RIVERVIEW — The only smidgen of drama provided by Lakewood’s track program Thursday came courtesy of 15-year-old hurdler Melissa Dones.
A hearing-impaired sophomore, Dones was warming up at the outset of the Class 2A, District 10 meet when she was startled by the ominous beep in her right hearing aid, indicating the battery was dying.
“I’m like, “No, need it!’ ” Dones said.
Fortunately, starter Pete Mirones’ gun was plenty loud enough. Dones broke out briskly in the 100-meter hurdles, built a solid lead, stumbled over the final hurdle, and recovered in time to reach the finish line just past teammate Daijha Wimberly.
“Oh my gosh, I was so scared,” Dones said. “I kind of leaned down after every hurdle and I got really, really low. … I guess I was just really anxious.”
For Lakewood, suspense ventured no farther than those 100 tense meters. Dones’ versatile effort — she also won the pole vault and placed third in the 300 hurdles — was one of many sparkling performances by the Spartans, who coasted to the boys and girls team titles.
Lakewood totaled 171.5 points in the girls meet, topping runnerup Spoto by 32.5 points. The boys won nine events en route to 225.5 points — 109.5 more than Spoto.
Other girls winners included senior Ashlee Funderburk, who exited Trathowen Stadium with first-place ribbons in the triple jump, high jump and 300 hurdles. Senior Erika Allen was Lakewood’s other girls champ, edging teammate Sharell Keys in the 100.
Meantime, senior twins Shaquem and Shaquill Griffin continued pacing the boys, who are shaping up as bona fide contenders for a team state title.
Running into a stern breeze, Shaquill and Shaquem won the triple jump and long jump, respectively, and placed second in the jump they didn’t win. They also ran legs on the triumphant 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams, the latter of which won by more than 100 meters.
Senior Tim “T.J.” Holmes was equally uncontested in both hurdles events. Holmes, who owns the state’s best time of 2013 in the 300 hurdles (37.09), didn’t approach that Thursday (38.53). Not that he had anyone pushing him.
“Now, I’m kind of used to it because I’ve been doing it the whole year,” said Holmes, who also ran into the breeze in both races. “So my coach just tells me to run as fast as I can … and break my own records by just running against myself.”
Senior Austin Copeland (shot put) and junior Devontae Persha (800) also earned titles, with Persha also running on the winning 4x800 relay team.
Class 2A, District 10
at Spoto
Boys team results: Lakewood (Lw) 225.5, Spoto (S) 116, Wauchula Hardee (H) 84, Arcadia DeSoto (D) 71.5, Bradenton Southeast (Se) 53, Sarasota Booker (B) 49, Lehigh (Le) 44
