On Friday, local 3A teams closed out this track season with their State Meet. Leon, Lincoln, and Chiles showed up in Winter Park ready to run (and throw, and jump, and vault), and the results are littered with top performers from the Big Bend.

On the girls’ side, Chiles was the top scoring local team, finishing sixth overall. They were led by a fifth place vault by Haley Watts (9-00.00), a fifth place throw in the discus by Raven Otway (118-04), second place finishes in both the 1600m and 800m by Lily Williams (5:06.29 and 2:17.56), fourth place finishes in both the 1600m and 3200m by Kaia Hampton (5:10.77 and 11:19.26), and a sixth place finish in the 3200m by Carly Thomas (11:27.29).

On the boys’ side, the overall team results seem to have disappeared into some deep cyberspace vortex… but there were plenty of individual breakthrough performances to highlight. Chiles field event extraordinaire, Brandon Bassett, took third in the high jump (6-08.00), second in the pole vault (14-06.00), and seventh in the triple jump (44-04.25). Harrison Stierwalt (14’0″) claimed 5th in the pole vault. Lincoln’s boys were led by a second place 4x100m relay team (41.72), a third place finish in the 200m dash by Pat Olschlager (21.83), and a seventh place 4x400m relay team (3:20.55). Buddy Austin took 8th in the Pole Vault for Lincoln with a jump of 13’6″. Leon proved that it is truly a distance powerhouse, with Matt Mizereck taking first in the 1600m (4:17.71) and second in the 3200m (9:30.44) and teammate, Will Stanford, taking first in the 3200m (9:28.38). Leon runner, Riley Doherty finished seventh in the 3200m in 9:42.24).

The 3A State Meet was a terrific wrap-up to an amazing season, and many Big Bend runners came out on top. As the mercury climbs and the air becomes heavy with the sticky signs of the season, local runners will put away their spikes-for now. The coming of summer means it’s time for mileage mileage mileage, for, before too long, the leaves will be changing and it will be time for cross country, and the spikes will come out once again.