Track and Field: Bishop Verot boys, ECS girls bring home wins in Private 8 meet

ECS junior Claire Valentine wasn’t exactly sure how she would hold up in the final event of the evening.

The track and soccer star just came back from a hamstring injury, and was unsure of her parameters. That’s until the adrenaline kicked in during the 4x400 relay.

Valentine closed out the meet with a bang, giving the Sentinels the Private 8 title on the girls’ side after beating Bishop Verot, who came in as the No. 1 seeded team in the 4x400.

“I was really doubting myself at first,” Valentine said. “All of my coaches and teammates were reassuring me a lot and making me more confident. For how fast I ran at the end, I knew how close the points were, even though Ava (Povich) put us ahead, I didn’t know what (FBA’s) chances were of coming back if we lost, so I knew I had to run my hardest and forgot about everything around me and just sprinted.”

Povich picked up individual wins in the 1600- and 3200-meter races, beating out Bishop Verot’s McKenzie De Lisle and FBA’s Katie Beam. In the 3200, Povich’s first place finish gave ECS a 3-point lead over First Baptist with just the 4x400 left to go.

“We know that FBA has a very strong program and that they’re one of the best in 1A, our state classification,” Povich said. “Looking at the point scores at the end of the meet, we all knew we had to stay strong and do our very best for each other and for the school. We all gave it our all.”

The Lions, who finished Class 1A runners up last season on both sides, experienced a close loss again, falling by seven points to ECS. Sophomore sprinter McKenzie Travis, who was at Fort Myers last year as a freshman, swept the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter races, picking up 30 of the Sentinels’ 168 points all by herself.

“Going in, I knew what I had to do and how I had to do,” Travis said. “I had to help our team with points. Going out there and actually doing that felt really good, and just knowing I help the team a lot, especially with it coming down to the final race, really felt good.”

On the boys side, Bishop Verot repeated as Private 8 champions and got a big day out of Grayson Tubbs and Wyatt Whalen, as the two both placed first in two events. Tubbs scored wins in the 800- and 1600-meter races, while Whalen won in the shot put and discus.

“They’ve been working so hard throughout the season,” Verot coach Jorge Fleitas said. “They’re just coming along so nicely. We’ve got a nice little core group that continues to put in the work. Grayson Tubbs had a huge day today, coming out of his shell, wanted to run that mile and ran it well with a 4:37.

“Wyatt Whalen has been a huge success. He’ll be a big name come states. I’m excited to see what this team can do.”

Tubbs and Fleitas shared a conversation before the mile run, with Tubbs promising a sub-4:40 to his coach.

“We’ve been working on it,” Fleitas added. “We know that he can do it, it just had to click for him. He ran a 1:58 800 already this season, we knew he had the speed and the foot speed to do it. He just had to sit tight, wait for that kick, and he listened and did really well.”

St. John Neumann’s Joshua Gulapa picked up a total of four first-place finishes, in the 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, high jump, and long jump. Fellow Celtic Leah Martin-Gonzales went a perfect 3-for-3 in her events, notching wins in the long jump, 100 hurdles, and 300 hurdles, beating out FBA’s Hannah Casey in each.

Of First Baptist’s three wins on the girls’ side, Grace Dean scored a pair of them in the javelin and discus, while Beam won the 800. Seacrest standout and Mount St. Mary’s signee Rebecca Weir took home first place honors in the high jump, while placing second in javelin.

USF commit Jacob Panzarella made things look easy, cruising to first-place finishes in the 200- and 400-meter races for FBA. Panzarella was two seconds clear of Evangelical Christian’s Ethan Thomas in the 200, and four seconds clear of Bishop Verot’s Cooper Banks in the 400.

CSN also had three first-place finishers, with Nick Molloy dominating pole vault, as expected. Jacob Baer was the 100-meter dash winner, while Tyler Mastrangelo won the 3200.