Boys individuals: 4x800: Lakewood 8:37.65, Hardee 9:24.56, Southeast 9:37.31, DeSoto 9:54.12; Pole vault: Borjas (H) 10-6, Garcia (H) 9-6, Rodriguez (H) 9-6, Mejia-Flores (H) 9-6; Discus: Byrd (S) 116-0, Copeland (Lw) 114-2.5, Buchanan (S) 112-5, Richardson (Lw) 107-7; Shot put: Copeland (Lw) 45-0, Watson (B) 42-2, Delhomme (H) 41-2.5, Williams (B) 40-8.5; High jump: Moate (S) 5-10, Buchanan (S) 5-6, Johnson (Lw) 5-4; Long jump: Shaquem Griffin (Lw) 22-4, Shaquill Griffin (Lw) 22-0, Moate (S) 21-5, Bryant (Lw) 21-1; Triple jump: Shaquill Griffin (Lw) 47-7, Shaquem Griffin (Lw) 46-1, Jackson (D) 43-0, Golden Jr. (Lw) 39-10.5; 110 hurdles: Holmes (Lw) 14.50, Gunter (Lw) 17.71, Williams (Lw) 17.72, Sheppard (Se) 17.84; 100: Moate (S) 10.90, Jackson (D) 10.94, Boykins (Lw) 11.17, Timmons (Se) 11.23; 1,600: Vazquez (Le) 4:49.53, Whittington (S) 4:55.11, Manzaneras (Le) 5:05.71, Beatty (H) 5:06.31; 4x100: Lakewood 41.44, DeSoto 42.60, Southeast 43.92, Lehigh 44.81; 400: Johnson (B) 50.70, Pelham (D) 50.71, Eady (S) 52.14, Carley (Se) 52.39; 300 hurdles: Holmes (Lw) 38.53, Richardson (D) 43.55, Williams (Lw) 43.93, Gunter (Lw) 43.95; 800: Persha (Lw) 2:03.49, Whittington (S) 2:08.44, Tomlinson (Lw) 2:11.07, Smith (Lw) 2:13.40; 200: Timmons (Se) 21.97, Moate (S) 22.44, Boykins (Lw) 22.57, Golden Jr. (Lw) 22.76; 3,200: Vazquez (Le) 10:50, Manzaneras (Le) 11:53, Cisneros (D) 12:00, Fields (S) 12:09; 4x400: Lakewood 3:27.07, Booker 3:46.49, Southeast 3:47.66, DeSoto 3:52.73
Girls team results: Lakewood (Lw) 171.5, Spoto (S) 139, Wauchula Hardee (H) 108.5, Bradenton Southeast (Se) 108, Lehigh (Le) 70, Sarasota Booker (S) 27, Arcadia DeSoto (D) 12
Girls individuals: 4x800: Spoto 11:21.90, Southeast 11:28.39, Hardee 12:22.23, Lakewood 12:39.24; Pole vault: Dones (Lw) 8-0, Grisinger (H) 8-0, Sentmanant (S) 6-6, Gibson (Lw) 6-0; Discus: Bell (Le) 91-8.75, Porter (Se) 84-5, Clark (Se) 83-11, Smith (H) 82-9.75; Shot put: Bell (Le) 31-2, Clark (Se) 30-0.5, Porter (Se) 29-6.5, Vasquez (Lw) 28-11; High jump: Funderburk (Lw) 5-0, Carlton (H) 4-8, Mitchell (Lw) 4-6, Faulk (Lw) 4-6; Long jump: Valcin (Se) 15-10.5, McCoy (S) 15-9, Carlton (H) 15-3.5, Cineus (Se) 15-3.5; Triple jump: Funderburk (Lw) 32-8, Valcin (Se) 32-2, McCoy (S) 31-8.25, Clayton (Lw) 31-0; 100 hurdles: Dones (Lw) 17.89, Wimberly (Lw) 18.27, Grisinger (H) 18.75, Williams (Lw) 18.87; 100: Allen (Lw) 12.90, Keys (Lw) 13.01, Whitfield (Le) 13.12, Stewart (Le) 13.29; 1,600: Nelson (S) 6:15.49, Avila (H) 6:20.26, Lopez (Se) 6:24.56, Hawkins-Smyk (Se) 6:29.20; 4x100: Lehigh 49.06, Lakewood 50.85, Southeast 52.06, Spoto 52.26; 400: Caldwell (S) 57.82, Shuler (S) 1:01.73, Rose (L) 1:02.07, Ezewa (Le) 1:02.68; 300 hurdles: Funderburk (Lw) 47.08, Araciaga-Munoz (D) 51.71, Dones (Lw) 54.04, Williams (Lw) 54.34; 800: Thomas (S) 2:41.74, Avila (H) 2:44.33, Forschner (B) 2:47.71, Gordon (Lw) 2:49.20; 200: Caldwell (S) 25.55, Allen (Lw) 26.30, Whitfield (Le) 26.68, Benjamin (S) 27.43; 3,200: Nelson (S) 14:05.51, Lopez (Se) 14:10.31, Ramos (H) 14:38.76, Lopez (Se) 15:49.06; 4x400: Spoto 4:17.88, Lehigh 4:21.94, Lakewood 4:23.61, Southeast 4:40.33