West Coast Report (February 24 – 2 March)
by West Coast Correspondent John Stevenson for DistancePreps.com
What an awesome weekend of racing! So many stellar performances for the west coast runners and teams!
Ram Invite @ Sarasota Riverview
You can read more details about the Ram Invite here, but here are the highlights.
4x800
North Port 4x800 team is undefeated and ran to a school record 9:54. It was a close battle between North Port and Lemon Bay. You can watch the Lady Bobcat's talk about their race here.
Boys of North Port didn't want to be out done by the ladies and ran away with the 4x800 victory over 2nd place Port Charlotte. North Port pulled away with a comfortable a 8:24 victory.
1600
Sarasota distance swept the 1600 with Emily Harding cruising to a PR with running wire to wire with 5:10 which is ranked 3rd at the moment in the state of Florida. Zack Summerall pulled away in the last 200 over Canaan Meester-Kitterman of Bayshore. Both Zack and Canaan run sub 4:30 with Zack running a season best of 4:24.
800
The 800 victory for Emily Harding secured the MVP trophy for the meet. She ran to a PR of 2:22. Lemon Bay's Haley Blem and Sarasota's Mackenzie Brown both generated sub 2:30 performances with 2:24's with Haley out kicking Mackenzie
The boy's race was also won with a wire to wire victory by Braden River's Victor Storhoff with 2:02; followed by Adam Bradtmueller of Sarasota with 2:04 and North Port's Michael Barnes with 2:05.
3200
Grace Cassagrande from Cardinal Mooney started the season with a bang, dropping a sub 11:30 effort in the 2 mile with 11:20.
Zack Summerall earned his 2nd victory of night with a PR of 9:46 in the 3200 followed by Blake Riley of Sarasota Riverview with his PR of 9:48.
Emily Edwards:
The Ft. Myers ladies traveled down for the Sam Burley Hall of Fame Invitational where Emily Edwards now has dropped the #1 state time of 5:08. She was lead out by Daesha Rogers of Miami Jackson. Emily took control of the race on the 2nd lap around 600 meters.
Naples Invitational
Estero girls dominated the distance events by sweeping the 4x800, DMR, 4x1600, and 3x3200. They're gearing up for a big race in Charlotte. Their DMR time was 13:00, which makes them the fastest DMR time in the state.
On the boy's side, the DMR came down to two teams-Estero and Ft. Myers, with Ft. Myers pulling it out by just over 5 seconds by cracking the 11 minute mark with 10:59. Estero redeemed themselves with their 4x800 and 4x1600 victories. The Lely boys claimed the 3x3200 win with Estero finishing 2nd.
Overall, I think Estero would be very happy with their performances. Both teams are gearing up for two big meets this week where the ladies will be in Charlotte for the Lady Tarpon and the boys in Ft. Myers for Edison Relays.
Berkeley Track and Field Invitational
Many Tampa and St. Petersburg teams traveled to Berkeley High school.
1600
Hannah Brookover of Calvary Christian destroyed the filed with almost a 30 second victory over Claire Snyder of Academy of Holy Names. Hannah crossed at a season best 5:14.
800
Hannah did complete the 800/1600 double with her victory in the 800 with 2:25. On the boys side, Hannahís teammate Chris Robin only ran 1 second off his PR with 1:59 effort in the 800 placing 2nd.
Nash Higgins Relays @ Leto HS
Many Hillsborough county schools participated in the Nash Higgins Relays.
The Wharton girls cruised to a 10 second victory over Alonso in the 4x800. The Bloomingdale boys showed their consistency and rocked a 8:15.
Robinson girls flexed some muscle in taking the DMR over HB Plant and Wharton with 13:14. Bloomingdale men took the 4x800/DMR double with their DMR win over Robinson by least then 3 seconds with 11:06.
This Week
Lady Tarpon at Charlotte High will have some exciting races with the likes of Estero, Ft. Myers, Sarasota, North Port, Lemon Bay, Lakewood Ranch, and many more. There are 28 teams currently scheduled to race!!
The boys have their chance on Friday at the Edison Relays where we should see a good match-up between Zack Summerall , Tyler Bennett, Leonel Delacruz, and Dean McGregor in the 1600.
Other meets on the west coast include Manatee Hurricane Invitational, 84th West Coast Invitational at Lakewood HS, and Calvary Invitational at Calvary Christian.
West Coast Correspondent John Stevenson
I've been coaching girls cross country since 2010 at Sarasota High School where the girls took 2nd place in the 2013 3A Cross Country State Final. In 2011, I took over the distance track program for both the boys and girls and in 2014 I took the realm as Head Coach of the Boys Track program at SHS. I've been a competitive runner that enjoys the longer distances and triathlete since 2007 and competed in many distances from sprint triathlon to ironman.
** See more John Stevenson West Coast Reports here
