Was able to attend this on Friday. First time in years being at a t&f event. This is quite a spectacle with hundreds of athletes and several events taking place simultaneously. Sort of highly organized chaos.
Enjoyed it .
Charlie
--Featured area athletes able to produce at Florida Relays
Aron Cruickshan, 16, competes in the long jump qualifier during the Florida Relays at the Percy Beard Track in Gainesville.
[Andrea Cornejo/The Gainesville Sun]Published: Thursday, March 30, 2017 at 10:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, March 30, 2017 at 10:54 p.m.
Running in the first heat of the boys 3200-meter run Thursday at the Florida Relays, Buchholz's Calum McFetridge didn't know what was going on as part of the electrical power at Percy Beard Track, including the scoreboard, had an outage, leaving the east part in darkness.
Facts
Florida Relays
Where: Percy Beard Track
When: Today-Saturday
Tickets: Today and Saturday, $12, $1 students. Or at Florida Gators.com/Tickets
Track opens: 8:30 a.m. today; 9 a.m. SaturdayDidn't seem to stop McFetridge or his fellow runners.
Coming off a tough cross country season, one with plenty of promise which ended with the Bobcat senior pulling out at regionals for health reasons, McFetridge is trying to learn from that experience.
"You live and learn," he said. "Every time you screw up you try to analyze what you did wrong so you don't pass out again.
"It was really confusing for me. It's hard to have a problem and not know what the issue is. My teammates have had that issue too, a lot of people do. You just have to fight through it and keep trying."
McFetridge finished fifth in the event, running a 9:31.12. In the next heat of the event, Gainesville senior Eliot Chafin-Smith won, overtaking the field with a little less than two laps to go and finishing seventh overall at 9:36.21.
For Chafin-Smith, who hasn't run track since his freshman year but has run cross country, he wanted to give running his full attention his final year at GHS.
"I sidelined soccer about eight months ago and said let me give it all to running like I did to soccer," Chafin-Smith said. "I think the training with the coaches at GHS and other coaches has been excellent."
In the eight-lap heat, Chafin-Smith stayed within striking distance of the leaders, Diego Lavieri-Sosa of Ocala Vanguard and Ethan Hood of Orlando Olympia, with Lavieri-Sosa and Hood breaking away a little with four laps to go.
But Chafin-Smith closed in with two laps to go and overtook the leaders on the turn and never looked back, winning the race comfortably.
"I had no clue what it would be like after lap six because that is where you make or break the race," he said. "There were some guys that made moves earlier, on laps four and five.
"I hoped that I would be able to hold it and close to them. And make a definitive enough run where they didn't feel they could move on as much, which it worked. Sometimes it doesn't work, it's as the race goes."
The 3200 race final, which was won by Jacob McLeod of Trinity Christian in 9:11.08, with Joshua Collins of Belen Jesuit Prep second at 9:19.59, was the highlight of the day locally, although there were some excellent efforts earlier.
Eastside junior Jordynn Tyndall finished eighth in the 800 meters with an area-best time of 2:16.55.
Fort White senior sprinter Dedrick Vanover just missed qualifying for the 100 meters final by the closest of margins, running a 10.71 in which the final qualifier ran a 10.70.
Oak Hall senior Nadiria Evans took 15th in the long jump, Gainesville's Nicholas Schrott came in 25th in the boys 1600 and Marcella Perez, also of Oak Hall, came in 19th in the 1600.
Both McFetridge and Grace Blair of Oak Hall are scheduled to run the 1600 Invite tonight, which puts together the top runners in the event.
Action begins this morning at 9:30 with the girls distance medley relay, an event that doesn't appear at the FHSAA state meet. Buchholz and Eastside are both scheduled to run.
Six of the nine high school events that locals are entered today are relays - the others being 4x100 and 4x200. Thirty-two events today are for colleges. For complete results, click to results.deltatiming.com/tf/2017-florida-relays
Contact Larry Savage at 352-374-5050 or larry.savage@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/sunpreps
Sent From Shane's iPhoneGo Gators! & Skål Vikes!ALPCA #8756Europlate #1045
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