It was a long day for the Lake Nona Boys and Girls Track team at the district meet (11:00 am – 9:30 pm) but the results were well worth the wait.

The girls got things started with a 7th place finish in the 4 x 800 relay with Mariah Espinal, Zaidy Velez, Nancy Polanco and Carnette Urayan. The boys followed that with a 2nd place finish in the 4 x 800 relay with Manny Gonzalez, Joey Loyack, George Velez and Angelos Peralta. Not to be outdone, Rebecca Bryant took 1st place in the girls long jump and then came back in the evening to win the girls 100 and finish 6th in the 200. Winning becomes contagious so Lauren Heitz went ahead and won the girls shot put and took third in the discus. Also in the girls shot put we had Courtney Kennedy finish third and Jalisa Swift finish 5th. On the boys side of the field events we had George Velez take 7th place in the pole vault, Pedro Marrero took 5th in the shot put and he also got 7th in the discus. Joey Loyack ran the mile in a very impressive 4:46 to finish in fourth place and Darby Rasch ran her mile in 5:47 to finish in 7th place. As the night went on, we had a couple of 300 meter hurdlers take home ribbons with Alexis Clarke finishing in 6th place and Roger Taylor finishing in 7th place. In the 800 meter race, Darby Rasch had a 5th place finish and Manny Gonzalez finished in 7th place. Nakaela Hooks had a strong run in the 400 with a 5th place finish. As if these places weren’t enough, the girls 4 x 400 relay team finished in 4th place with Alexis Clarke, Zaidy Velez, Darby Rasch and Nakaela Hooks. And for the last race of the night, our boys 4 x 400 relay team had the most exciting finish as Caleb McKinley came from 5th place with 80 meters to go to finish in 3rd place. Joining Caleb was Yaron Gonzalez, Angelo Peralta and Manny Gonzalez.

As a team, our boys finished in 7th place and the girls finished in 5th place. All of the athletes and relay teams that finished in the top 4 for their event qualified for the Regional Championship next Thursday. Your Running Lions represented the school well and we have several athletes competing next week for a chance to go to the state championship. Wish them well as they continue to strive for excellence.