Northeast High School sophomore Samantha Kavanagh made the trip all the way to Nashville, Tennessee to compete in the Music City Track Carnival in the high school girls 800 meter field. Kavanagh, the FHSAA 3A girls state runner-up this past spring, took the field out hard thru the first 400 meters in 61 seconds which is a familiar strategy executed by her in prior races.
Coming off the final turn, Kavanagh still held the advantage on Alabama state champion Cady McPhail before McPhail made the move to take over first and the win in 2:09. Kavanagh held onto finish second with her second-fastest 800-meter performance ever at 2:10.63. Her fastest performance of 2:10.45 came in a victory at the 3A Region 4 Meet.
Behind only 4A state champion Cha'iel Johnson of St. Thomas Aquinas, Kavanagh will return as Florida's second-fastest returnee in the girls 800 next spring.
Also racing in Nashville was Coral Reef senior Krystal Rodriguez in her final high school race before she heads off to Oklahoma State. Competing in a loaded and deep girls mile field, Rodriguez finished 9th with her fourth sub 5-minute performance of the season in a time of 4:59.08.
The week prior, Rodriguez was a double winner in the final Golden South Series (#3) at Lake Region High School winning the mile in 5:01 and 800 meter run in 2:12.