South Florida Takes Over Disney

by Brandon Bejarano

Saturday’s Disney’s High School Track & Field Showcase was a sight to see.

With 49 national elite level performances, Saturday afternoon was a day filled with excitement. A meet that showed top talent and proved to be one of the faster and more competitive invitationals in sunny Florida.

However, a more specific part of Florida showed its dominance on Saturday. South Florida dominated on both the boys and girls side. Teams such as Boyd Anderson, Cardinal Gibbons, Florida Christian, Miami Northwestern, Pembroke Pines Charter, West Broward and Westminster Academy represented the south.

West Broward’s own Isaiah Taylor took the victory in a stellar boys 100m dash performance with a time of 10.88. “At the starting line I was just going through the emotions of how I need to run the race; my drive could have been a little better, I felt like I could have powered out harder,” Taylor said. “What helped me execute was my end transition part of the race, it helped me pull away and finish strong at the line”. The junior from West Broward also took second behind Westminster Academy’s Andrew James in the 200.

Westminster Academy’s Brandon Bejarano and Andrew James went out with a bang, as Westminster finished seventh overall out of 41 schools scoring with just four events. Bejarano won the steeplechase with a time of 6:38, while also running 1:57 and placing third in the boys 800m.

Andrew James proved his dominance winning the 400, 200, and placing second in the 100. James finished with two national elite performances in the 400 and 200 with a time of 48.13 in the 400 and 21.61 in the 200.

On the girls side, Miami Northwestern dominated the hurdles scoring a total of 41 points between the 100 and 300's. Sophomore Charlease Rodgers led her team to a victory scoring 20 points by winning both the 100 and 300 Hurdles, running times of 14.84 in the and 44.60, respectively.   Amina Sanders and Ariyanna Val also had noteworthy performances and helped contribute to the team’s victory placing in the top 8 in the 100 and 300 hurdle events.

Sophomore Chyna-Joi Staton running for Boyd Anderson pulled through for the Lady Cobras doubling up with victories in the 200 and 400. Staton won the 200 with a time of 25.89 and just beat out Westminster Academy’s Denise Spann in an exciting 400 with a time of 56.03. “I just kept praying, I knew Denise was going to be tough competition, I tried not think about it,” Staton said. “I just prayed to God and ran my race, I knew He’d handle the rest”.

For the boys team title it was a constant battle between Cardinal Gibbons and Boyd Anderson. All day, the two schools were battling it out with Gibbons beating out Boyd Anderson in the 4x100.  Key performances from Javon Patterson in winning the 800 and Phillip Lee in the high jump gave the Cobras the edge.

“I try to instill in my runners that they aren't competing against anyone but themselves and the clock.  They can't worry about what other athletes or coaches are doing,” Cobras Coach Garrett Schubert said.

“We knew going into the 4x400 that it was going to come down to that race so I told the guys it was on their shoulders to bring it home and they did just that, improving our season best time in the process.  I was happy with our overall performance but understand that there's still a lot of room for improvement".  

"The athletes were obviously really excited winning our second Invitational meet in a row and setting a bunch of PR's in the process”. To cap off the perfect day and victory for the Cobras, Boyd Anderson’s 4x400, which consisted of Karoy Lewis, Javon Patterson, Dion Taylor and Paul Willis, pulled away with an easy win over second place Colonial High School.