West Coast Report (Week 8 post Florida Relays)

 

by West Coast Correspondent John Stevenson for DistancePreps.com

 

Post Season is upon us!!

Before I get into the brilliant performances around the west coast, I have to say I am in just aw with how much Florida runners have improved during the 2014 season. Of course, I've only been around the sport 4 years, but there are a number of boys and girls that are getting faster. There are 15 boys across the state that have sub 4:20 performances compared to 6 boys at this time last year. Currently there are 20 girls under 5:10 for the 1600 compared to 15 at the same point last year.  There are more boys under the 9:30 mark compared to last year. The girls 3200 runners compared to last year are comparable but the senior class was stacked last year with Taylor Tubbs, Bryce Seymour, Katy Solis, Niktita Shah, and Rachel Givens.

 

Ok, now to the Pepsi Florida Relays

 

I do have to admit I'm a little biased on this because my runners Zack Summerall and Emily Harding both took the 1600 meter victory, which I knew they had a chance for gold, but for both to win the way they did, absolutely impressed me. We've worked very hard on our finishing kick this year and it showed during their races.

 

1600

 

The girl's 1600 was a battle throughout the whole race coming down to the last 100 between Ft. Myer's Emily Edwards, Lauren Perry from Richland High (Oregon), and Sarasota's Emily Harding.

 

Perry pushed the pace at the 250 mark and Edwards responded well to the attack and Harding dropping in right behind the two of them. Perry kept the lead until 100 was left with Edwards on her shoulder, but Harding opened up her kick with 50 meters left and put in about 1.5 seconds on the two ladies for the victory.

 

Harding crossed with a 5 second PR of 4:56.27. Monday's practice at Sarasota was filled with a little surprise for Harding, which you can watch here.

 

Big shout out to Daley Cline of Estero for dominating the 2nd heat of the 1600 and big PR of 5:06.51.

 

The boy's race was a little different with Zack Summerall leading the boy's out with a 29 second first 200, never relinquishing the lead.

 

He was challenged by a few runners including the 3200 meter victor from the night before, Curt Convey of Coral Reef.  With 200 left Andrew Iglesias of Pembroke Pines challenged Summerall, but again Zack responded with a final kick for the win and a PR of 4:17.23.

 

800

 

I wasn't able to make it the distance carnival on Thursday due to the rest of the Sarasota team participating in our County Championships, but the girls 800 looked very exciting from the video. Maddie Harris of Wakulla continued her stellar season with a come from behind victory.

 

Ricardia Copper of Miami Northwestern pushed the pace with 300 meters left where Harris and Sinclaire Johnson of Lake Brantley responded to pass Copper in the last 50 meters and Harris out kicked Sinclaire with a personal best of 2:13.33.

 

The top 6 girls in the 800 are now the top leading ladies in Florida. Two of them are from the west coast;  Emily Harding with 2:14.74 and Katie Slater of Estero with 2:16.05.

 

The boy's 800 was billed to be a great race with many fantastic 800 runners including Javon Patterson of Boyd Anderson, Kolin Ashbacher of Palmetto Ridge, and Matthew Butler of St. Thomas Aquinas.

 

Patterson didn't let us down. He took control of the race and won by over a second with a season best 1:52.04. The top 3, Patterson, Butler, and Kyren Hollis of Olympia, all have the leading times for the State of Florida.

 

Five of the top tem belong to west coast runners; Ashbacher placed 4th, Zack Summerall placed 5th, Jack Rogers of Robinson ran 1:55.68 just out leaning Kevin Heron of Bloomingdale, and Matt Butler of Bloomingdale placed 10th overall by winning the second heat with 1:55.98.

 

3200

 

The night belonged to two ladies; Julia Montgomery of Pine Crest and Alexa Cruz of St. Thomas Aquinas.

 

Both girls drove home sub 11 performances with Julia taking home the victory with a very decisive last 400, crossing at 10:44 followed by Alexa with 10:49. Julia's 10:44 is a 9 second PR.

 

In the boy's race, Curt Convey of Coral Reef had a dominating performance dropping 18 seconds from his personal best with a 9:13.

 

Keneth Pineiro of Deland also ran to a PR coming in 2nd followed by Adam Bradtmueller of Sarasota.

 

Big congrats to west coast runner Tyler Fisher of Port Charlotte for shattering his personal best by running 9:27. The Region 3A-3 meet is going to be an awesome race with Bradtmueller, Fisher, McGregor, Bennett of Ft. Myers, and Pedraza of Golden Gate.

 

County Championships

 

Sarasota, Manatee, Pinellas, and Hillsborough Countyís had their championships this past week:

Sarasota County

The North Port girls dominated the distance events with winning the 4x800, 800, 1600, and 3200 events. Freshman Maddison Krstec of North Port anchored the winning 4x800 team and took victories in both the 1600 and 800. Her teammate Sydney Guenther took the gold in the 3200.

 

On the boy's side North Port and Sarasota Riverview split the distance events with North Port taking the 4x800 and 800 while Sarasota Riverview won the 1600 and 3200. In the 1600, Sarasota Riverview took 4 of the top 6 positions lead by Senior Bryce Vokus with 4:34.   Warran Grajalez, another Sarasota Riverview runner, took home the 3200 with 10:01.

 

Manatee County

 

Lakewood Ranch ladies are looking strong with many solid performances including taking home the gold in the 4x800, 1600, and 3200.

 

The 800 was won by St. Stephen's Lauren Csubak with 2:25. Michelle Last of Lakewood Ranch ran an impressive personal best in the 1600 with 5:20. Freshman Andrea McDonald destroyed the 3200 field with winning by over 45 seconds.

 

The biggest performance on the boys side was Victor Storhoff of Brandon River with breaking 2:00 for the first time in the 800 with 1:59.42.

 

Pinellas County

 

On the girlís side, East Lake showed some strength with placing 4 in the top 5 in the 1600 lead by Sabrina Siegal. Sabrina's sister Julia took home the 3200.

 

Countryside's Andrew Llewellyn tripled with winning gold in the 800, 1600, and 3200! Very impressive! I'm not sure if Andrew ran the 4x800 but Countryside also took home 1st in that event.

 

Hillsborough County

 

HB Plant duo of Baily Sullivan and Anna Montgomery went 1-2 in the 3200 with both running sub 12. The 3200 race for Region 4A-2 looks exciting with HB Plant and North Port. Bryanna Rivers of Warton took the 800-1600 double at the county championship.

 

Jack Guyton of HB Plant is running on all cylinders. He backed up his great 1600 at FSU Relays by winning the 1600 with 4:20. The boys of Sickles went 1-2 in the 3200 led by James Zentmeyer with 9:39. Bloomingdale dominated the 4x800 like usual and took 1st and 2nd in the open 800 by Matt Butler and Kevin Heron both coming in at 1:57.

 

This coming week

 

This week the 1A and 2A schools are heading into districts; therefore there are a limited number of regular season meets "on tap". The biggest meet around the west coast will be Wally Keller at Charlotte High.

 

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.

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