A small group of five elite Florida high school athletes traveled to compete at the Brooks PR Invitational on Wednesday in Seattle, Washington.
Hagerty junior Miguel Pantojas had one of the top performances in breaking 1:50 for the first time in the 800-meter run following up his victory at the Music City Distance Carnival in Tennessee earlier this month. The 4A state runner-up Pantojas finished 5th at Brooks PR Invitational with a new personal best of 1:49.90 making him the 10th Florida high school runner to ever break 1:50 in the 800-meter run as well as ranking 10th fastest all-time in state history.
Meanwhile, Somerset Academy Pembroke Pines freshman and freshmen class state record holder Aleesa Samuel had the highest finisher among any of the Florida athletes with a runner-up finish in the 100-meter hurdles with another sub-14-second performance at 13.93. Running out of lane 6, the 2A state champion hurdler Samuel was only bested by Jaiya Covington (13.65) of Texas in the race.
Twaneise Johnson, the FHSAA 1A state champion in the 400 meter dash who recently committed to Kansas State University, ran a time of 55.03 to finish fifth at the Brooks PR Invitational. Johnson just missed on running her 4th sub 55 second 400 meter race on the season.
Nease's Cyrus Ways, the state leader in the boys 110 and 300-meter hurdles, had an off day finishing 6th after hitting down the third hurdle and skimming a few sets after that one but still running under 14 seconds with a 13.93 clocking in the extremely competitive field assembled at Brooks PR.
Returning after being invited to compete at the Brooks PR Invitational for a second year in a row, FHSAA state meet 1600 meter record holder Mary Ellen Eudaly of Cambridge Christian finished 11th in the full mile girls race in a time of 4:52 after going thru the first half of the race in a 2:22 split.