Three Big Things: Week Three

Same song, different verse as we rolled through week three of outdoor track and field in Southwest Florida.  Doubles were the name of the game with one that we see as more than a bit quirky.  We'll start with the Friday night action.

1. The Viking Elite Classic turned into a distance fest for the boys from Fort Myers. Senior Liam Holston took an easy win in the 1600 in 4:33.38 before blasting a huge personal best in the 800 clocking 1:58.91 for his second victory of the night.  The night was capped by Green Wave junior Colsen Palmer taking the 3200 with his first trip under 10 minutes.

Scanning the results I spied something unusual.  Canterbury senior Jessica Edwards opted to run just the 200.  She took second in 25.84.  I wondered what was going on and the answer to my question would come two days later.

2.  Estero's Kolton Pickard is making a statement early as the man to beat in the 1,600.  On Saturday the Wildcat junior won in the fastest time of the season in 4:20.67 in Naples.  Pickard doubled back to win the 3200 in 9:53.03, also the fastest Lee County time so far this season.  The icing to the cake was a 1:58 split for Estero's 4x800 which clocked an 8:12.  We await the fireworks when Pickard and Holston face off over 1600.

3.  The Jessica Edwards double mystery was answered on Sunday.  The national class 800 specialist had made the trip to Virginia Beach to face some national class competition at the Adidas Indoor Nationals.  Edwards put her nose into it but came up short in placing third running her fastest time of the season in 2:11.59.  Put her outdoors on a regular size track and she's under 2:10.

While we usually just keep tabs on the distance kids in Lee County a couple of Dunbar hurdlers claimed national titles at the Adidas meet.  Leonard Mustari and Lucheyona Weaver took the national titles.  Mustari also claimed the national championship in the long jump with a leap of more than 24 feet.  That's some pretty salty stuff.