By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

The track season begins in earnest in Osceola County today as both Harmony and Poinciana will host large meets.

The Harmony Invitational gets under way at 9 a.m. with the field events. The running preliminaries start at noon, followed after a 30-minute break by the finals.

The Poinciana Invitational begins at 9 a.m. (field events) and 11 a.m. (running events).

Sixteen teams are entered at Harmony, including local squads Osceola, Celebration, St. Cloud and Gateway.

Joining them are Lutz Steinbrenner, Kathleen, Lake Gibson, Lake Mary, Lake Wales, Oak Ridge, Rockledge, Tenoroc, Wekiva, West Orange and Freedom.

One of the meet’s highlights will be the girls sprints, where Osceola’s four-time state champion Tynia Gaither and her teammate, Atarah Clark, will likely run into Lake Wales state sprints champion Octavius Freeman at today’s meet.

Gaither (Georgia) and Freeman (UCF) have already signed college scholarships.

Gaither won 100 meters and 200 meters titles at the Ping Invitational in Miami last weekend and was named the Outstanding Meet Performer.

Hurdler Jameshia Gant won the high hurdles, and Clark was third in the 100 and 200.

The Kowgirls 4 x 100 with Gaither, Clark, Gant and Jodiann Crooks was second as Osceola was fourth in a 39 team field.

The Kowboys have one of the state’s top sprinters as well in senior Defario Phillips.

St. Cloud brings one of the strongest rosters of distance runners, both boys and girls, in Central Florida.

Celebration has one of the area’s premier female pole vaulters in Jessica Harter.

The Poinciana Invitational has the county’s other two track programs, the host Eagles and Liberty, in a nine-team meet that includes Polk County teams George Jenkins, Haines City, Lake Region, Mulberry and Winter Haven along with South Lake and Umatilla.

Poinciana has one of the area’s top sprinters in Joey Decomo.

Liberty won the Orange Belt Conference boys championship last season and is a favorite this year.

Winter Haven track alums include 1996 Olympian Keith Brantly (marathon), while 1992 Olympics high hurdler Arthur Blake competed for Haines City.