Lake Mary Invitational Meet Summary

 

If this were a movie, it would definitely be too lengthy to run in theatres.  A miniseries, perhaps; Miami North.  Or an ESPN special; On the Road Again (theme sung by Willie Nelson). It had its well-known stars, surprise performances, and held us in its grip as the day-long drama shifted from the field events, to the track, over to the high jump, and back to the oval.  The script--nearly 100 pages of results--will no doubt take days to read and digest. And the memory of it all will linger in the minds of its participants for years.  

 

They began arriving the day before, from schools as far away as Miami Southridge, Carol and Central City; and from closer places, like Tampa, Daytona, the St. Augustine-Jacksonville areas, and Orlando. Cars and buses parked in the predawn hours, pouring out their human cargo, and despite the best of intentions for an earlier release, left as darkness was closing.  There were few regrets, and none left unfulfilled. For 11 hours, on an afternoon in late March, the Lake Mary track became their circle of life.

 

For the better part of that long day Miami Southridge’s Ebony Eutsey, as quiet as she is fast, went about her business of running.  In the morning she was qualifying in the 400 (55.91) and then 200 (24.98).  In the afternoon her finals came in all-too-quick succession: 200 (24.54), 400 (55.81), then 4 X 400  (3:48).  And through it all she emerged undefeated, and individually scored more points than 29 of the girls teams listed as entrants.

 

As part of a track team that seems to be on the road every weekend, she has had to make adjustments in her personal life in order to be a big part of their continued success.

 

“Since we leave on Friday morning, I try to do my homework earlier in the week, as it is assigned, so that I can concentrate on track.”

 

She finds her most challenging event the 200 because, “I have to sprint the whole way.  It’s not like you can jog the turns.  The 400 is my favorite.  I just love it.

 

“If I had a choice of careers, it would be running.  We go out of town every weekend.  Everybody (on the team) loves track.  We have no doubts.  Even though it’s hard, we stick with it.  If someone does badly, we try to help them the best we can.”

 

Being an “expert” in Florida track meets, I asked her what her favorite trip/meet is.
“I guess, when we come to Orlando, that is my favorite trip.  I love Orlando.  My favorite meet, out of them all, is the Sam Burley Meet in Miami.  It’s our own meet, an event by our own coach.”

 

Joining her in the 4 X 400 were Mercedes Ferguson, Jennifer Estime, and Ywkema Jackson. Other overall winners for the Miami Southridge girls were Jennifer Estime (both in the 800 [2:19.17] and 4 X 800, along with Ywkema Jackson, Kaneesha Knowles and Kanesha Connor),  and Zakeya Stinson in the shot.

 

Zakeya has been “putting around” since she was six.

 

“It was like a summer track team.  We traveled around the state, like junior nationals.”

 

Her progressions--41’½” in ninth grade, 43’ 71/2” in tenth grade and 49’ ½”in eleventh grade--have made her a defending, three-time Florida High School champion. 

 

“This meet is kind of like…I don’t take it too seriously.  We usually have the GMACs soon, but I think they cancelled it.  That’s our conference.  Then we have states.  My goal is to make 50’. 

 

“I try to stay positive, stay focused.  I try not to get mad at the slip-ups.  Everybody makes mistakes. To be the best, you have to be positive.”

 

Take it from an expert.

 

Both Olarenwaju Adeyem (14.23 in the 110 hurdles and 38.18 in the 300 IH) and Brandon O’Connor (21.19 in the 200 and 47.86 in the 400) were double winners for Miami Southridge.  Along with Ras-len Bully in the long jump (22’91/2”), that added up to a total of five firsts for Southridge in the 17 events.

 

A trio of Spruce Creek’s athletes were also double winners, contributing nearly half of their combined team’s 138 points, as each first was worth 10 points.

 

“Throwing his weight around,” Junior Chris Lickfield won both the shot (51’4”) and the discus (152’9”).

 

“I’ve been throwing (the discus) in the 170s in practice.  I was hoping to get (at least) the high 160s or low 170s.  I want to break the school record, which is 167, set by Eddie Bopp in around 1982.  I’ve been eyeballing it for awhile.  If I could have kept that one (his third throw) in bounds, I think I would have had it.”

 

The dynamic duo of distance running, Amanda Perkins and Alex Frazier of Spruce Creek, each set PRs in the mile (4:59.96 and 4:31.23, respectively) in mid-afternoon, then returned to the track in the early evening to repeat as winners in the 3200 (11:28.98 and 9:58). Each did so by taking a first lap lead and carrying it to the finish line.

 

“I try to catch where my competition is running,” explained Perkins.  “This time I put that out of my mind.  Coach Stef said ‘Break the 5 minute mile,’ and I did it.

 

She was quick to give some of the credit for her new PR to Katrina Skinner of Wharton, who finished second in 5:03.56.

 

“She had a lot to do with it.  She was right there, pushing me.  She’s a very nice girl and was a motivator.”

 

Alex echoed a Spruce Creek coach’s advice on his path to a new PR.

