Eight Keys school records were broken last week in track and field as athletes gear up for districts later this month. The first to fall was via the legs of Coral Shores freshman phenom Ali Wheatley, who placed first at a South Dade mini meet on April 1. Wheatley ran the 800-meter run, finishing two laps around the track in 2:36. Teammate Sammy Bates placed second in the same event. Wheatley went on to win the 3,200-meter run in 12:15 for two Lady ’Canes firsts.
Alaric Rodriguez placed first in the boys 800-meter run, finishing in 2:04. Adrik Gadea was one second behind Rodriguez for second place. Hayden Teal was second in the girls 1,600-meter run, while Tristian Rios and Jamie Cary were second and third in the boys race. Tristan Sanchez took second in the 3,200-meter boys run and Jarmoris Davis was second in shot put to round out the Hurricane highlights.
Two days later, the ’Canes headed to Marathon for the Middle Keys Invite. Marathon’s girls won the meet 180-142 while Coral Shores won the boys competition 245-237. The Lady Fin win was driven by a trio of first-place throws from junior Justice Lee, whose top tosses re-broke all three of her own Marathon school records. Her discus throw, considered an elite performance by Mile Split, landed 33.20 meters from the throwing circle. That’s just under 109 feet, more than twice as far as her closest competitor. In the shot put, Lee hurled the 6-pound ball 37’3” and her javelin toss was 105’3”. Ava Merryman broke her own school record in pole vault, clearing the bar at 9’7.25” for a first-place finish in the event. Tinashay Cunningham won the 400-meter race in 1:04.25 on the track while Marathon’s jumpers secured multiple field events.
Daysi Williams won the high jump event, clearing 4’9.75”, while Caylie Globe leaped 15’7.5” for a first in long jump. Other Fins wins were the 4×800 relay team of Rebecca Merryman, Rilynn Richards, Molly Joly and Mylana Loza and the 4×100 team of Bryanna Jouvin, Marti Kilbourne, Daysi Williams and Adrianna Golding.
Lady ’Canes saw firsts in the 100-meter dash, finished by Niveah Howard in 14.05 seconds, and the 200-meter dash, with Olive Welch finishing in 30.31. Sammy Bates won the 800 in 2:47 while Wheatley opted for the longer 1,600, which she won in 5:42. Julieanna Oddo raced to a first in the 100 hurdles in 20.03 seconds and the Coral Shores 4×400 team of Mira Jones, Tess Hill, Bates and Kate King was the team’s final first-place finish.
The Hurricane boys took 10 firsts. In the field events, Evan Osipov won the discus with a 120’4” throw while Jarmoris Davis threw the shot 41’11.5”. Adrik Gadea outjumped the field of long jump competitors with a 20’2.25” leap, while Riley Froman won the pole vault competition, clearing a 10’11.75” bar. On the track, Sean Harm won the 200-meter race in 24.76 seconds, Adrik Gadea won the 400 in 53.11 and Victor Lopez was first in the 800 with a time of 2:16. Tristan Sanchez rounded out the individual winners with a 12:25 3,200 race. The Hurricanes had two winning relay teams as well: the 4×100 crew of Uriel Gutierrez, Harm, Danny Malagon and Tanel Irons and 4×400 team of Alaric Rodriguez, Tristian Rios, William Roberts and Gadea raced to first-place finishes.
Marathon’s boys had just two track wins. Mikail Marshall won the 100 in 11.47 seconds and Vance Bursa was first in the 1,600, winning in 4:33. In the jumping events, Fab Louis Jeune won the high jump and triple jump, clearing 5’5.75” and 36’9.5” respectively. Israel Gonzalez won the javelin event with a 111’6” throw. Maverick McDonald’s 8’7” vault did not win but did break a school record.
Key West had some elite performances of its own last week at the Father Luis Ripoll S.J. Relays at Belen Jesuit, where more than a dozen top-level South Florida teams went to compete on April 5. The Conch boys were second overall and the girls were fourth, with multiple notable performances from both squads.
Just prior to the meet’s start, Conchs head coach Dave Perkins asked thrower Noah Mercer if he would be breaking any records that day. Mercer’s short reply, “Yep,” rang true as he won the boys discus event with a 152-foot toss that broke his own school record by six feet. Shane Lavallee then hurled the javelin 176’8” to take over that Conch record, surpassing the old one by more than seven feet. And though it was two-and-a-half inches shy of a school record, Malachi Telisma won first place at the meet with a fantastic 6’3.5” high jump performance.
Other notable performances from Key West’s boys team were Walson Morin’s second-place 200-meter race. Morin also ran a leg of each of Key West’s second-place relay teams. Morin teamed up with Jeff Dejean, Lavallee and Telisma in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays. Dejean went on to place second in the long and triple jump events, Ian Newton was second in pole vault and Josh Johnson was second in the shot and discus events.
Audrey Smith was the big winner for the Lady Conchs, sweeping the throwing events for a trio of firsts. Smith threw the javelin 119’10”, the discus 110’9” and the shot 28’5.75” to secure nearly half of the team’s points. Colleen Barter accounted for the team’s other first-place finish, clearing the high jump bar at 4’7.75”. Ariel Newton was second in pole vault, clearing 8’10.25”, and then ran a leg of the second-place 4×200 relay team with Alyssandra Camargo, Mirakle Humphrey and Janiliah Moore.
All three Keys teams will meet in Key West on Friday, April 11 to finish out their regular seasons. District meets begin April 22 for Key West and Coral Shores, who will compete at Tropical Park in Miami for the FHSAA 2A District 16 Championships. Marathon will compete the following day at Palmer Trinity for the 1A event.
Photo Credit: RICK MACKENZIE/Contributed
