1A Girls Preview - Team Outlook

Maclay comes in as an 8 point favorite over Lake Mary Prep, 53-44.6 points.

The Marauders are led by 5-time track and field champion Stefanie Kurgatt and 12 other state qualifiers. The Georgetown signee will be looking to claim her 5th consecutive 800m title and her 2nd 1600m title. She will also anchor the Marauders 4 x 800m team. In all, she could account for 22.5 of Maclay’s points.

Lake Mary Prep is led by Abby Hani, a Texas State signee and 12 other qualifiers. Last year Hani accounted for 38 points winning titles in the 200m, 400m and long jump to go along with her 2nd place finish in the 100m. Her road will be tougher this year in the long jump and 400m, but alone she could again come up big to turn the tables in the Griffins favor.

Maclay will rely solely on track points as they have no one qualified for the field events.

Last year’s team champions, Calvary Christian (Fort Lauderdale) will have a huge edge in the afternoon field events with a predicted 29 points. Jefferson County too will score big in the field as they are predicted to score 25.

Holy Trinity suffered a big loss with the injury to 100m defending champion, Garyth Gayles during the district meet. They still will score big and are within striking range if they get some big points from their 12 qualifiers.
With a win, Maclay will win their first title since 2002 and their 5th title in school history. That will tie them for the tenth most titles in FHSAA history. They also finished 2nd in 1997 and 1986.


1A Girls Preview - Individual Outook

Girls High Jump

Cedar Key 

McGee has posted 7 marks of 5-04.00 and placed 5th in last year’s meet; the highest placer returning to this year’s event. Cedar Key's Allen Brooke soared to 5-04.00, her personal best at the regional meet.

With 8 others clearing 5-02.00 at their regions, this could be anyone’s event to win.

Girls Pole Vault

Emily Gale cleared 12-06.00 to win last year’s final and is sitting third best with her regional clearance of 10-06.00. Her sister, Amanda Gale cleared 11-00.00 to earn the region 4 victory and has the  best height in class 1A this season with her 12-00.00 clearance at the Royal Invitational in late March.

Kelsey Stern claimed a new personal best and the  2nd best clearance in class 1A with her 11-07.00 at the region meet. She won the Florida Relays on the count back over the Gale sisters with a mark of 11-06.00.

This one will again be close and with this being the Gale sister’s final year and their penchant for coming up big in the state series, the mark could be over 12-00.00 once again.


Girls Long Jump

Abby Hani, the defending state champion, will have her hands full once again with last year’s 2nd and 3rd place finishers, Brittney McGee and Darrielle McQueen. McQueen appears to be the stronger of the jumpers with 5 marks of 19-00 or better and a Florida Relays victory over McGee. Hani has not quite matched the proliferation of 19-00.00 marks, but this will be her first event of an arduous day, so she will be fresh. McGee, the youngest of the group, stepped up big at Florida Relays notching her personal best of 19-00.25. Adanaca Brown could sneak up on the trio as her 18-05.25 mark at regions was her best of the year.

Girls Triple Jump

Darrielle McQueen won last year’s title with a big 38-04.50 win; over a foot better than last year’s runner up and over two feet longer than last year’s next best returnee Carly Reiner of Tampa Prep. McQueen has improved to 39-09.75 this year at the FSU Relays and has a personal best of 40-03.00 and national championship from this past summer’s AAU National Junior Olympics , but came up nearly 5 feet short of that mark at regions. She has won the last three titles and with a win will move into a tie for 2nd for the most state titles in the triple jump in FHSAA history.
Reiner could challenge with a big day. Her personal best this year of 37-03 is over a foot better than the next best jumper, Rachel Sieradzan from Calvary Christian who leads all regional qualifiers with a jump of 36-00.00.


Girls Discus Throw

Frosh Stephanie Paul has the longest throw of the year in class 1A and finished 5th in last year’s state championships. Paul has five throws of 109-11 or better to go along with her best throw. Stephanie Copeland was 3rd last year with a mark of 115-06.00. She has been below the radar competing in smaller meets, but over the course of 2 years in state series competition has posted 5 marks over 110-00 feet.

Jessie Hiteshew came up 5 inches shy of her personal best with her toss of 117-02.00 at regions. She, like Paul, is just a frosh and finished 8th last year. This trio will make for an exciting competition.


Girls Shot Put

Last year’s champion, Jefferson Counties Samaria Martin returns to defend her title. She has been consistently above the 37-00 mark in seven meets this year.  Mckeel Academy's Ashley Livingston has posted three marks over 37-00.00 and has two over 40-00.00, the only competitor in the field to do so this year. Hunter Sullivan, 5th last year, Shan Scott, and Chanel Coco posted 37+ marks at region and with a big toss on Friday, could upend the defending champion.


Girls 4x800 Meter Relay

The top four teams from last year square off for a rematch. Last year’s champion, Calvary Christian (Fort Lauderdale) posted its best time this season of 10:04.73, which leaves them out of contention for the top spot again this season. Maclay, last year’s runner-up, has the top mark of the year by the narrow margin of 0.13 seconds. They have a sizzling anchor in Stefanie Kurgatt, a Georgetown bound phenom, who owns a seasonal best individual 800 of 2:13 this year; tops in 1A by 3 seconds. Maclay lost the regional meet to Providence, the second best team this season and last year’s third place team. Last year’s 4th place team, Evangelical Christian posted an impressive 13 second victory over Holy Trinity to win their region meet and will be in the mix as well. Last years top three were separated by sevens seconds. This year, expect 4 teams to be within 5 seconds.

