Golden day in orange and blue: Bolles wins FHSAA Class 2A boys, girls track & field titles
Vivian Stovall climbed the pole vault podium and saw familiar faces to both sides.
Bolles teammate Presley Wolfe in second, Bolles teammate Kiley Wenger in third — a 1-2-3 finish to open a golden day in orange and blue.
"It feels like what being on a team is all about," Stovall said.
For Bolles, two team titles were more than worth waiting out a three-hour delay: The Bulldogs raced home with both the boys and girls championships to highlight a day of 10 Jacksonville-area victories in all during Thursday's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A track and field meet.
St. Johns Country Day baseball rolls into semifinal over Westminster, into 2A title game
Senior Stallions power Providence baseball into FHSAA Class 3A state semifinals
Providence's Skyy Dixon wins double FHSAA 1A sprint titles to open state track meet
Powered by pitching, Bishop Kenny baseball aims to stamp championship board again in 2023
Jillian Candelino (3,200-meter run), Zee Curtis (discus) and Stovall (pole vault) brought home the individual titles to seal the third consecutive state crown for the Bolles girls at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium.
That part was widely expected. The boys' title, not so much — and for the Bulldogs, that made the first boys and girls sweep in Bolles track history even sweeter.
"We got counted out by a lot of people," said Naeem Burroughs, who teamed with Matthew Berry, Kemani Wilson and Kavon Miller on Bolles' winning boys 4x100 relay. "We just came in like we didn't really have much to lose, so we just gave it our all."
'IT MEANS EVERYTHING'
The pole vault top-three sweep, led by Stovall at 11 feet, 11 3/4 inches, was only the beginning for the Bolles girls. The Bulldogs tallied 75 points to 55 for runner-up Cocoa for the program's sixth team title of the last decade.
Curtis repeated her discus title by an eight-inch margin at 143 feet, 11 inches, the 4x800 quartet dominated its relay and Tennessee-signed Candelino concluded one of Northeast Florida's greatest distance careers on top. Along with the 4x800, she won the 3,200 in 10:35.15 and placed second in the 1,600.
"I haven't had the easiest season this year, so to finish it off like that, it means everything to me," Candelino said.
The surprises came on the boys side, where Montverde Academy entered as favorites but largely stumbled at the finals. Bolles took advantage, with 63 points, while Port Orange Atlantic earned 45 and Florida High 43, joining 1999 and 2019 on the Bulldogs' championship list.
The Bolles boys won the 4x100 and 4x800 relays, and scooped up high points throughout: Miller's second in the 100, Wilson's second in the long jump, a third for Matthew Thomas in the 1,600 and an impressive 2-3 finish from Parker Adams and Chris Joost in the 3,200.
Bolles beat not only the clock but the weather, a lightning and thunderstorm delay that chewed up 3 hours and 5 minutes of mid-afternoon and pushed competition well into the night.
"The delay was definitely difficult. It took a lot of mental preparation," Curtis said. "You had to stay strong."
HAYWOOD DOUBLE CHAMPION FOR KENNY
The camera, it's said, doesn't lie. But when Ka'Myya Haywood got the news that the initial results on the scoreboard weren't quite right, the Bishop Kenny senior didn't know what to believe.
"I was really shocked," she said. "I just wanted to see if I won or not, but the clock said I didn't."
After further review of a razor-thin finishing margin, the FHSAA ruled Haywood was indeed a state champion by the slightest of margins -- 54.837 to 54.838 -- over Montverde Academy's Alivia Williams in the girls 400 meters.
The Tennessee-signed Haywood raced stride-for-stride with Williams, and when both crossed the line, the scoreboard results initially displayed Williams as the winner before officials took a closer look. Bishop Kenny's Gabby Johnson placed third.
Haywood's night was far from done: Only minutes later, she followed with a second in the 800, leading the opening 700 meters before Elizabeth Williamson of Holy Names caught up, and joining Johnson, Clare Coyle and Addie Thorson on a relay squad that won the 4x400 in 3:49.56 ahead of Episcopal.
Bishop Kenny added a 4x800 second place to take third in the girls team standings behind Bolles and Cocoa. On the boys side, Jayden Harris came in third in the high jump.
LINE STAR THOMAS WINS DISCUS CROWN
Already among America's most-coveted football recruits in the 2025 class, Raines' Solomon Thomas is now Ichiban -- number one -- on the track.
The Vikings sophomore threw 168 feet, 5 inches to win the boys discus by a margin of 5 feet, a fitting margin for a player rated as a 5-star football prospect in the 247Sports composite. He took the lead with his second attempt, and even his second-best throw would have been good enough to win the state crown.
"I didn't even make it this far last year," he said. "So now, the bar's even higher."
When Thomas won the regional boys discus two weeks ago, he said he was surprised. But the surprise factor is wearing off fast. Now, he's looking ahead with confidence toward future triumphs.
"I came in with a winning attitude… I didn't come here expecting to lose," he said.
DAILEY, FREET DELIVER FOR TOROS
He's only in his second year of high school, but Jayden Dailey is already Florida's fastest in Class 2A.
Racing against a pack of seasoned sprinters, the Tocoi Creek sophomore accelerated from lane 6 to cross the line in 10.44, 0.13 seconds ahead of Bolles' Kavon Miller and 0.15 seconds ahead of Ribault's Amos Oruamabo from the unseeded heat.
With that time, Dailey vaulted to fourth in the national MaxPreps rankings for sophomores, and he subsequently added a fourth place in the 200.
Dailey's triumph was just one of the highlights for the second-year St. Johns County school, which placed a surprising fifth in the boys team race.
Senior Dylan Freet threw 53 feet, 6 1/2 inches in the shot put and 163 feet, 5 inches in the discus, good for second place in both. The runner-up finishes capped his comeback from what he described as a pressure cooker accident in the off-season, which left him with second-degree burns on his arms and face.
"It's just huge being the first person to place in the top three in an event in school history," said Freet after his shot put finish, which concluded about a half-hour before Dailey's triumph. "I'm proud to be a Toro and I'm proud to set the bar."
DANZY, TYSON, WEEKLEY LEAD STATE STARS
Top performers around the state included Florida High's Micahi Danzy, who won the boys 200 and 400 (in a U.S. No. 4 time of 46.11) and placed third in the long jump; Cocoa's Liana Tyson, who helped the Tigers' girls 4x100 relay edge Paxon and swept the 100 and 200 ahead of Paxon's Kyndal Turner and Episcopal's Skyler Watts; and Berkeley Prep's Ellis Weekley, who set a state meet record in the girls 400 hurdles while adding long jump and 100 hurdles titles as well.
Ribault's Amos Oruamabo nearly won two events from the unseeded heat, placing third in the boys 100 and second in the 200, and Jackson also represented the Northside in style: Neiko Garnes came third in the boys 400, Kennedy Hill took third in the girls 800 and the Tigers' boys 4x400 relay was runner-up.
At Yulee, Adriana Clarke came in second in the girls shot put and Tristen Evatt was third in the girls triple jump, while Suwannee's Will Wainwright placed second in the boys javelin behind Port Orange Atlantic's Preston Kuznof.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school track & field 2023: Bolles boys, girls win FHSAA meet
