The Central Florida Gliders Classic is a long-standing tradition and one of the largest age group mees in the Orlando Metro area. This year they tried out a new concept of attempting to assemble a championship field in a number of events to have a post-state all-class showdown. For the most part, it unfortunately did not live up to the hype. The showdown suffered from apparent lack of interest from some of the top stars in some cases and competition with the Holy Trinity meet the night before in the distance events. But that doesn't mean there weren't some high points! Freshman sprint phenom Octavious Freeman of Lake Wales (who has gotten far too little attention on this web site this year by the way) lead the way in the most competitive event of the showdown--the Girls 100 Meters. Freeman beat out fellow starletts Brianna Frazier (Raines) and Tatianna Fisher (Oak Ridge) with an fantastic time of 11.64 to 12.03 and 12.11, respectively. It is unclear in the results whether a wind gauge was present to determine if it was wind-legal or not (we'll attempt to find out). Freeman has been the state leader in the event basically all season, literally and figuratively several steps ahead of her closest rivals all year. There were other great performances such as Meghan Martin and Andrew LaHaye in the pole vault, Ashley Evans in the throws, Kala Funderburk at 400m, and more.
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To help revive and promote 2 areas of high school track, the Central Florida Gliders Track Club and Lake Brantley High School will offer a multi-event competition and a “Race of Champions” meet specifically for high school athletes. This will be a meet where all the high school state champions in the different classifications would compete against each other in one end-of-the-season race the weekend following the high school state track meet.
Craig Wise of the Central Florida Gliders Club in Orlando wants to help revive a couple things that he feels have been missing in the Florida high school track & field season. That's why at this year's Gliders Classic on May 10-11 in Altamonte Springs, one of the largest summer club meets in Florida, he will be adding two new areas of competition aimed at the high school aged athlete.