Girls 800 Meter Run
Top seed Elizabeth Williamson from Academy of Holy Names will be doubling back from a hard mile effort earlier against the IMG Academy pair of Layla Haynes and Huntley Buckingham. Williamson showed at last year's state meet when she won the 1600 and came back to finish second in the 800 that she is more than capable of doing both races in the same day with short rest and racing well in both.
With a 2:14 personal best, Williamson has two sub 2:20 runners in the field with her at Dunbar to challenge her in American Heritage's Sydni Studesville with a 2:17 personal best and Naples' Tara Watkins with a 2:19 best.
Studesville had a strong race last weekend to finish third at the Bob Hayes Invitational in adverse weather conditions with a time of 2:17 and earlier this week ran a 58.15 PR in the 400 meter dash as well, so she comes in very sharp and ready to push Williamson doubling back a little fatigued from a mile race.
Watkins, a state qualifier last spring in the 800 meter run and 8th place finisher in the 3A state race with a 2:19 PR, has already won two invitational meets this season. The sophomore from Naples has a 2:20 season best currently.
Isabella Adams, a state qualifier last spring in the 1A classification for Village School of Naples, is coming off a runner-up finish in the IMG Spring Break Invitational and has a personal best of 2:21 in the 800 meter run.
IMG Academy freshman Kai Stockton also one to watch in the race as she ran 2:22 indoors this past winter and opened this spring with a 2:21 PR in the 800.
Boys 800 Meter Run
There is a logjam of athletes in the boys 800 knocking on the door of sub 2 minutes in the event with only IMG Academy's Simeon Hayward at 1:57.97, Palmetto Ridge's Chris Amador at 1:58.35 and Miami Northwestern's Nazir Ward at 1:59.25.
Hayward just missed breaking 2 minutes in last year's Guy Thomas Memorial Classic (7th, 2:00.05), but ended up running under two minutes twice during the indoor season.
Amador was the Collier County champion in the event last spring and was the winner at the Edison Relays two weeks ago.
This will be Ward's first 800 meter race of the season as he focused primarily on the 400 this spring including four sub 50 second performances (49.42 PR), but last spring dipped just under 2 minutes in a fourth place at the GMAC Championships.
Estero has the Sedmak brothers in Max (2:00.18 PR) and Liam (2:00.62) that will both be in the mix with the leaders, while Dunbar's Joshua Dorestin (2:00.27) will try to win the 800 for his home crowd.