Last weekend, many of Tallahassee’s teams competed in the State Championships. I apologize for neglecting to give an update on track until now, but the state meets must be discussed! The conditions were almost unbelievable. I have been to 5 state meets, and in previous years the temperature and humidity have soared. This year, we enjoyed spring weather! It was warm but certainly not hot. University of North Florida hosted the event for the second year in a row, and their track and stadium are a wonderful and accommodating venue for the state meets! These factors and some other details (see below) combined to make the state meet experience memorable, enjoyable, and successful.

Maclay’s ladies had an exciting day. In 2010, Maclay’s ladies won the first event of the state meet, the 4×800. Last Friday, the Marauders reclaimed the title with three seniors, Kristin Sweeney, Elizabeth Santoro, and Stefanie Kurgatt, and an eighth grader, Caroline Willis! While the runners rested for their events, the field events heated up. Although only two teams from Tallahassee (Maclay and NFC) were represented at the state meet, Darrielle McQueen and Lindsey Poole earned quite a few points with their jumping. McQueen became a two-time state champion in the Long Jump (19-07.00). As a junior, she also won the Triple Jump (40-04.50) for the third year in a row! The 20 points McQueen earned for NFC were good enough to earn the team tenth in the state meet.

Maclay’s sophomore Lindsey Poole finished behind McQueen in the Triple Jump (35-06.50). This was a huge season best, and she certainly contributed her share of points to the Marauders. As the running events started, Maclay continued to perform well. Georgetown signee Stefanie Kurgatt won the 1600 for the second year in a row (5:06.26), and Kristin Sweeney was sixth (5:17.39). Immediately following this distance event, Maclay’s sprinters sped around the track in the 4×100. Setting a school record and running a season best time, Lonzetta Simpkins (a seventh grader) led off seniors Kristen Fontela, Maggie Miller, and Jade Strawberry to a 49.77 and third place! Freshman Tamani Wilson ran a PR and set another school record in the 400, and she finished third with a 56.60. The points continued coming in as Stefanie Kurgatt won the 800 for the fifth year in a row! She ran 2:16.47 after a short break from the 1600. Also returning to the track after a very brief break, Tamani Wilson won the 200 in 25.44! Next, Kristin Sweeney ran an 11:21.06 for 4th place in the 3200. In the final event of the evening, Lonzetta Simpkins, Elizabeth Santoro, Kristen Fontela, and Tamani Wilson finished off the day with a second place 4:03.19 in the 4×400. After this tremendous streak of impressive performances, the lady Marauders were crowned state champions by a margin of 23 points!! Almost all of these 10 girls competed in multiple events, and it was an incredible way for the 6 seniors to finish off their high school running careers!

Not only were Tallahassee females successful on Friday, but Maclay’s and NFC’s guys also had peak performances. In the meet’s opening 4×800, Connor Daughton, Steven Simpkins, Jack Rutledge, and Travis Covert finished fifth (8:18.30). While they were recovering for finals, senior pole-vaulter Kyle Weaver was having the best performance of his career. He won the pole vault with a 15-00.00 jump. Next year, he will continue competing for Carnegie-Mellon in Pennsylvania! Meanwhile, in the High Jump, NFC’s Shelby Collins jumped 6-02.00, which earned him eighth place. He is only a junior, so he will compete again next year! After finals started, Travis Covert ran the 1600. He has signed to run with UNF next year, so he was competing on his future home track! His 4:28.39 earned him third place, and, after a short break, he returned to compete in the 800. NFC’s junior Luke Strickland finished seventh in the 800 with a time of 2:00.40. As a sophomore, NFC’s Christian Philpott dominated the 200 in 21.50. He earned 10 more points for the Eagles. Another junior, NFC’s Griffith Rutherford ran the 3200 and finished fifth in 9:49.78. This young team concluded the day with a sixth place 3:31.27 performance in the 4×400 by Shelby Collins, Griffith Rutherford, Luke Strickland, and Christian Philpott, who will all be back to compete again in the 2014 track season. NFC and Maclay finished the day in a four-way tie for eleventh place with two other teams! The 1A meet concluded late in the evening, but the track did not get a very long break…

The 2A meet started the next day! Godby, Florida High, and Rickards ventured over to the University of North Florida for their festivities. Scoring the first points of the day, Godby’s Charisma Johnson and Rickards’ Delysia Davis, both juniors, tied for eighth with High Jumps of 5-02.00. They will be back for more fun next year! In the Long Jump, Florida High’s senior Ma’Rhea Everheart jumped 18-05.00. She finished third – a great way to end her season! Throwing almost 37 feet farther then she did during her junior year, Godby’s senior Bernicia Holifield won the discus with her throw of 139-04! Holifield will be competing at Coffeyville Community College in her next season. In the Shot Put, Florida High junior Aeon West added some more points for her team with her seventh place throw of 35-10.75. As the field events concluded, the running finals began. Caitlin Wilson set the tone for Godby’s ladies with her seventh place 12.11 in the 100. Although she only had the 1600’s between this event and her next, Wilson came back to run the 4×100. Lilliann Andrews, Jasmine Crump, Azarya Evans-Jenkins, and Caitlin Wilson won the 4×100 in a 46.94! Rickards also had an exciting relay with Sam Courtnei, Destiny Huggins, Kieona Wilson, and JaQuel Huggins finishing fifth in 48.50! In her third event of the day, Godby’s Caitlin Wilson raced the 200. Her 24.52 placed her in third! With the 4×400 as the day’s final event, Godby’s ladies (Lillian Andrews, Jasmine Crump, Annette Gaskins, and Rhonecia Mitchell) gave it their all. They were sixth with a 4:00.96! This finish, along with the rest of the day’s performances gave the Cougars 31.33 points, which was fourth in the state! Florida High was fifteenth.

The first scorer in the guys state meet was Godby’s Kenneth Young. As a junior, his 10.91 in the 100 earned him eighth. Like their female teammates, the 4×100 guys brought their A-game to Jacksonville. Representing Godby, Demarcus Mitchell, Kenneth Young, Jaylin Hayward, and Charles Gaskins ran a seventh place 42.70. Just tenths of a second behind, Tuson Young, Jaylan Ashby, Andrew Glover, and Joseph Butler finished eighth for Rickards in 42.19. Between those two teams, Butler was the only senior, which means that these relays should continue improving in upcoming years. Competing in his third and final event, Kenneth Young of Godby ran a 21.87 in the 200 for seventh. Florida High finished out the day with a 3:22.11 in the 4×400 by Michael Williams, Josh Davis, Cecil Robinson, and Anthony Mahoney. This time was good for fifth!

As is evident by this lengthy report, Tallahassee was well represented in the 1A and 2A state meets! Many of these teams are young, so athletes will be returning in upcoming years with even faster times and even better places. The rest of our local teams competed on Friday, May 3, 2013, so I will be sure to give a summary of their successes, too. Maclay, NFC, Godby, FL High, and Rickards are done for the year, but the athletes from these teams certainly had successful seasons, which culminated in an impressive state meet!