Midway

The Florida high school track and field season has hit the midway point.  I haven't been as faithful in rambling about what I've seen so far this season.  Life comes at you pretty fast sometimes but it slowed down enough today for me to share my thoughts.

Declan Ziomek   

We'll start with the boys in Lee County and it's the familiar faces that you would expect to see running  fast times.  The Cape Coral 3200 duo of Declan Ziomek and William Canales are rolling.  Ziomek followed up a 9:33.33 PR two weeks ago with a 9:34.57 at the FSU Relays.  Canales ran a 9:44.14 PR early in the season and has run consistently under 9:50.  Ziomek has also posted a fine 4:26.6 in the 1600.

Hayden Tank of SFCA is doing Hayden Tank kind of running.  He's set a PR in the 1600 in 4:29.26 and has been consistently under 10 minutes in the 3200.  He appears poised to lower all of SFCA's distance records before seasons end.

Joseph Koraya and Timothy Schultz of Fort Myers are finally hitting their stride.  Koraya clocked a near PR at FSU running 4:21.4 over 1600 with Schultz hitting a PR of 4:27.53.  LCAC should be a distance showdown between the Cape Coral duo and the Fort Myers trio of Koraya, Schultz and Craig Allard, Jr.

Over 800 meters only two runners have dipped under two minutes.  Estero sophomore Max Sedmak ran a 1:58.58 at Dunbar on Saturday.  The other sub two man, Bishop Miego senior Grayson Tubbs was busy running a school record 1:55.59 at FSU.  Tubbs has also run a fine 4:22.08 1600 earlier in the season.

On the girl's side there have been a few surprises.  First the arrival of Riverdale junior Ansley Kelly who left the ranks of swimming for the track.  She's run 5:27.61 over 1600 and 11:22.83 for 3200.  Then there's the re-emergence of Gianna Del Pizzo of Lehigh.  She's run the fastest 1600 in the county to date at 5:08.54 and a PR of 2:21.84 over 800.

The smaller schools have the most dominate girls.  Bishop Verot senior Julia Reitz has run a PR over 1600 hitting 5:16.3  She's followed by another senior Kylie Thomas who has dropped some big PR's over 800, 2:26.97 and 1600, 5:19.79.

The Verot program has another stud in sophomore MacKenzie DeLisle who has battled ECS senior Ava Povich all season.  DeLisle ran a school record over 3200 in 10:51.86 at FSU, just a hair behind Povich's school record of 10:51.11 at the same meet.  DeLisle also has the Verot school record in the 1600 in 5:15.47.  Povich has run 5:14.62 this season for 1600, about seven seconds off her school record.

The Private 8 conference meet should be a barn burner with the pack from Verot, Povich and Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci who has run a 1600 PR of 5:20.95 and has a best of 11:27.47 over 3200.  

The Florida Relays are this coming weekend with championship season to follow.  I wouldn't be surprised if we see a third Lee County girl under 11 before seasons end.