The girls 100 meter dash fast section at the IMG Spring Break Invitational pitted two of Florida's fastest sprinters and certainly could argue the fastest two on the West Coast of the state between East Lake High School senior Sophie Haag and Evangelical Christian School junior McKenzie Travis.
Both athletes were coming off competing at indoor national meets last weeked with Haag just missing qualifying for the finals of the 60 meter dash at Nike Indoor Nationals in New York City, while Travis earned an pair of All-American honors with a national runner-up finish in the 60 meter dash (7.38) and sixth place finish (23.76) in the 200 meter dash finals.
Travis and Haag both raced head to head at the Florida Indoor Championships last month with Travis taking first and Haag taking second in both the 60 and 200 meter dash at the inaugural state indoor meet, so a rivalry has definitely been growing between the two.
Video: Sophie Haag's 11.41 100m at IMG Spring Break Invitational
On Saturday at IMG Academy in Bradenton with the wind-jets turned on behind them with a +3.9 meters/second tailwind reading, Haag and Travis both pushed each other to some of the nation's fastest times seen all spring outdoors for all-conditions with Haag clocking an all-conditions nation's best personal time of 11.41 and Travis just behind her in second with a personal best US #5 all-conditions time of 11.51.
Miami Southridge's Cynteria James has the state and nation's fastest wind-legal time of 11.50 from the Sam Burley Hall of Fame Invitational two weekends ago.
Haag, who formerly starred at Calvary Christian before transferring to East Lake High School as her mom Lisa Haag also changed coaching positions between the two schools, came back later in the 200 meter dash to throw down another wind-aided (+4.0 reading) speedy new personal best clocking of 23.96 to break 24 seconds for the first time and win another event at the IMG Spring Break Invitational.
Video: Sophie Haag's 23.96 200m at IMG Spring Break Invitational
Haag is one of the top in-state recruits for the University of Miami and will be trying to contend for her first state title in the spring. After leaving a very competitive and stacked 2A classification while at Calvary Christian including the top sprinters from Montverde Academy such as Micayah Holland and Adaejah Hodge, her path to a state title is not much easier in the 4A classification at East Lake .
Florida's largest classification is rich with great female sprint talent including likes of the Miami Southridge duo of Cynteria James and Somiyah Braggs, Bob Hayes Invitational 100 and 200 meter champion Emani George of Sandalwood, freshmen phenom Skyler Franklin of Western, her TEAM B.LU.E. club teammate Aniyah Kitt from Land O' Lakes, and another Pinellas County speedster in Rachael Uvieghara of Palm Harbor University. All aforementioned athletes have already dipped or capable of running in the 11 second range for the 100 meter dash and 23 second range for the 200 meter dash.
Haag will definitely be in the hunt for a state title in both events and her pair of personal bests at IMG Academy even with an assist from the win have to be confidence boost in chasing that goal.