District 1A-10 Track & Field: Fort Meade's Whitehurst looking for strong finish; Victory sweeps
LAKELAND — Fort Meade senior Azaria Whitehurst was all smiles when she won the 100-meter dash at the Class 2A state meet two years ago as a sophomore and was looking forward to building on that title over the last half of her high school career.
An injury derailed Whitehurst’s junior season and she’s been battling to regain her form in an up-and-down senior season.
Whitehurst, however, remains quietly optimistic that she can finish her strong. That comeback continued Thursday at George Jenkins, where she won the 100-meter dash at the Class 1A, District 10 track and field meet and later took third in the 200.
“With hard work and training, I can get to back to where I need to be and hopefully win state again,” she said. “But as of right now, I’m just to get back to my times to get ready for college.”
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Whitehurst wasn’t happy with her 100 time of 12.43 seconds, nearly a second off her state championship time of 11.59. She had been hoping to get under 12 after running her second-best time of the season (12.20) at the county meet.
“The starter held the gun for so long, I slipped out of my blocks,” she said.
Whitehurst started dealing with a meniscus issue last year at the Florida Relays that caused her to be shut down for the remainder of the season. She didn’t resume running until September.
“It was definitely frustrating but I had to push through it,” she said.
Whitehurst hasn’t been injury free this year.
“Now it’s more of a tendon problem, and I’m just trying to get back,” she said.
Whitehurst’s season began solid as she posted times of 12.25 and 12.13 to start the season. Her 12.13 ranks No. 5 in Class 1A. However after those first two meets, she didn’t race for three weeks and, with more meets under her belt, appeared to be getting back into form at the county meet.
“I’m at about 80, 85 percent to where I want to be because I had to relearn how to run because I was out for so long and for only running on one leg to now trying to use both,” she said. “I’m still learning how to get there.”
If she can approach her personal-best set two years ago at state, she’ll have a chance to finish second and perhaps contend for the state title. Evangelical Christian senior McKenzie Travis is No. 1 in 1A with 11.43.
Victory Christian beats Lakeland Christian to capture boys, girls team titles
In the team competition, Victory Christian got the sweep, winning the girls title for the third year in a row and the boys title for the second year in a row. The Storm finished with 208 points to the Vikings’ 197 points in girls; Victory was first with 168 points in boys, and LCS finished second with 149 points.
“We only try to win one meet a year,” Victory coach Jamie Lemmond said. “We very rarely have kids do four events. The ultimate goal is to do your best, and when you have four events every week, it’s hard. But we always circle this (district meet). We put the teams together to win it.”
In the girls competition, Victory Christian held a slim lead over Lakeland Christian, 198-193, after the Vikings picked up 15 points in the 3,200. The Storm, however, clinched by winning the 4x400 relay.
Victory Christian crowned four individual champions, including two-time winners Amber Choquette and Keely Ortiz.
Choquette won the 100 hurdles (16.85) and 400 hurdles (1:11.07) and took second in the triple jump (34-4.75). Ortiz won the shot put (35-11.25) and discus (108-8).
Addie Lemmond won the 400 (1:00.00), and Jenna West won the long jump (14-0.25). The Storm also won the 4x100 in 49.65.
Lakeland Christian had five individual winners. Eighth-grader Emma Wilkinson won the 3,200 (11:38.36) and finished second in the 1,600 (5:29.88). She also anchored the 4x800, coming from behind to give the Vikings the win.
Lillian McDonald won the high jump (4-7.75), Issa Simpson won the triple jump (34-4.75), and Elena Katzaras won the javelin (99-10).
In the pole vault, Kate Scarborough led a 1-2-3-4 LCS sweep.
For the boys, Jerrell Paul was Victory Christian’s only individual winner. He won triple jump (43-7.75) and took second in the 110 hurdles (16.11).
Lakeland Christian crowned four individual champions. AJ Truedell won the 100 in 11.22, Paulos Kicklighter won the 3,200 (9:55.33) and was second in the 1,600 (4:45.28), DJ Allen won the javelin (123-01). Jaden Denton led a 1-2-3 LCS sweep in the pole vault.
The only other Polk individual champion was Santa Fe Catholic’s Daniel Welling, who won the 1,600 in 4:30.94 and was third in the 3,200.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Fort Meade's Azaria Whitehurst looking for strong finish to track season
