Three Big Things: Districts Part Two

We had to wait a week to wrap up all of the District competitions in Southwest Florida with the final meet finishing up Friday afternoon.  Goodness knows why the run most of the track and field competitions in Lee County in the middle of the day.  The final meet at Evangelical Christian School produced some sterling performances.

1.  Ethan Tank did his thing.  The SFCA senior pulled off a triple winning the 1,600, 800 and 3,200 in easy fashion.  In fact if I didn't know any better, the 4:53.94, 207.7 and 10:32.51 looked like a glorified workout.  Tank has a shot a making it through Regions in the 1,600 and 3,200 but the 800 would be a surprise.  He did a superb job of pacing his brother Hayden to second place finishes in the 1,600 and 3,200.  Katie Russo has done an excellent job in getting the boys at SFCA to a competitive level.

2.  ECS had one shining star in their distance ace, Ava Povich.  The sophomore powered her way to double wins in the 1,600 and 3,200.  She easily won the first race in 5:23.01 and then ran an amazingly fast 11:18.91 in the heat putting a half lap on runner up rival Katie Beam from FBA.  Povich looks ready to break 11 minutes on a good weather day.

3.  The queen of the meet didn't disappoint.  Canterbury superstar senior Jessica Edwards anchored two relay teams to victory, the 4x800 and 4x400 sandwiching the fastest high school time by a Lee County girl on Lee County soil for the 800 in between.  Edwards ran an evenly paced 2:09.42, the eighth fastest time in the United States so far this year.  Part of me was disappointed in the fact that she skipped the 1,600.  But I certainly understand her decision.  The 1A 1,600 will be stacked this year with two girls already at 4:45 or better.  Running a sub 5 at State for third certainly isn't as appealing as trying to run a super 800.  

The various Region meets are next weekend with State the following weekend in Jacksonville.