Upload a Photo Upload a Video Add a News article Write a Blog Add a Comment
Blog Feed News Feed Video Feed All Feeds

Folders

 

 

Meet Preview High School Edition Distance Preview - Florida State Relays 2015

Published by
DyeStatFL.com   Mar 27th 2015, 10:11am
Comments

The Florida State Relays in Tallahassee on March 27-28 aren’t the only game in Florida this weekend. There are other meets on the calendar that weekend--for example, the University of North Florida Spring Break Invitational in Jacksonville and the Disney High School Track and Field Showcase, among others. I won’t mind missing any of the others to be in Tallahassee, though. The distance events alone will make it worth being in the state capital.



The high school girls 800 is scheduled for 2:50 PM. Of the entries, Winter Park frosh Melanie White, Space Coast junior Skye Zeller, Ransom Everglades junior Lauren Archer, and Fort Myers sophomore Kristlin Gear have already run between 2:18 and 2:19 this season. Archer, however, has gone faster. She went 2:15.67 at the 2014 class 2A State Meet. She may be the one to watch.



The boys run next. Avery Bartlett comes into the race having run 1:56.62 so far in 2015, but the Chiles senior went 1:52.27 in 2014, and he did that while winning the class 3A state title in the 800. Bartlett won’t be the only state champ in the field; Holy Trinity senior Daniel Welch won the class 1A 800 last year, the race where he ran his PR of 1:56.96. Auburndale senior Callahan Warren has run 1:55.44 this year, not far off his best of 1:54:46. Calvary Christian senior Chris Robin just ran a career best 1:55.62 at the Steinbrenner Invitational in Tampa on March 21. They could all be factors in the two-lap race.



The boys’ 3200 is slated for 6:25 PM. Three defending Florida champions at 3200 are entered in the race--Windermere Prep's Franco Martins is the class 1A title holder, Leon's Sukhi Khosla the class 3A champ, and Plant's Jack Guyton the 4A winner. Of the three seniors, though, only Khosla has gone under 9:20. Khosla has in fact gone under 9:00--he ran 8:59.50 to win the the 2014 FSU Relays 3200. I'm not sure if anyone can push Khosla in this event. Coral Reef senior Kurt Convey is a 9:13.36 man, and Belen Jesuit senior Ryan Rodriguez went 9:15.49 last year, but those times leave them with 90 meters to make up on Khosla. If Sukhi is up to form, this one is going to be a time trial up front with an interesting race for second.



The girls’ 3200 follows at 6:50 PM, the last high school distance race of the Friday evening program. It may turn out to be the most competitive. Winter Park wunderfrosh Rafaella Gibbons is the favorite in this event. Gibbons is not only the current Florida #2 on the strength of the 10:50.25 she ran to win the 3200 at the Metro Conference Championship, she's also Florida's reigning class 4A girls cross-country champion. Bolles junior Mackenzie Wilson has run 11:03.83 so far this season, making her Florida's current #4 in the girls' 3200, but Wilson went 10:50.95 last year. Pine Crest junior Julia Montgomery has run even faster; her PR is a 10:44.06 from 2014. The wild card in the field may be Pine Crest seventh-grader Tsion Yared, Florida's class 2A cross-country champion. Yared brings a 2014 PR of 11:01.82 into the race--how much has she improved since then? It’s tempting to look at last October’s FSU Cross-Country Invitational, where Gibbons beat all these runners head-to-head. But that was half a year ago, a 5000 instead of a 3200, and it wasn’t on a track.



You’ll have to wait till 2:45 PM on Saturday afternoon for the championship sections of the girls’ 1600. Five of Florida’s top ten performers in the event will be in the field--Winter Park frosh Rafaella Gibbons, Pine Crest junior Julia Montgomery, Ransom Everglades junior Lauren Archer, Gulliver Prep junior Alyssa Pujals, and Fort Myers sophomore Kristlin Gear. All of these runners will be coming back from events on Friday. Gibbons has the fastest time this season of any of the five, her 5:03.94 from the Metro Conference Championship 1600 on March 19. However, Gibbons went 5:03.34 last year, even if her best 2015 mark so far is a 5:05.59.



Of course, just because an athlete is entered doesn’t mean that athlete is going to run. That’s true in the girls’ 1600, and it’s especially true in the boys’ 1600, where some of the entries are also listed in the 3200 and the 800. Rather than double or triple, some may end up scratching an event. But of the entries listed in the boys’ 1600, 2014 class 4A state champion Jack Guyton has the best mark in 2015, the 4:13.16 that he ran at the Steinbrenner Invitational. However, Sukhi Khosla is also entered, and the Leon senior went 4:05.96 in winning the 2014 class 3A 1600 state title. Guyton’s best is a 4:11.86. Junior Carlin Berryhill and senior Kurt Convey of Coral Reef bring PRs of 4:18.80 and 4:16.32 into the race. Chiles senior Avery Bartlett has a 4:16.79 on his resume plus the kick of an 800 champion. The quality of this race, though, is going to depend highly on which of the entries is actually on the track when the starting pistol fires.



For me, that’s the attraction to Florida State University’s Mike Long Track this weekend. I’ll check out the results of the other meets, but I’ll be glad to be in Tallahassee for this one.



HashtagsNone
 

More news

History for Spanish Fort High Sch Track & Field and Cross Country - Spanish Fort, Alabama
YearVideosNewsPhotosBlogs
2018 1      
2017 1      
2016 6      
Show 7 more
HashtagsNone
 
 
+PLUS highlights
+PLUS coverage
Live Events
Get +PLUS!