It was a great weekend on the track for Osceola County athletes. Gateway captured a district team title, Harmony will send a massive team to next week’s regional meets, and Osceola schools won close to 30 district championships in individual and relay events.
In winning the District 3A-8 championship at George Jenkins, the Gateway boys got a huge performance by Aaron Campbell, who won the 800 meter run and the high jump and also ran a leg on the winning 4 x 800 relay team. For good measure, he also finished second in the 400.
Among other regional qualifiers for the Panthers, Williams Martinez and Felipe Abreu went first and second in the pole vault, while Ismael Sesay was second in the 110-hurdles.
Led by Amela Johnson, the district champion in the 100 and 200, the Lady Panthers took third place at district. Johnson also qualified with a fourth place finish in the 400, and senior Paige Alise won championships in the shot put and javelin and was second in the discus. Molly Soukup also moves through to regionals with a third in the pole vault.
Harmony, the defending Orange Belt Conference champions in both boys and girls track, had an outstanding meet on Saturday in highly-competitive District 4A-10. At the meet in Stuart, the Lady Longhorns finish second to state track power Vero Beach, while the boys’ team finished a strong third place finish to Vero Beach and Viera. Osceola and St. Cloud also participated in the Stuart meet, respectively finishing seventh and eighth on the boys’ side and fifth and sixth on the girls’ side out of 10 teams.
The Lady Longhorns strength came in the field events, where Thora Gaston (javelin), Elizabeth Hernstrom (pole vault) and Drea Thompson (high jump) all claimed gold medals; as did the school’s 4 x 800 relay team. Brynn Magner and Lailana Decker, who ran legs on the winning 4 x 800 relay, went second and third in the 800 meters to advance to that event in regionals; while Magner also advances in the 1600 meters with a 4th place finish. In all, the Lady Longhorns will send a dozen athletes to regionals.
Led by a 1-2-3 finish by Alex Tuyo, Wathson Cherancy and Tyson Job in the 300 hurdles, the Harmony boys’ team will also send a large contingent to regionals. Tuyo won the 110 hurdles while Job was third. Among other Harmony qualifiers for regionals were Jayden Campbell and Anthony White, who went 1-2 in the high jump; distance runner Joel Jean who qualified in the 1600 (3rd) and 3200 meters (4th) and sprinter Isaiah Oquendo who gets through to regionals with second place finish in the 200 and fourth in the 100. Both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 800 relay teams also advance.
As expected, the Osceola girl sprinters did well — Shannon Levy won the 100 meters and ran a leg on the winning 4 x100 relay – as did Quanaya Jenkins, who finished third in the 200. The 4 x 400 relay team of Jenkins, Tatina George, Zanaya Bright and Aaliyah Strachen also won a district title. Stachen’s third place finish in the 300 hurdles gets her through to regionals.
The Osceola boys team had just one individual qualifier (Jordan Stynes, 4th in 110 hurdles) but is sending both its district champion 4 x 400 relay team (Bo Mascoe, Ja’Keem Jackson, Tyler Newsome, Jeff Banks) and its second place 4 x 100 relay team (Taevion Swint, Jackson, Henley Placide and Mascoe) to regionals.
St. Cloud’s Yadiel Rivera-Alonso won the triple jump. Tiffany Febus (4th – 800) and Hannah Klein (3rd-400) qualified in individual events for the St. Cloud girls; while Devin Howard (3rd-400), John Ortiz-Torres (4th-1600) and Clayton Haddock (4th-pole vault) all advance in individual events for the boys.
At the 4A-5 event also at George Jenkins, Celebration’s girls (second) and boys (third) placed in the top three. Poinciana was sixth (boys) and eighth (girls) as host Jenkins won both the boys and girls district titles.
Jared Falchook advances to regionals by claiming a district championship in the 800 meters and ran legs on the winning 4 x 800 relay and the 2nd place 4 x 400 relay. Oniel Senatus took second in the long jump and ran a leg on the 4 x 400 relay; Cooper James (2nd-1600), Gabriel Merino (4th-400), Justin Quispe (3rd-3200) and Kollin Kalstek (2nd-Discus) all advanced.
Catalina Edwards, Osceola News-Gazette’s cross country runner of the year in 2021, had an outstanding meet in leading the Storm to the second place District finish. She won the 800 and 3200 meters and finished second in the 1600; while Helena Huyke also qualified for regionals in three events (2nd – 100 hurdles, 2nd-300 hurdles and 3rd-Long Jump); while also running a leg on 4th place 4 x 100 relay. The Storms 4 x 800 relay also gets through with a second place finish; as does Makenna McBroom (4th- High Jump), Eva Desares (2nd- Pole Vault), and Camile Barrios (4th – 1600).
Tohopekaliga hosted several Orlando schools in the 4A-District 9 meet last Thursday, with the boys’ team finishing in 4th place with 117.5 points and girls’ team finishing in 7th with 39. Boone High won both district titles.
Among the 10 advancing Tigers were district champions Javan Medina (800), Javan Garcia (3200), and Orlando Descartes (javelin). Toho went 1-2 in the javelin with Kameron Davis taking second; while Descartes also qualified for the high jump with a second place finish. The Lady Tigers will advance two in individual events with high finishes by Brianna Rodriguez in the pole vault and Nicole Garcia in the discus.
Other county athletes advancing include district triple jump champion Angie Sylfain from Liberty, who also qualified in the Long Jump and Lady Charger Teja Anderson, who qualifies in both the 100 (2nd) and 300 (4th) hurdles. The Poinciana boys team will send Gabe Arce (3200), Jerome Alexander (110 hurdles, triple jump) and Justin Wilson (High Jump) through to regionals.