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2A State Meet Recap by Herb Wills - Florida FHSAA Outdoor State Championships 2015

Published by
DyeStatFL.com   May 2nd 2015, 8:47am
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On the University of North Florida campus in Jacksonville, the Ospreys that the school’s athletic teams take their name from are nesting. The Canada geese are leading around troops of fuzzy goslings. From this avian activity UNF students can tell that it’s time for finals, graduation, and the end of spring semester. You can also tell that it’s time for the FHSAA State Track and Field Meet to visit UNF.



Class 2A competition opened on the UNF track in Hodges Stadium on Friday morning, 1 May 2015, with the girls’ 4 x 800m relay. Ransom Everglades, Bolles, and Lemon Bay each took turns leading during the first three legs, but the defending champions from Bolles surged ahead at the end of the third leg. After that the race was theirs. The Bolles girls won in 9:29.89, with Ransom Everglades second in 9:34.47 and Lemon Bay third in 9:37.29.



West Florida Tech and top seed Miami Washington swapped the lead back and forth during the first two legs of the boys 4 x 800. During the last hundred meters of the second leg, slowing runners converged with kicking runners on the front straightaway. The field bunched up. Runners collided. One went down. From the exchange zone, Pine Crest’s third runner, Ron Knezevich, watched his second man, Ryan Welch, stumble through the congestion.



“I knew he was a tough guy,” said Knezevich. “He’d get through it.”



Welch did indeed make it through the scrum and got the baton to Knezevich. After a trouble-free two laps, Knezevich passed to Pine Crest senior Joseph Cabral, who split a 1:56 to give the Pine Crest team their second straight 4 x 800 state title with an 8:04.28. Calvary Christian moved up late in the relay to take second in 8:06.07, and Miami Washington was third in 8:07.33.



Not all of the morning competition in class 2A was on the track. In the girls’ pole vault, Ransom Everglades senior Nati Sheppard set two records in four minutes. After wrapping up the win in the event, Sheppard had the bar set at 13 feet, At 10:58 AM she cleared that height on her first attempt, establishing a new meet record. Then Sheppard asked to have the bar raised to 13’ 3”, higher than any Florida girl had ever vaulted before, regardless of classification or event.  At 11:02 AM Sheppard cleared the bar on her first attempt at the new height, once again setting a new meet and all-time record. Sheppard failed to clear 13’ 6”, so 13’ 3” will be the mark that future FHSAA vaulters aim for.



In the 2A girls' 1600, Ransom Everglades junior Lauren Archer set the pace early, taking a big lead on the rest of the field. Behind her, Bolles frosh Caitlyn Collier moved up through the field, running first in fourth, then in third, and finally in second on the bell lap.



“I just wanted to keep it close,” said Collier. “I know I have a good kick.”



She certainly does. Collier closed on Archer over the last lap, taking the lead at the top of the homestretch. The Bolles frosh sprinted across the finish line in 4:59. 60, winning the race. Archer was second in 5:02.41. with North Marion sophomore Leigha Torino edging Bolles sophomore Ally Hajda for third, 5:06.29 to 5:06.60.



Connor Vaughan stepped off the track after the boys’ 1600 exclaiming, “That wind is awful!”.



The wind was the Florida signee and Wolfson senior's only company during the race. He ran all four laps far ahead of the rest of the field, winning the 1600 in 4:19.42. Ransom Everglades junior Gabriel Correa outkicked Calvary Christian junior Joel Lacy for the runner-up spot, 4:28.27 to 4:28.56.



Caitlyn Collier of Bolles had left shortly after winning the girls’ 1600. “I’ve got the 800 and the 4 x 400 later,” she excused herself. Not much later, it was time for the 2A girls’ 800. Had the short recovery affected her race plans?



“We made the best of it,” she shrugged.



Collier was well back on the first lap, tucked in third or fourth while Ransom Everglades eighth grader Jatana Folston led. The second lap was “go” time. With 300 left Collier moved into second. Over the next 200 meters Collier closed on Folston. Meanwhile, Space Coast junior Skye Zeller was also moving up. Collier passed Folston on the homestretch, but so did Zeller. And Zeller was closing on Collier. It was as close as could be at the line, with Collier getting a hairbreadth 2:14.04 to 2:14.05 second consecutive State title in the 800. Trying to lean ahead of Collier, Zeller fell to the track. Folston was third in 2:15.78.



Miami Washington senior Vaquan Small was motivated going into the boys’ 800. It wasn’t his first competition of the day. He had run on Washington’s third-place 4 x 800 team, and placed third in the high jump, losing to Astronaut junior Tristan Schultheis and Wakulla junior Keith Gavin on a tiebreaker. All three athletes had jumped 6' 8".



Enough with third. Vaquan Small was ready to win something.



His win was the boys’ 800. Small went wire-to-wire in the two-lap race. The field was starting to close on him during the bell lap, but Small was first to the finish line in 1:57.03. Bishop Snyder senior James Gehret was second in 1:57.51, and Pine Crest senior Joseph Cabral third in 1:57.75.



When the bell rang for the last lap of the 2A girls' 3200, there were three athletes running together in the lead group--Ransom Everglades sophomore Beatriz Ruan, Pine Crest junior Julia Montgomery, and the defending champ, Bolles junior Mackenzie Wilson.



“I was terrified!” said Wilson. “But I tried to think positive. Those other girls were coming back from 1600 and 4x800 races in the heat.”



It may have been the positive thinking. It may have been miles and miles of training. It may have been a strong last lap. But whatever it was, it got Wilson over the finish line before the other runners with a 11:06.50 win. Montgomery was second in 11:07.08, and Beatriz Ruan was third in 11:12.07. That’s two years in a row now that Wilson has won the 2A girls’ 3200, and she’s still just a junior. Does she want to go for three?



“I definitely want to come back for another state championship,” affirmed Wilson.



Of course, Montgomery and Ruan will be back in 2016, too.



Going into the class 2A boys 3200, there had already been two 1600 / 3200 doubles in Hodges Stadium during the day, both in class 1A. Franco Martins (420.39, 9:16.67) had won both events on the boys' side, while Sarah Candiano (5:02.24, 11:01.30) had done it for the girls. Class 2A hadn’t had a long double yet, although Caitlyn Collier had won both the 1600 and the 800. And Wolfson senior Connor Vaughan was entered in the 3200, and he had already won the 1600.



Vaughan set the pace from the start and dared the other athletes to stay with him. After five laps, on one could. Vaughan left the field behind, then sealed the victory with a 66-second last lap.



“I’m tired!” gasped Vaughan after the eight-lap race. “I felt the mile.”



What about the competition? “For a while I could hear them behind me, Then they were gone.”



Caitlyn Collier returned to the track one more time in  the girls’ 4 x 400 running for her Bolles team. That event, though, was won by the Hallandale relay squad in 3:55.15, running Hallandale's team score to 105 points. It was enough to win the team title. Bolles was second with 83.50, and Ransom Everglades third with 73. American Heritage Plantation won the boys' 4 x 400, but Hallandale still won the boys' team title with 56 points, making it a sweep for the Chargers. Paxon was runner-up in the team standings with 40 points, and Miami Washington third with 38.50.



The class 2A championships were part of an exciting first day of the State Track Meet, but only the first day. Athletics would return to Hodges Stadium the next day, 2 May 2015, for more action in class 3A and class 4A.



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