Cocoa junior Jatana Folston comes from an athlete family. Her dad James played in the NFL and her brother Taurean was the starting running back at Notre Dame. She kicked off 2018 with the then US#2 all-time 600m performance. A true mid-distance standout, she swept both the 400 meter dash and 800 meter run in a stacked 2A Region 4.
"I just saw the best one day performance by a female athlete at a track meet ever," said Tyrone Giscombe who coaches Folston in the summer with his E.O.T.O club team. "Jatana Folston went 54 low in the 400m prelims then less then 50 minutes later turned around and won the 800m in 2:13.08."
She wasn't finished though, winning the 400m finals in a new personal best of 53.8s, the tenth best time in the country, and ended the night with the 4x400m relay.
"I rarely talk about local athletes from other schools, but yesterday coach James Folston and his daughter Jatana put on an exhibition at the region meet in south Florida," said Rockledge coach Freddie Goins. "Jatana won the 400m and 800m with nationally ranked times while beating the defending 2A State champion in the 400m and besting a very strong field of 800m runners. Her time of 53.82 is the fastest in Brevard county, ever!"
At next week's state finals she will square off against the nation leader in the two lap event, Caitlin Collier of Bolles, as well as a rematch against the American Heritage duo of Danielle Bess and Kenya Thompson. She was 4th in the 400 at last year and 6th in the 800 two years ago.
