Inclement weather nearly torpedoed the Vernon Korhn Hillsborough County Track and Field Championships Tuesday. The 4x800m got off and a few field events got scored before a deluge and lightning forced everyone indoors. Meet officials elected to postpone the meet until later in the evening and run timed finals. It proved to be the right call as the weather relented and the rest of the meet ran smoothly.
In 2015, the Hillsborough boys were team champs but without multi-event scorer Dwayne Lawson, now a quarterback at Virginia Tech, the Terriers gave way to the Steinbrenner platoon. The Warrior boys don't have that elite, multi-event scorer but they got it done by scoring across the board with a litany of solid athletes. They nearly doubled up runner up Armwood 115 to 60. Defending county champs Hillsborough took third with 58.
Steinbrenner's Colton Heath won the 1600m in 4:35.21, Zack Reinhardt took second in the 110m hurdles, Jacob Conclaves won the high jump at 6-1 and took third in the 300m hurdles. Andre Washington won both throws with a 50-2 in shot and 126-8.5 in the disc. Washington is not far removed from a torn labrum, albeit on his non-throwing side.
The Steinbrenner girls just out-paced Wharton 105-93. The pole vault event was moved to Wednesday and there was a touch of controversy because both Wharton and Steinbrenner have vaulters but in the end, the Warriors had enough of a lead to get to take home the trophy. The Steinbrenner girls, not dissimilar to their male counterparts didn't have that one athlete that dominated but Tiyera Joseph took second in the 400m (57.07).
Alexandra Straumann took second in the 1600m (5:16.43) and third in the 3200m (11:59.66) behind teammate Brooke Santiesteban (2nd 11:51.19). Taylor Hotchkiss took second in the 100m hurdles (15.21) and third in the 300m hurdles (47.45).
Aside from the weather tamping down marks in the field events and times on the track, some of the hotly-anticipated matches never happened on Tuesday. At the Federal Division meet at Spoto, both Riverview's J'Nai Taylor and Spoto's Janae Caldwell blew tires in the 200m final. It diminished what would have otherwise been sizzling showdowns in the 200m and 400m.
Still, some scintillating battles went down. At last year's meet, the 800m duel between Wharton's Bryanna Rivers and Riverview's Bailey "Hurricane" Hertenstein was epic with Rivers fighting off four charges by Hertenstein on the final lap. Hertenstein had a plan on Tuesday and played it to perfection. Surging out in front early, Hertenstein kept a small lead on Rivers and the rest of the field. Then into the final lap, Hertenstein exploded on the first turn, exploded on the last turn and came down the straightaway uncontested to win it in 2:14.61, the eighth-best time in Florida this season and a full, five seconds ahead of Rivers. Hertenstein already has the fourth-best mark in the state this year, a 2:12.33 from the Wharton Wildcat Invite.
"Last year, I tried to get in on the outer curves but she (Rivers) wouldn't let me in and it's harder to get around her and extra distance," Hertenstein said. "This year I tried to get inside and go and not get pushed out again; that was my biggest mistake last year."
Hertenstein also crushed the 1600m field in 5:04.71 by more than 12 seconds to win back-to-back titles in that event.
Oh, the sizzling matches continued. Armwood sprinter Jerome Ford won the 100m in 11.03 in relative comfort but he got the ride of his season in the 200m as Sickles' Andrew Vendrone took him to the tape with a photo finish. Both runners lunged across the line, Ford in 22.817 and Vendrone in 22.822.
"When you gotta lean, you gotta lean," Ford said. "In the 200, I just want to keep up with the first place runner and sprint the straightaway."
The boys 400m race was a tight race as well and again with Vendrone. This time it was Hillsborough's Duran Bell pulling Vendrone across the finish line. Bell won it with a 48.68, not far off his 48.12 from the Bob Hayes Invite, the sixth-best time in Florida this year. Vendrone clocked a 49.39 for second place and a new PR.
"I wasn't expecting to have to run very fast (to win)," Bell said. " But when you're close to great athletes (Vendrone), great things happen."
Last week at the American Division, it was Gaither freshman LaSarah Hargrove shining in the sprints. On Tuesday, it was Armwood freshman Ani Wells, sister of hurdler Moses Wells, dominating the sprints. Wells won the 100m in 12.15, won the 200m in 25.35, the long jump at 18.5 and anchored the winning 4x100m relay (49.19). Wells is no stranger to the track. She won a national AAU title in the long jump in 2014. That same year she placed second in the 200m. She missed the 2015 season with a knee contusion.
Blake's Charlie Thomas swept the hurdles with a 14.88 in the 110s and a 39.46 in the 300s with times just off his dry weather times from the Division meet last week. He handled the wet conditions well.
"You certainly don't want to get out of the blocks and slip," Thomas said of the conditions. "You're just a little more cautious out of the blocks but once you get your rhythm, it's smooth sailing."
Hillsborough's Daneesha Davidson won the 300m hurdles in 45.26. That's off her 43.74 from Bob Hayes, the fifth-best time in Florida this year, but Davidson took the win and the win in the triple jump (36-7). Davidson has a 38-7 from Bob Hayes that's the seventh-best time in Florida this season.
Starting off the day, the Plant boys won the 4x800m in 8:07.57 and the Wharton girls won it in 9:42.22 for the seventh-best mark in the state this season. Freedom's Xavier Hardy won the boys long jump at 21-7.5, topping a field of jumpers with three coming in with marks over 22 feet. Hillsborough's Chloe Jones won the shot at 41-10.5 and teammate Serena Jonas won the disc at 112-02. Terrier Qaseem Wajd won the boys 800m in 1:57.68 for a season best to crack the top 10 best times in the state this season.
Gather's French foreign exchange student Prudence Vanpoulle won the girls 3200m in 11:41.94, knocking more than 13 seconds off her time from the division meet. Durant's Haftom Fliegelman incinerated the field by more than 20 seconds to win the boys 3200m in 9:48.99. Fliegelman has broken the school record twice already this season in his signature event and set the course record at the Federal Division meet a week ago.
Capping the night was a great battle in the 4x400m. Wharton and Steinbrenner girls battled it out with Steinbrenner in an early lead only to have Searra Woods run a scorching anchor leg to win it in 4:02.70. Wharton's Aria Tate got her first steps on the track in the relay, after missing most of the season.
"It felt great, I'm ready to compete," Tate said.
The Blake 4x400m relay of Charlie Thomas, Isaiah Rodgers, Jaquan Cook and Omar Austin followed up their division victory with a win in the full county meet (3:25.52) to end the evening.
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