ST. PETERSBURG — Some things were different at Wednesday’s Class 3A, District 10 meet. But mostly, things felt pretty much the same.
Boca Ciega’s Chaise Cook-Martin won the long and triple jumps. Again.
Gibbs’ Trayvon Bromell dominated the sprints and made a huge comeback on the anchor leg of the 4x100. Again.
Osceola’s Jeanna Cube won the high jump, Osceola’s Jennifer Kistemaker the pole vault, Largo’s Imani Fitts the shot put, and Gibbs’ Damien Daniels and Dunedin’s Ahmad Middleton won the 100 and 300 hurdles, respectively. Again.
Oh, and the teams. The Osceola girls won districts a fourth straight time, and the Gibbs boys won for the second.
Same old, but the feeling never gets that way.
“It feels great every time,” said Osceola junior Christina Tournant, who was a top-four finisher in both hurdles and ran a leg on the 4x400 relay that qualified for regionals. “It feels like it did the first time. It’s exhilarating.”
The Warrior girls built a huge lead in the field events (92.5-55) over runnerup Boca Ciega and cruised home. The Warriors went 1-2-3 and scored 28 in the pole vault, went 1-2 in the high jump and had five athletes score points in the triple and long jumps.
The Osceola boys used a similar tact to lead the district after field events were completed, but saw a 25-point advantage over Gibbs get washed away by a wave of sprinters.
The Gladiators had four runners score in the 100, led by Bromell’s winning time of 10.72 seconds, and followed that by going 1-2-3-4 in the 200 and winning the 4x100, with the Baylor commitment overcoming roughly a 20-meter deficit on the final leg, similar to other relays this year.
“We’ve seen that before, I don’t even think that was his biggest one,” said teammate Maurice Hall, smiling. “Piece of cake.”
In those three races, the Gladiators seized control by outscoring the Warriors 67-4.
Not everything remained the same from last year, however.
Northeast’s trio of Amanda Spring, Jalin Hubbard and Caroline Condon had great meets. Spring won the 800 (2:24.36) and 1,600 (5:42.08), and Hubbard won the 400 (51.38) and high jump (5-10). Condon beat her personal best in the 3200 by 10 seconds, and also ran on the Vikings winning 4x800 team.
Osceola’s Carson Waters set a meet record in the pole vault (13-6), 2 feet better than last year.
Middleton won the long jump (21-1.75) after finishing third last year.
Osceola freshman Hunter McCann won the 3,200 (10:21.60) and was third in the 1,600, behind teammate Reggie Cape, the winner in 4:43.71.