go, I thought I had her but she (Varela) kept coming on," Clarke said.
Clarke mentioned that Gibbons congratulated her on Twitter for breaking her meet record. There will undoubtedly be a new rivalry next year as Clark enters the high school ranks.
Pure Athletics Club's Tamari Davis made her mark on Saturday, running an 11.91 to set down St. Thomas Aquinas' Diamond Spaulding's meet record from 2011. Davis was the only athlete under 12 seconds and her mark takes over as the middle school US #1. Davis actually has an 11.77 from a meet in Jacksonville this past April. Davis, a sixth-grader, competed in the middle school meet as a fifth-grader last year and took seventh in the 100m.
William Dandy's Jan'Taijah Ford was second behind Davis in the 100m (12.11) but came back and won the 200m and 400m, edging Davis in the 200m with a 24.38, a new meet record and a US #1. Ford set down a 54.99 for a new meet record in the 400m, just off her personal record of 54.70.
"I thank my peers for running with me and pushing me," Ford said.
High jump phenom Zatoria Thompson of Plantation's American Heritage, cleared 5-5 to win the event and set down the meet record. Thompson, just a seventh-grader, just missed at 5-6.
"I was so close (at 5-6) but overall I'm pretty pleased," Thompson said. "I just believed in God and was determined to have my best jump here."
It was Thompson's second-straight title in the high jump.
In the horizontal jumps, Olympia Track Club's Seneca Milledge went 22-7.5 to knock down the meet record by more than six inches and out-jump the field by more than two feet. 22-7.5 is a middle school US #1 and a top 25 mark in Florida for high school.
