FHSAA CLASS 4A TRACK AND FIELD: DeLand pole vaulter wins, Creekside duo takes double gold

JACKSONVILLE — Kylie Neira became Volusia County's first female pole vaulting champion this century Saturday in the Florida High School Athletic Association's Class 4A track and field finals at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium.

Neira cleared the bar at 3.75 meters (12 feet, 3½ inches) on her first attempt, the eventual tiebreaker over George Jenkins' Madeline Dutz, who succeeded on her third try. Prior to Saturday, Elaine Drevitson held the honor of being the only Volusia state-champion female pole vaulter, doing so as a senior at Deltona in 1999.

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"I feel amazing. I've been working for this, and this is something I wanted," said Neira, who only began competing in the event last February. "All (last) summer, all I did was pole vault. Every day, with Coach (Bill) Cashman. All my coaches, I'm very thankful for them."

Jim Lowenstein, DeLand's girls track and field coach, felt Neira could succeed in the pole vault given her speed on the runway, her gymnastics background and her competitive streak.

"She's got that, and she's had that all along," Lowenstein said. "She hates to lose."

Creekside shined as daylight faded, with junior speedster Christian Miller and freshman distance-running phenom Alyson Johnson sweeping their individual events.

Miller threw down times of 10.31 in the 100-meter dash and 20.57 to defend his title in the 200. He helped the Knights to a fifth-place team finish, with Josh Howell also scoring in the short sprints and Tanner Simonds taking second in the 1,600 (4:12.71).

Meanwhile, Johnson only got stronger in the latter stages of her two races. She passed Nease's Mary Pace-Balzan for the lead with 300 meters left of the 3,200 and shaved nearly two seconds off her previous best time in the 1,600 (4:54.37).

"I feel like I've really improved my speed and am getting better at racing smarter," Johnson said.

Janay Moorer earned spots on the podium for Creekside in the 100 (seventh, 11.90 seconds), the 400 (second, 54.19) and the 4x400 relay (fourth, 3:54.47).

Flagler Palm Coast's boys fared best locally in the team standings with 44 points, good for fourth place behind Niceville, St. Thomas Aquinas and Sanford Seminole — with the 'Noles prevailing in a head-to-head showdown in the 4x400 finale.

Gerod Tolbert obliterated his previous personal-best mark with a 7.43-meter long jump to snatch gold away from Piper's presumptive favorite Josiah Gaynor and Miami Columbus' defending state champion Shaddai Carter, among others. The Flagler Palm Coast senior, who was fourth in the triple jump at states last year, made good on a vision he said he had.

"I told myself before I jumped that I was going to get 7 meters to break my own school record," Tolbert said. "From the beginning of the year, I didn't think I was going to make it this far in the long jump. This last week, I've been really focused since I didn't qualify in the triple jump. I locked in and did what I had to do to improve my technique."

FPC's 4x800 boys relay team opened the track schedule with a fourth-place time of 7:53.42. Ashton Bracewell finished third in the discus (48.83), Zach Spooner ran fourth in the 3,200 (9:16.54) and both Jake Blumengarten and Colby Cronk tallied points in the shot put.

Spooner led his race with about 600 meters to go before Nease's cross-country champion Matt Ryan found his stride and separated himself from the pack. The junior had a fractionally better time (9:07.41) than his previous PR at the FSU Relays in Tallahassee.

Charlotte commit Sasha Gregory also shined for Nease, producing points in four separate events: the long jump (fourth, 5.68 meters), the high jump (tied for fourth, 1.62 meters), the 100 hurdles (fourth, 14.27 seconds) and the 400 hurdles (sixth, 1:02.94).

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: FHSAA 4A track and field: DeLand's Kylie Neira wins rare pole vault gold