By David Yon
Breeda Dennehy-Willis went out to Mt. Sac (California), one of the premier early season track meets in the U.S. and won the women’s 5,000 with a time of 15:38.91. Lee Willis rolled down south and ran a 3:50 or so 1500 in Gainesville at the Twilight meet.
I believe all who attended Saturday afternoon’s event to honor Rex Cleveland for his service as Newsletter Editor from August of 1983 until January of 2001 had a great time. Everyone was given an opportunity to “roast” Rex, though it seemed like most turned to mush balls. Rod Anderson, Christy Koontz, Paul Hiers and Martha Haynes did the early work. Mae Cleveland presented Rex with a beautiful bound set of newsletters dating from 1981 until this year. She also gave a set to the club for the archives. Bill McGuire closed the presentation by presenting Rex with a plaque recognizing his years of service. Special thanks go to Anne and Jerry Draper who opened up their home (and barn) to the eighty or so souls who came out to celebrate. Also special thanks to Toma Wilkerson who did so much work to make the event happen. If you missed the pictures of Rex on his motorcycle or sticking out his tongue with attitude when he was a wee boy, you really missed something special. Click here for a special greeting from Kathy Mora and Steve Kazmierski.
Last week was the first round of district high school track meets. In Tallahassee, Florida High girls won the 1A district 4 title scoring 190 points to beat Chiles who had 164. Maclay and Havana also moved on. Maclay captured the boys title with 158 points to Jefferson Co.’s 123. Chiles and Florida High finished out the top four. In the distance events Zita Magloire captured the 1600 and the 800 with times of 5:11 and 2:22. Kara Newell took first the 3200 in 11:52 and finished second in the 1600 with a 5:16. It looked like the winners ran conservatively, just looking to move on the regional next week. For the boys, Ryan Deak captured the 800 (1:59), the 1600 (4:30) and the 3200 (9:40). Joel Serna (2:01), Herbie Thiele (4:32) and Matt Katz (10:04) took second in each of those events. The 3200 looked like quite the race as only 5 seconds separated second (10:04) and sixth (10:09). That is real significant because only to top four moved on to the regional. You can find more results at http://flrunners.com/.
FSU had a good ACC outdoor championship in Orlando. The men finished just behind Clemson for second place. Maarten van den Huevel won the 800 meter event with a 1:49.84. The women finished in third place. For more see http://seminoles.fansonly.com/sports/c-otrack/recaps/042101aaa.html
NOTE: If you are aware of any special running events you want recognized in Weekend Notes please e-mail david@outlook.katzlaw.com.>