 

“The coach told me to go aggressive.  He said they might have “cheated” in (reporting) the first couple of seed times.  I went hard on the curves and tried to get a (1600/3200) double, while setting a PR in the mile.

 

“I thought it was going to be more competitive than it was. I tried to go 4:20s (which he barely missed), but it happens. With 600 or 800 to go, when I started pulling away, they didn’t follow.”

 

There was a lot of pulling away that afternoon, especially in the relays, where a particular runner gave his team a “leg up” in their victory. For example, in the boys 4 X 800, what started as a battle between Flagler (which took a lead on Brandon Earle’s second leg, 2-flat 800) and Miami Carol, fell victim to a determined Miami Central foursome. Here’s a recap, in the words of their runners, each runner describing his respective leg.

 

Jamel Maxwell (2:01): “We took off kind of fast, but slowed down on the backstretch.  At my last 300 I kicked, and was in third behind Flagler.”

 

Kwamain Williams (2:06): “I knew I had to close in, maintain speed and finish my last 300 as strong as possible.  I was in second, about 10 meters behind.”

 

Gary Pierraluis (2:05): “I started out in second.  The Flagler kid had the lead and I came up behind him.  I passed him and tried to keep the lead for Jimmy.  The kid from Carol passed me, but I maintained second.”

 

Jimmy Florestal (2:03): “Carol and Flagler were ahead of me, but I wanted first so bad that I thought, ‘I’ll do what I have to do.’  I ran that first lap trying to close the gap.  In the last lap I knew I had to go for the lead, so I picked up the pace at the 300 and kicked at the 200.  I passed him (Carol’s anchor) at about 80 yards from the finish.  He didn’t give up, though.  He made me run.”

 

Central’s winning time of 8:09.92 belies the amount of effort put forth by the dozen runners of the three teams that played tug of war for the eventual order of finish.  Carol was second in 8:10.04 and Flagler third in 8:13.63.

 

Central’s coach, John Rolle, certainly had his work cut out for himself in building this team in sub-tropical Miami.

 

“Because of the climate, we are more of a sprinting area.  Once you go into the 100 meters, you are a sprinter.  But some of our sprinters didn’t have sprint speed, so we turned them into (middle) distance runners.  

 

“For all of the runners who didn’t have speed, as opposed to sitting on the bench, we found someplace for them to perform.  We want to make sure we have everyone involved, to take part in the meet.  It’s a team effort.”

 

Central’s Kwamain Williams came back to out lean Carol City’s Robert Lanier in the fast heat of the 800, 1:59.44 to 1:59.50.

 

Jatavia Wright, a ninth grader, won the 100 hurdles in 15:23, was second in the long jump at 17’4,” and ran on Miami Central’s second place 4 X 100 team (48.58).

 

Both pole vault winners, Meagan Martin of Lake Mary (11’8”) and Wyatt Metzger of Timber Creek (15’1”) won their event by over three feet.

 

In the high jump, a much taller Mike Edwards (Poinciana High School in Kissimmee) defeated Antron Jackson of Miami Carol City in the high jump, although both topped out at 7’0”.  (Edwards had fewer misses in the competition.)  But the real magic was less about the order of finish than the final height.

 

Mike: “Yes!”

 

Antron: “You can go anywhere you want with that.”

 

Mike: “My best before today was 6’10”.”

 

Antron: “Mine was 6’8”.”

 

Mike: “I want to make the world junior championships in Warsaw, Poland.  It’s on July 11th, my birthday.”

 

Antron: “I’m trying to get the state record, which is 7’2”.”

 

And this writer, in closing, is trying to diplomatically address the question of complete results.  While every sprinter was timed in every qualifying heat (and the results posted), for some reason that was not the case with the middle distance races and field events.  In so choosing, literally hundreds of performances were trivialized, and with that, all the hard work of these athletes.  If you are going to print a sheet with everyone’s name on it, what sense does it make to follow that name with DNS, NT, ND or NH?

 

There were dozens of outstanding performances and PRs set in this meet which were not recognized.   It is my feeling that each of these kids own their performance and have a right to see those results. If not, what’s the point of track and field?

 

Footnotes: Second in the boys 300 IH was first-time hurdler Shavaro Bowleg, of Spruce Creek.  Despite being introduced to the event only days before, he finished just over a second (39.48) behind the winner (38.18), placing third for the Hawks...While three of Miami’s high schools were participating at the Lake Mary Invitational, Miami Northwestern, Miami Jackson and Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale) were at the Elite Classic in Winter Park (see the results elsewhere on flrunners.com)…Florida track has the pleasure of welcoming an inaugural team, from a brand new high school.  Wekiva High School, in Kissimmee, opened its doors this past year with students from Ocoee, Apopka, Edgewater and Evans.  Currently there are approximately 1700 students--the school was built for 2900--in three classes.  (There won’t be a graduating class until 2009.)  I can say one thing for sure, they were at least as enthusiastic as any other team at this invitational, cheering for their athletes every time they won a heat…