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1A State Meet Preview by Herb Wills - Florida FHSAA State Outdoor Championships 2015

Published by
DyeStatFL.com   Apr 30th 2015, 12:07pm
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It’s time for Florida’s State Track and Field Meet again. From the very first time I heard State mentioned, I could hear the capital letter. I wasn’t sure what the speaker was talking about, but I could hear that uppercase “S”. This is the meet that everyone spends their high school career trying to get to, the competitions that everyone strives to win. Run over two days, 1 May 2015 and 2 May 2015, at the University of North Florida, it’s really eight meets in one. Here’s a preview of two of those, the class 1A girls and the class 1A boys, scheduled for the session on  Friday, 1 May 2015. This touches on a few of the highlights of what to expect in class 1A competition.



First Academy senior Teahna Daniels has the year's fastest wind-legal mark in the 100-meters by any Florida schoolgirl, 11.61. She has also run a wind-aided 11.15 this season. You can argue about breezes, and Daniels may not be the fastest high school girl in the state of Florida, but she's clearly the favorite in the class 1A girls' 100. In a calm day or with a hurricane at their tail, no other girl in class 1A has gone under 12 seconds in the event.



The defending champion will be on the starting line in the class 1A girls’ 1600 Evangelical senior Sarah Candiano. Candiano was third in the 1A Region 3 race behind Cavalry Christian junior Hannah Brookover and Holy Trinity junior Sydney Smith, but she still leads class 1A with the 5:00.70 she ran at the Florida Relays. Keep an eye out as well for Oak Hall eighth-grader Lindsay Rosenberg, who went 5:03.26 earlier this year.



Franco Martins won the class 1A boys' 1600 title in 2014 and he's a good bet to repeat in 2015. Martins comes into the event with a season-best 4:16.01. Coming off of a 4:21.54 / 9:44.33 double win at the 1A Region 2 meet, Martins looks like a sure thing in Jacksonville.



After the Regional meets, it looks like the class 1A girls’ 800 is going to be Evangelical Christian seventh-grader Sierra Oliveira being chased by Oak Hall frosh Grace Blair and Holy Trinity junior Shelby Smith. Oliveira and Smith ran their season-best times of 2:14.90 and 2:17.54 in the 1A Region 3 meet, which Grace Blair went 2:17.44 to win the 1A Region 2 800. All three are hitting their peak at the right time of the season. Blair and Smith have a lot of ground to make up if they’re going to challenge Oliveira in the State Final, but no one else in class 1A is as close as they are.



Holy Trinity senior Daniel Welch is the defending state champion in the class 1A boys’ 800. However, Welch will have to defend that title from Calvary Christian senior Chris Robin. Robin  has the top time in class 1A this season, a 1:54.64, faster than Welch’s career best. He also comes into the State Meet having beaten Robin in the 1A Region 3 meet, 1:57.71 to 1:58.44. Tampa Prep junior Qaseem Wajd was also in that Region 3 race, placing third in 1:58.46. Wajd went 1:54.89 at the Steinbrenner Invitational, though, so if he can find that form at State he could be a strong challenger. The only other sub-2:00 man in class 1A also comes from Region 3, Evangelical Christian senior William Lunsford has gone 1:58.56 this season. If there are contenders from any of the other three regions it will be a major surprise.



At the Florida Relays on 4 April 2015, Evangelical Christian senior Sarah Candiano and Mount Dora Bible eighth-grader Rebecca Clark went one-two in the girls’ 3200, running 10:52.17 and 10:57.35. They’ll meet again in the 3200 at the State Meet, but they won’t be the only athletes in the race who have gone sub-11:00 this season. Calvary Christian junior Hannah Brookover ran 10:47.25 in the 3200 at the FSU Relays in March. Brookover was only third in her Regional race, running 11:27.05. This could mean that she’s not running well right now, or it could mean that she coasted through the Region and is coming into State rested and ready. We’ll find out on Friday.



Of sixteen runners in the class 1A boys’ 3200 field at Florida’s 2015 State Meet, half have gone under 10:00 this season. However, only one, Franco Martins of Windermere Prep, has come close to going sub-9:00. Martins went 9:03.87 at the FSU Relays, finishing second behind Sukhi Khosla. Martins is the defending state champ in the long race, and he’s way ahead of everyone else in class 1A in the event. Seffner Christian junior Noah Perkins went 9:23.97 at the Florida Relays, and Holy Trinity senior Andrew Cacciatore posted a 9:32.90 at the FSU Relays, but everyone else is more than 200 meters behind Martins. He’s poised to repeat.



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