‘Tiny’ is huge in Osceola County track record book

Home

Soccer

Other Sun Publications

FREE DELIVERY!
Get Free Delivery! Request your Osceola News Gazette Today.

Login Form

2013 Osceola Health

2013 Sexual Predator Sexual Offender List sexualpredatorcover13

Windows on the Classroom March 2013

School Calendar
2012-2013

View our other Special Sections

‘Tiny’ is huge in Osceola County track record book

Sports

Thursday, 12 August 2010 07:06

gaither10

News-Gazette Photo/Andrew Sullivan

Osceola High’s Tynia “Tiny” Gaither can add these two state championship medals to the two she won in 2009.

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
Still a year away from graduation, Tynia Gaither already has put to rest the dispute about who is the greatest high school female athlete in Osceola County history.

Four state track and field championships are enough evidence to make Gaither, an Osceola High rising senior, a landslide winner.
Gaither, the Osceola News-Gazette Track Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, added the 2010 100 meters (11.58) and 200 meters (23.58) Class 4A state championships to her resume in May.
Those, combined with the 2009 100 meters state title and the 4 x 100 relay gold medal, make her the most decorated female athlete in county history.
Now, her sights are set on becoming Osceola County’s all-time leader in state championships.

Only Brett Williams, the Osceola High discus/shot putter, who won five championships from 1996-98, has more gold medals.
“I’m definitely going for it next year,” she said.
Gaither won with almost effortless ease at the Class 4A state meet at Winter Park. She set personal records in both sprints, holding off Ramson Everglades sprinter Darshay Davis in both events.
Miami Southridge’s decorated runner, senior Ebony Eutsey, false-started in the 200 meters championship. Some at the state meet, said Osceola High Coach Eric Pinellas, questioned whether Eutsey, the 400 meters state champion, simply wanted to avoid a confrontation with Gaither at 200 meters.
Gaither said she was initially relieved, then disappointed, when Eutsey left the track.
“My whole goal in that race was to beat Ebony,” she said.
Eutsey edged Gaither for the 200 meters final in 2009. Eutsey, as a freshman, also defeated former OHS standout Unique Singleton for the 400 meters state title in 2007.
“I knew Ebony was going to push me and bring out my best time,” Gaither said.
But Gaither’s experience and talent allowed her to overlook the pre-race commotion and concentrate when the starting gun went off.
“She’s much stronger this year, especially coming out of the turn in the 200,” OHS Coach Eric Pinellas said. “Eutsey knew that she didn’t have enough foot speed to run with Tiny (Gaither), and she probably wasn’t going to be able to build up any kind of lead to hold her off. She (Eutsey) knew that she was going to have to run a 23.5 to win, and she had never run even a 23.6 before.”
The state championships were a fitting climax to an outstanding junior season for Gaither.
She qualified for the Carifta Games, held in the Cayman Islands, in April as a member of the Bahamas national team. Her mother, Sabrina Johnson, is a Bahamas native.
Gaither ran her best time to that point, 23.78, and won the 200 meters silver medal at the Carifta Games. She also set a personal record in the 100 meters at 11.7 in the preliminary round. She placed sixth in the finals at 11.86.
“That helped my confidence. I knew I would be prepared for states,” she said.
Gaither, who holds dual citizenship, continued international competition over the summer, running for the Bahamas junior national team, where she is being hailed as one of the nation's most promising runners. She will compete in Singapore next week at a juniors world meet, which will cause her to miss the first few days of the new school year.
One of her goals next season will be to better Lake Wales standout Octavius Freeman, the Class 3A 100 and 200 meters state champion. Freeman’s 11.39 second dash at the state meet to win the 100 meters was the best nationwide for a high school sprinter.
“I don’t know if I can get her in the 100, because she is just so fast. She keeps pulling away,” Gaither, who lost a head-to-head meeting against Freeman early in the track season, said. “My best chance against her is the 200. That’s a better race for me.”
Gaither wants to improve her long jump next season, as well.
She is coveted by many Division I track programs, Pinellas said. She already has an ACT qualifying score, and her GPA is 3.0.
“I’m definitely looking at Texas A&M, and UCF,” she said. “Texas A&M always has a strong program, and I like the coach at UCF. I’ve also heard from Tennessee and FSU and some others.”
Meanwhile, she can look for a larger display case to house her growing pile of gold medals.

All-county girls track
Athlete of the Year: Tynia Gaither (Jr., OHS).
All-county team: Osceola: Ileis Figueroa (Sr.), Jevic McGee (Fr.), Jamisha Gant (Sr.), Jerusha Cavazos (Sr.), Chelsea Thomas (Soph.). Liberty: Kelila Naules (Soph.). Harmony: Chelsea Connor (Jr.), Brittany Connor (Jr.), Samantha Travis (Jr.), Kylie Koral (Fr.), Karey Dewey (Soph.), Brianna Hachey (Soph.). Celebration: Jessica Harter (Soph.).
St. Cloud: Diana Martinez (Sr.). Gateway: Unike Fermin (Jr.),
Jayleen Quinones (Sr.), Shayna Rios (Soph.), Audreen Robinson (Sr.). Poinciana: Kanina Bonner (Jr.).

COMMENTS_LIST_HEADER

#1 Madunbreakable 2013-05-24 15:12

he stated that Tiny is the "most athletic female in the history of Osceola county." No doubt she is the best track female in the history of Osceola county. But he has forgotten about Osceola high school athlete Vanity Vazquez who graduated in 2005. Who won three state titles in wrestling placed second in the nation. Received 18 varsity letters by playing 5 different varsity sports where she was conference champion in all of them. Placed third in the state in track, second in the nation in wrestling placed in states in weightlifting and holds three school records in track. The list can go on, but it can be disputed and should be when of course Tiny is amazing when it comes to track, but as an athlete Vanity excelled in all the sports she participated in

BUTTON_REFRESH

Please register
or log in to post comments.

JComments