 
Girls 100 Meter Hurdles

Admiral Farragut's Brittany McGee claimed 3rd last year as a frosh to a pair of seniors and stands poised to take the title this year. She will be challenged by last year’s 3rd place finisher, Upperroom Christian's Adanaca Brown, who McGee edged out by 0.03 last year.  Brown owns the top time, but has just two marks in the 14s compared to 7 marks in the 14s posted by McGee. The race will be between these two as the rest of the field is a good 1.5 seconds back.
 

Girls 100 Meter Dash

Daryth Gayles would have been the odds on favorite to win this year’s title, but did not qualify for the region meet due to an injury.  Abby Hani, who Gayles nipped by a mere 0.01 at last year’s final is favored. A contingent of 16 runners led by Unique Smith, a 7th grader from Wildwood, will complete a hotly contested field. 


Girls 1600 Meter Run

Defending state champion, Stefanie Kurgatt, will try and add to her impressive number of titles with another victory. She is the class of the field owning the best time in class 1A by 5+ seconds.  Early on, she will have company from last year’s 3rd place finisher Sarah Candiano and 2 time defending State XC champion, Julie Wollrath, the 2nd ranked class 1A runner this year. The field is close through positions 2-10 in a race that has big implications on the team outcome.

Girls 4x100 Meter

Last year’s state champion, Holy Trinity, is without Daryth Gayles this year and stands 4th best coming out of regions. King’s Academy has the fastest time out of the regional meets and posted the fastest time in class 1A with their time of 49.39. Calvary Christian (Clearwater) clocked 49.60 in the region prelims which brought them within 0.21 seconds of Kings Academy’s best time of the year. Maclay posted a season best of 49.95 at regions and Mount Dora Bible has a season best of 49.80. Exchanges as always play a big roll and in such a close race, getting the baton around without any mistakes will take a team with the coolest heads on their shoulders.

    
Girls 400 Meter Run

Hani won last year’s state championship over “Gabby” Gayles by 0.84 seconds to add to her title from 2011. Gayles cut the margin to 0.31 seconds at the FSU Relays this year, but came up short to Hani’s season best of 54.97. Both Gayles and Hani will be busy on Friday with preliminaries and finals. Gayles will have a bigger rest period for the Friday night finals barring any mishaps in the afternoon qualifying which could be the edge she needs. This will be  another closely contested race.

Girls 300 Meter Hurdles

Adanaca Brown won last years race by 0.78 seconds last year, but needed a near personal best to edge Delise Williams at the region meet by 0.03 seconds. Brittney McGee will also be in the mix after posting her best time of the season, 49.89 at the region meet which she won by 1.61 seconds. With more competition, she should make this a three way race.


Girls 800 Meter Run

If all goes according to plan, Stefanie Kurgatt will be vying for her third title of the night in the final final race of her decorated track and cross country career. She has the best time in Class 1A by more than 3 seconds and is an odds on favorite if there ever was one.

Grace Blair, a 7th grader, is rounding into shape nicely for the state championship as she did last year, posting a career best of 2:16.80 at her regional meet. This was 4.51 seconds better than her previous season best and 1.24 seconds better than she ran at last year’s state final where she finished 4th.

Girls 200 Meter Dash

Abby Hani will be taking aim at her fourth individual title of the night, a feat she accomplished as a junior. The Texas State signee has the second fastest time in Class 1A this year with her 25.03 season best. Gayles, a distant 9th in last year’s race, owns the better mark in Class1A with her 24.12 and has posted 5 times in the 24s this season. She cruised to victory at her regions, but expect another 24 second performance and a victory over Hani in the finals.


Girls 3200 Meter Run

Maclay's Kurgatt has the best time in the State but with her competing in 3 running events already, she exhausted the events she can compete in.  Defending State champion Julie Wollrath won last year’s title with a time of 10:53.15 and posted the second fastest time in Class1A this year going 11:09.32.

She has not been as dominant as last year and was beaten at her region meet although that's not a great indicator of things to come at the state finals.  Oak Hall's Brittney Olinger posted the best time out of all the regional meets and has the third best time in Class1A this season with her 11:12.96. The six year veteran and still just a  junior, could earn her first individual title of her career to go along with Oak Hall’s first team cross country title from the fall but she will be up against a great clutch performer in Wollrath.

Girls 4x400 Meter Relay

King’s Academy posted the best time of all the regional meets with the 2nd fastest time in Class 1A winning region 4 in 4:02.76. Maclay, the season leader, won their region, but was 7.54 seconds off their season best and Class leading best time of 4:01.54. Calvary Christian (Clearwater) also posted their season best in winning Region 2 and is within two seconds of King’s Academy. In this closely contested team battle, all the favored teams except Holy Trinity will have a team in the mix if it comes down to the final race.