Track Week 3 Three Things

A full slate of meets, decent weather and a ton of great times make this edition all about the distance.  The depth of quality times from Lee County distance runners was pretty surprising.  PR's abounded so let's break it down.

800:  Among the boys there's Estero's Kolton Pickard and everyone else.  Pickard reeled off a stunningly fast 1:55.26 on the concrete track at Fort Myers High.  The time would be at least two seconds faster on a good synthetic service.  Ida Baker's Jacob Fritz showed that he's rounding back into form with his 1:59.24 clocking at Fort Myers.  Both Pickard and Fritz ran those fast 800's after running fast 1,600's at the Edison Relays.

Then there are the ladies at Bishop Verot High School who clocked a school record in the 4x800 in 9:52.4 at the Charlotte Invitational. Leading the charge was junior Julia Reitz who also posted her fastest 800 of the season clocking a 2:23.34.  A sub-2:20 time can't be far off.

1600:  Kolton Pickard ran 4:16.87, the fastest time by any Lee County distance runner since Hugh Brittenham was a Wildcat.  He was followed across the finish line by Fritz who ran a PR of 4:24.05 and then came surprising Fort Myers sophomore Joseph Koraya who ran 4:24.17.  Take about four seconds off those times on a good surface.  Lehigh's Evan Meyer ran 4:27.8 in North Port to boot.

A slower of ladies dipped under 5:30 at the various meets across the area.  The fastest was Verot freshman star Mackenzie De Lisle who ran 5:20.07 following her relay carry.  Lehigh's Gianna Del Pizzo ran 5:26.23, Canterbury's Gabrielle Santucci ran 5:29.74 in North Port and ECS junior Ava Povich showed a returned to form running 5:28.28 at the FBA Invite.

3200:  Povich doubled back from her fine 1,600 with her first sub 12 of the season running 11:54.97.  De Lisle tripled back with a fine 11:28.31 at Charlotte followed by the dynamic duo from South Fort Myers, Sophia Torres and Allison Bratton who ran 11:42.3 and 11:59.49.  Most of the fireworks came on the boy's side.  Ida Baker duo Declan Ziomek and Matt Speruta finally showed their wheels going one-two at Edison in 9:44..82 and 9:50.32.  Fort Myers freshman Craig Allard, Jr. broke 10 for the first time with his 9:57.73.  Dunbar's Ivan Marin-Padilla ran a sterling time as well winning the North Port Invite in 9:48.77.