Florida High makes impressive new beginning By David Yon

Florida High’s girls track and field team has a new home on the south side of town and a new division, 2A, to compete in at the state meet. It appears that the moves are going well as Gretchen Meyer’s team took second place in the state meet in Coral Springs on Saturday. Rivera Beach took the title with 76 points, while Florida High scored 65 to become runner ups. Kayla Parker, Emily Kohler and LaKendra Cunningham led the Seminoles to their second place finish. Parker, who is an eighth grader, scored in three events – triple jump, high jump and 100 meter hurdles. Cunningham, who was a Chenoweth Fund nominee for track athlete of the year last year, took second in the 400 meters (57.09) and third in the 200 (25.37). The 4 x 100 relay team of Kelly Morrison, Laura-Lee Atkinson, Takeya Close (yes, I believe that is Jessie’s daughter) and Kayla Parker captured the state title in that event.

One outstanding performance at the meet was Kara Scanlin’s double win. Scanlin, who runs for Jacksonville Episcopal, has competed in 1A for a number of years and raced in Tallahassee a number of times over the past few years. She won the 1600 meter race in 5:00.48 and the 3200 in 10:41.59. Both times are very close to her PR’s and faster than anyone else in the state has run this year.

For more info visit; http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/sports/3199841.htm  and for results: http://www.fhsaa.org/programs/sports/tr/results/2002/state/2_girls.htm.