4A Girls State Preview by Ricky Quintana - Florida FHSAA Outdoor Championships 2013

St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale) is heavily favored to add another title to its string of victories on Saturday. It’s been awhile since their last championship (2005), but the state leader in consecutive state titles (8) are predicted to score in a whopping 13 of the 17 events. In all, the Raiders could amass a staggering 109.25 points which would be the 4^th most points of any school in state meet history. 

The Raiders will have a great balance scoring a predicted 31.5 points in the sprints, 17.5 in the hurdles, 22 in the relays, 25 in the distances, 10 in the throws and 7.75 in the jumps. The only events where they will be shut out of points are the high jump, long jump and the discus where they have no qualifiers.

They have predicted winners in the shot put, Shanell Atkins (Freshman), the 4 x 400 where they lead the nation, the 3200m, Alexa Cruz (Freshman), and the 400m, Kendall Ellis (Junior).  Surprisingly, it would be the first girl’s title for head coach Alex Armenteros who has guided the boys team to 4 consecutive state titles.

In any other year, 73 points in 9 events would seem like a shoe in for the state title. However, the Boyd Anderson Cobras who are just 5.3 miles from the St. Thomas Aquinas campus in Ft. Lauderdale are favored for second place.  They are evenly matched with the Raiders in the sprints and score 23 points in the hurdles, 21 points in the relays, and 10 points in the throws.

Florida State University signee, Kali Davis-White, will lead the charge. She is heavily favored in the 100m (11.51) where she is ranked US #3 and the 200m (23.71) where she is ranked US #6. She will also be a member of the US #1 ranked 4x100m team (45.80). The Cobras are also predicted to pick up victories in the 300m hurdles, Daeshon Gordon (Junior).

Other standouts of Saturday night’s finals are:

St. Thomas Aquinas junior, Kendall Ellis owns the US #5 400 time with her 53.80 clocking at the Region 3 meet which she won by 1.28 seconds.

St. Thomas Aquinas has traveled near and far to post the top two times in the nation. Their fastest came at the Florida Relays where they recorded a 3:40.74 and their second fastest time, 3:41.52, was set in winning the Texas Relays, a hot bed of high school relaying teams. The FHSAA State meet record is 3:43.68 set by Boyd Anderson in 2008 which the Raiders could take down in the final event of the women’s program.

Kali Davis-White will have a shot at the record books. The FHSAA State meet record is 11.39 by Octavious Freeman (Lake Wales) and 200m record is 23.36 by Erica Whipple (Palm Beach Lakes) set in 2001. She will also be a part of the 4 x 100m team that has posted a national leading 45.80 this year which is an eyelash off their 45.71 FHSAA State meet record set last year.

Florida International signee, Michelle Howell (Seminole Ridge, Loxahatchee) has turned her sights from a 5^th place finish in the 2012 FHSAA 400m 4A State Track and Field Final (56.47) to  favored status in the 800m run with her 2:12.86 clocking in her 4 second Region 3 win. She’ll need a another big improvement to improve on Skyler Wallen’s (Northwestern), state meet record 2:09.44 set in 2009.

Auburn University signee, Ebony Morrison (Killian, Miami) is ranked US #4 in the 100m hurdles with the her Region 4 preliminary time of 13.64. She posted a 13.77 in the finals which is the 7^th best performance in the country. She is also just outside of the US #5 performance with her 19-07 long jump performance.

6-1 Georgetown basketball signee, Faith Woodard (Freedom, Tampa) has leapt a US #5 best of 5-10 this season. This would be the second high-jump title for Woodard whose team lost in the state basketball semifinals to eventual 7A state champ Buchholz (Gainesville); Woodward had a double double in that game.

Junior Erica Sergeant (Lake Mary) has a best of 12-08 from last summer’s AAU National Championships. One week after University of Louisiana Lafayette’s signee Amanda Gale took a shot (12' 11") at the FHSAA State meet record of 12-10 set by Lindsey Enders (Holy Trinity, Melbourne) in the Class 1A final, Sergeant will have her chance here.

Junior Bridget Blake (Dr. Phillips, Orlando) collected two titles in the 1600m and 3200m the past two years at the state championship. This year, she is aiming for three. She is ranked 2^nd in the 1600m, 6^th in the 800m, and 6^th in the 3200m based on her region times. Her personal best are 10 seconds better than the field in the 1600m and 3200m. Her biggest test will come in the 800m where her personal best is 1.92 seconds shy of Michelle Howell’s best.

The triple has been accomplished before.

Two years after the 2 mile was added to the girls’s program, Betty Jo Springs (Bayshore, Bradenton) turned the trick three times in a row in Class 3A; 1977, 1978 and 1979. Her best triple times for those three events came in 1979 when she went 4:58.3 in the mile (4:56.6 in today’s 1600m), 2:14.9 in the 880 yards (2:14.2 in today’s 800m), and 10:37.0 in the two mile (10:33.3 in today’s 3200m). Springs also won the mile and two mile in 1976 and stands 5^th all time in the most titles ever won in high school history. Lisa Beck (Clearwater) accomplished the feat as well in 1980 in class 4A and more recently, Chiles Lily Williams accomplished the feat 32 years after the last trick in 1980.  Lily Williams holds the Girls fastest time ever over a Mile/1600 with her stunning 6th place finish at last years adidas Dream Mile in NYC clocking 4:42.79 (1600 4:41.15c).