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District 1-4A track and field championships

OHS girls go 1-2-3 in triple jump

Randy Lefko
Posted 4/20/17

FLAGLER PALM COAST - Jumping has been the specialty of the Oakleaf High School track teams and both boys and girls teams were fueled by wins before the running events started as the Knights will be …

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District 1-4A track and field championships

OHS girls go 1-2-3 in triple jump


Posted

FLAGLER PALM COAST - Jumping has been the specialty of the Oakleaf High School track teams and both boys and girls teams were fueled by wins before the running events started as the Knights will be sending four district champions to the region 1-4A championships on April 27 also at Flagler Palm Coast High School.

High jumperAnthony Norris, long jumper Loren Johnson, triple jumper Melvin Briley and triple jumper Jaqueline Thomas all won gold at the district 1-4A track championships and will lead a strong contingency back to Flagler on April 27.

With the wins fueling big team points, Oakleaf High's girls team took second to host Flagler Palm Coast with 11 points to Flagler's 166.50. Fleming Island's girls team took sixth with 59 points.

In the boys team totals, Sandalwood got some big points late in the meet with distance runner Terrance Sessoms taking titles in the 1600 and the 3200 to put the Saints on top with 125 with Flagler second at 112 and Oakleaf third at 96. Fleming Island was fourth with 90 points.

Norris, the defending high jump district champion and a fifth place finisher at last year's state meet, won at 6'-.75", with Jacob Harris of Fleming Island second at 5'-8.75". Norris has topped 6'-4" numerous times throughout the season and jumped 6'-2" to finish fourth at last year's region championships.

Thomas, a senior, topped a 1-2-3 Oakleaf finish in the triple jump with Johnson, the region champion last year in the event, second and sophomore Hadassah Davis third. Thomas won with a 35'-8.75" jump with Johnson second at 34'-11.25" inches coming on her final jump after two scratch jumps. Davis jumped 33'-2" for third. Johnson was region champion at 38'-6" last year.

Johnson, who advanced to the state meet last year as a freshman, will return to the region championships as a defending champion.

For the boys triple jump, Briley has won all season with decisively measures and his 46'-10" winning jump was nearly five feet longer than runnerup Frank Clark of Flagler who won the long jump at 22'-4.25". Oakleaf senior Khalif Copeland finished fourth to advance to region with a 41'-9.75" jump. Norris was fifth. Briley was seventh in last year's region meet at 43'-10" with Norris fifth at 44'-6.75".

In the long jump, Norris finished third at 22'-2.25", a personal best, and Briley took fourth at 20'-7".

In the girls long jump, Johnson won at 17'-1.5" with Thomas her runnerup at 16'-7.75". Johnson jumped 17'-2" in last year's region, but only finished eighth.

In the pole vault, Oakleaf's Tony Stallworth finished fourth at 10'-8" to edge teammate Jaeger Henderson in the pole vault to advance to regions. Stallworth vaulted 10'-6" at last year's region meet to finish 10th.

In the discus, Armoney Emmanuel, an Oakleaf senior, placed second at 96" to take second by just nine inches behind winner Ariana Jenkins of Robert E. Lee High School. Emmanuel finished sixth in the shot put.

For the boys discus, Jeffrey Allen, a junior, took third at 123'-7".

In the shotput, freshman Jalen Rivers finished third at 45'-.5" to advance to regions while teammate Justin Way took sixth.

Once the Knights' teams hit the track for running events, it was Keshawn King's fourth in the 100 meters in 11.02 and Copeland's fourth in the 110 high hurdles in 15.47 that started the top four finishes for the Knights. Oakleaf had two fifth place finishes in the sprints with Tahja Peoples getting fifth in the 100, Thomas getting fifth in the 200 and Davis taking fifth in the 400 to miss out on a region berth.

In the sprint relays, Oakleaf 's girls 4 x 100 relay; Nia Anthony, Destiny Harris, Peoples and Thomas, took second to First Coast High while the boys; King, Rontrez Morgan, Nick Roberts and Javon Journigan, took third.

For Fleming Island, Cameron Dill had his best night of the season after dealing with injuries and nagging ailments with a final surge win in 1:58.43 over Xari Barros of First Coast who blasted the first 200 meters, but fell off the pace in the second lap. Dill has been running the 400 and 1600 through the season to regain his 2016 state meet performance level. Dill was fourth in last year's region 400 in 49.39.

Dill got his second first place of the day with an anchor leg of the 4 x 400 meter relay squad that bested Sandalwood by two seconds to win. Dill had Spencer Shaw (fourth in the 400), Felipe Fernandez (third in the 400) and Paris Williams running with him on the relay. The Fleming Island girls; Adriana Neilen, Audrey Millican, Kayla Armstron and Ashley Nelson, finished third to advance.

In a very fast 400 meter race, with winner Damon Jones of Sandalwood besting the field with the only sub-50 second split, 49.65, the next three finishers were all within less than half a second of each other with runnerup Sage Keys of Buchholz running 50.04, Fernandez running 50.34 and Shaw running 50.52. Shaw finished seventh in last year's district 400 in 52.18 with Dill winning in 50.22. Dill was 13th at the state meet in 50.76.

In the sprints, Fleming Island junior Anfernee McCaskill finished third in the 100 in 10.94, but fifth in the 200 by a gap of just .003 to Julian House of Sandalwood; 22.111 to 22.114. McCaskill finished second last year and wound up 13th at regions.

For the Fleming Island girls, senior sprinter Ashley Nelson, the defending district champion in the 200 and sixth at regions, led the Golden Eagles attack with a second in the 100 in 12.56 behind Sandalwood's Kiara Tims' 12.51 winning split. Nelson came back for a second second in the 200 with a 25.55 split off winner Chayla Hobbs of First Coast's winning time of 25.40. Nelson finished fifth at regions in 25.55 last year.

In the 300 hurdles, Fleming Island got a repeat at third in 48.78 from junior Kayla Armstrong and a third in 40.57 from senior Luc Larson to advance both to regions. In last year's district meet, Larson was fifth in 16.08 in the 110 hurdles and seventh in 42.84 in the district 300 hurdles last year. Last year, Armstrong was fourth at districts in 51.19 in the 300 hurdles and wound up 15th at regions in 50.14.

In the 4 x 800, Fleming Island used the legs of two freshman; Madelyn Stevenson and Jordan Mae Detwiler, with junior Julie Franzoni and senior Halie Bourre to run down a strong Fletcher High lead for second place. Flagler Palm Coast won with Fletcher third and Buchholz fourth.

Franzoni and Stevenson would both return to the track with Franzoni taking third in the 800 in 2:28.73 and Stevenson placing fourth in 12:06.54 in the 3200, both behind Fletcher senior Kayley Delay who won the 800, 1600 and 3200. Franzoni was fifth last year in 12:36.88.

In the boys 3200, Fleming Island tagged the dynamic duo of Andrew Miller and Evan Fuller to a second and third place finish behind Buchholz' Calum McFetridge. All three were clocked under 10 minutes; 9:49.98 for Miller and 9:56.00 for Fuller. McFetridge, last year's district runnerup, won in 9:40.84. Fuller was seventh in 10:27.31 last year with Miller ninth in 10:38.56.

In the field events, Fleming Island senior Jacob Harris placed second in the high jump with teammate Nick Ferendo fourth with all three jumpers in second, third and fourth at 5'-8.75".