Pre-season three things #1

The track and field season kicked off unofficially in Southwest Florida at Gateway High School on a cement track.  How in the hell does the Lee County School District spend millions on a new high school and not install a new rubberized track when the district says it's going to install new tracks at every high school that needs one.  Oh... so far they've installed four tracks by our count in three years by our count.  

1.  Kolton Pickard made his season debut at Gateway.  The Wildcat senior ran anywhere from 1:55 to 1:57 since there was no timing system no one seems to know for sure.  Everything was hand timed.  What year is this?!?  Pickard also blasted 50 low in the 4 x 400 relay.  This is a nice start to what could be an impressive senior campaign.

The big meet was Saturday at Dunbar High School... proud home of one of those four new tracks in Lee County.  Kudos to the meet organizers to having the 3200 races go off in the morning and avoid the later day heat.  It made for some good racing which leads to this.

2.  Mackenzie De Lisle is a beast.  The Bishop Verot freshman pulled off a quadruple with a win at 3,200, a second at 1,600, a hand in the winning 4 x 800 team and a she handled a leg of the Vikings' third place 4 x 400 team.  De Lisle's 3200 was an impressive 11:40.86 and her 5:34.71 after running the 4 x 800 is equally impressive.  

3.  Craig Allard, Jr. could be the next big deal on the boy's side of Lee County distance running.  In his first varsity track meet he finished second in the 3,200 running 10:06.57.  He came back later in the day in the boy's JV 1,600 with a 4:48.15 for the win.  You never know how a season is going to go but if Junior doesn't run sub 9:50 and sub 4:35 before the end of the season... I'll be shocked.