Week 11 State

Sure... let's run 18 kids in a final.  Sure it's a great idea to watch 18 kids fight for space in an 800 meter race.  What a farce.  The FSHSAA should be ashamed of itself.  There were so many things wrong with the way this meet was handled I can't even begin to get into it.

As I noted last week, Florida needs to have at least two more classes in track and field and run two to three classes simultaneously.  Last week's hot mess made tripling difficult to nearly impossible for distance runners.  If you want top performances, the schedule has to be more forgiving for all of the athletes.

We'll start with the good and finish with the bad.  The good, Ava Povich of ECS scored an outstanding double in Class 1A claiming seventh in the 1,600 running 5:07.51.  She faced an uphill battle against the legion from Cambridge Christian.  The 3,200 went before where the junior star ran a big PR in 10:53.51 to finish third.  It was the only top three finish by any Lee County distance athlete.

Bishop Verot's boys and girls brought down school records in the 4x800 in Class 2A.  The girl's finished seventh in 9:50.50 and the boys placed 4th in 8:06.79.  The other Verot distance podium came from freshman MacKenzie DeLisle who took 8th in the 3,200 in 11:19.82.  More on Verot when we get to the bad.

The Fort Myers boys scored a big school record with their 4th place finish in the Class 3A 4x800 thanks in large part to a massive lead off leg from senior Colsen Palmer.  Later in the evening Palmer doubled back in the 1,600 running a PR of 4:22.01 to finish 12th with teammate Joseph Koraya one place better with a PR of 4:21.36.  

SFCA's boys also came home with a podium finish and a school record in the 4x800 with an 8:17.26.  Junior Hayden Tank fresh off a school record in the 3,200 ran a respectable 9:50.98 to finish 11th in Class 1A.  Another season of training and Tank will be ready for his place on the podium.

While I focus on the Lee County kids I want to point out a couple of strong performances from Collier County distance runners.  The Naples girls 4x800 squad ran a super fast 9:29.5 to finish 4th thanks to a strong 2:14 anchor from Tara Watkins.  The freshman star later finished a respectable 8th in the 800 running 2:19.73.  Palmetto Ridge junior Bernardo Barnhart also podiumed with a big PR in the 3,200 of 9:23.04.  Barnhart also ran a leg on the Bears' 4x800 squad which finished 8th.

Now on to the bad.  Undefeated Estero senior Kolton Pickard ran into a lot of it in Gainesville.  He was battling for the lead in the Class 3A 1,600 when he tightened up to finish 4th in 4:17.09.  Then came the 800 where he was perfectly position with 200 to go when the eventual race winner decided to pinch Pickard into another run causing Pickard to tumble to the track.  It was a perfect example of why you can't run 18 athletes in an 800 final.  The track was overcrowded and it was a veritable traffic jam with 200 to go.  

Bad luck also cost Verot junior Cooper Banks a third place finish and a big PR in the 800.  As Banks was sprinting to the finish chasing two other runners, one of them tumbled to the track in front of Banks forcing him to stop and hurdle the fallen runner.  Even putting on the breaks couldn't stop Banks from clocking a fine 1:56.07 but the loss of momentum caused him to go from third to eighth.  A cruel way to end his season.

Listen up FSHSAA... 18 runners in a two lap final is ridiculous.