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2A State Meet Preview by Herb Wills - Florida FHSAA State Outdoor Championships 2015

Published by
DyeStatFL.com   Apr 30th 2015, 12:06pm
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Think of Florida’s high school track and field season as toiling in an iron mine. If you’ve done a few track workouts on a hot spring day, this isn’t such a leap of imagination. If you continue with the analogy, the District Meets pick out the richest ore. the Region Meets smelt it. State finds the finest metal. The class 2A meet is at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville on Friday, 1 May 2015. Here’s a rundown of some of the events where we’ll find out who is steel, and who was just pig iron.



The class 2A girls 1600 is the tale of two juniors. Pine Crest junior Julia Montgomery finished ahead of Ransom Everglades junior Lauren Archer the FSU Relays 1600, 5:00.95 to 5:04.16. At the 2A Region 4 meet, though, Archer won with a 5:00.33 while Montgomery settled for second in 5:05.03. The deciding match is in the State Final, where one of the two is likely to take the state title. Will it be defending champion Montgomery, or the upstart Archer? We’re talking about an almost-but-not-quite-a-mile 1600 race here, but this is the kind of matchup that made the mile a centerpiece of athletics.



Wolfson senior Connor Vaughan is a future Florida Gator and the athlete to watch in the class 2A boys 1600. The 2A Region 1 champion in the event has gone 4:18.07 this year; no one else in class 2A has gone sub-4:20. Calvary Christian junior Joel Lacy has come closest, running 4:20.46 at the FSU Relays. Ransom Everglades junior Gabriel Correa is the defending champion in the race, but his best effort this year is a 4:24.80 at the Florida Relays. He'll need to run faster than that to repeat.



Hallandale senior Antwuan Musgrove went to the Texas Relays back in March. He came back to Florida having run 36.72 in the 300 hurdles, which is still the US #3 time in the event this season. Musgrove was third in that Texas race, but that was the only 300 hurdles race he hasn’t won this year. His chances of taking the class 2A boys title in the event look very strong, and he also has a fair chance at taking the 110 hurdles.



Maybe Hallandale is just a hurdles school, because it’s also home to the state leader in the girls’ 300 hurdles, Kimani Rushing. Rushing, a junior, made her own trip to the Texas Relays, where she ran 42.06 in the 300 hurdles, still the US #6 time for the event in 2015. She won’t be alone in the State Finals, either. Rushing will be in the company of two other Hallandale hurdlers, junior Tia Strackman and senior Lamisha Simmons, who also qualified for State out of 2A Region 4. Rushing also won the 100-meter hurdles at that Region meet, running 13.63--which makes her a serious threat to sweep the hurdle events in class 2A.



Of all Florida's high school sprinters Cocoa junior Chauncey Gardner has the season's best wind-legal time in the 100 and the best time in 200, the 10.51 and the 21.02 he posted at the 2A Region 4 meet. Those performances put him at #4 in the U.S. in the 100 and #3 in the 200. Which would make you seriously consider Gardner’s chances at a double win at State, until you see that he’s also entered in the long jump. His 23’ 1” mark in that event isn’t of the same caliber as his times on the track, but it still leads class 2A. Gardner may just be going home with three gold medals.



Pine Crest junior Julia Montgomery went 10:43.16 in the girls 3200 at the FSU Relays back in March, the second fastest time by a Florida girl this season and the fastest in class 2A. It’s also her fastest this season by half a minute. In 2014 Montgomery similarly ran some great times in big races while running fast enough to win in the minor events. In that respect, her 11:15.92 in Region competition is entirely in character. However, Montgomery didn’t win that Regional 3200; she finished second to Ransom Everglades sophomore Beatriz Ruan, who ran 11:10.24. So in the girls’ 2A 3200 race on Friday you may want to keep an eye on Bolles junior Mackenzie Wilson who ran 11:03.83 back in February, Gulliver Prep junior Alyssa Pujals who ran 11:06.58 in March, and 11:09.89 frosh Rachel Shapiro of Bolles.



Wolfson senior Connor Vaughan went 9:04.99 in the boys' 3200 at the FSU Relays in March, and no one else in class 2A has run close to that this season. This sounds a lot like the 1600, the other event where Vaughan is favored. If Vaughan still looks fresh after the 1600, I’d bet on him in the eight-lap race. If it’s a tough 1600, though, pay attention to Lincoln Park sophomore Caleb Pottorff, who has gone 9:26.25 this season. You may also want to keep an eye on Pine Crest sophomore Michael Kennedy, who has run 9:36.07 during the 2015 campaign.



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