Private 8 Track Meet

at Evangelical Christian High School

Boys

Team scores

1. Bishop Verot 155.5, 2. FBA 133, 3. St. John Neumann 106

Individual results

100: 1. Jacob Baer, CSN, 11.83; 2. Azarian Leavatte, Canterbury, 11.84; 3. Ethan Thomas, ECS, 11.90; 200: 1. Jacob Panzarella, FBA, 22.13; 2. Ethan Thomas, ECS, 24.10; 3. Michael Votta, FBA, 24.25; 400: 1. Jacob Panzarella, FBA, 48.44; 2. Cooper Banks, Bishop Verot, 52.00; 3. David Johnson, SFCA, 53.52; 800: 1. Grayson Tubbs, Bishop Verot, 2:05.21; 2. Jack Gifford, SFCA, 2:06.76; 3. Chase Lupo, CSN, 2:10.00; 1600: 1. Grayson Tubbs, Bishop Verot, 4:38.24; 2. Hayden Tank, SFCA, 4:41.34; 3. AJ Duda, SFCA, 4:51.50; 3200: 1. Tyler Mastrangelo, CSN, 10:34.44; 2. Hudson Casto, FBA, 10:41.89; 3. Andrew Marino, Bishop Verot, 10:46.36; 110h: 1. Joshua Gulapa, St. John Neumann, 15.36; 2. Devon Borg, Canterbury, 17.25; 3. Jacob Treesh, SFCA, 17.84; 300h: 1. Joshua Gulapa, St. John Neumann, 41.42; 2. Jose-Manuel Mejia Barbery, St. John Neumann, 44.37; 3. Devon Borg, Canterbury, 45.18; 4x100: 1. FBA, 45.33; 2. ECS, 45.99; 3. Bishop Verot, 46.05; 4x400: 1. Bishop Verot, 3:37.22; 2. SFCA, 3:41.25; 3. FBA, 3:41.75; 4x800: 1. Bishop Verot, 8:35.58; 2. SFCA, 8:40.21; 3. ECS, 8:47.55

High Jump: 1. Joshua Gulapa, St. John Neumann, 1.82m; Andrew Azunque, FBA, 1.82m; 3. Jeremy Barrow, Bishop Verot, 1.77m; Pole Vault: 1. Nick Molloy, CSN, 4.80m; 2. Reece James Guttery, ECS, 3.90m; 3. Benjamin Lysiak, St. John Neumann, 3.00m; Long Jump: 1. Joshua Gulapa, St. John Neumann, 6.62m; 2. Sheadon Cadore, SFCA, 6.17m; 3. Zacharie Garcon, FBA, 6.10m; Triple Jump: 1. Christian Fevrier, Bishop Verot, 13.20m; 2. Rich Mellien, FBA, 12.72m; 3. Zacharie Garcon, FBA, 12.58m; Shot Put: 1. Wyatt Whalen, Bishop Verot, 15.10m; 2. Tyler Fink, FBA, 13.12m; 3. Christopher Bradford, Canterbury, 12.80m; Discus: 1. Wyatt Whalen, Bishop Verot, 45.98m; 2. Connor Savenas, St. John Neumann, 42.15m; 3. Toshan Misir, St. John Neumann, 38.38m; Javelin: 1. Christopher Olivera, Bishop Verot, 40.50m; 2. Connor Savenas, St. John Neumann, 40.02m; 3. Jacob Treesh, SFCA, 39.16m

Girls

Team scores

1. ECS 168, 2. FBA 161, 3. Bishop Verot 119

Individual results

100: 1. McKenzie Travis, ECS, 12:06; 2. Geri Herrera, Bishop Verot, 12.77; 3. Ava Melancon, FBA, 13:28; 200: 1. McKenzie Travis, ECS, 25.61; 2. Geri Herrera, 26.07; 3. Ava Melancon, FBA, 27.66; 400: 1. McKenzie Travis, ECS, 1:00.57; 2. Sydney Land, ECS, 1:02.60; 3. Ellie Miller, Canterbury, 1:02.69; 800: 1. Katie Beam, FBA, 2:29.85; 2. Hannah Manibo, Bishop Verot, 2:33.96; 3. Hayden Brands, Canterbury, 2:35.23; 1600: 1. Ava Povich, ECS, 5:16.19; 2. Katie Beam, FBA, 5:16.59; 3. Mackenzie De Lisle, Bishop Verot, 5:24.56; 3200: 1. Ava Povich, ECS, 11:16.29; 2. Mackenzie De Lisle, Bishop Verot, 11:21.91; 3. Gabriella Santucci, Canterbury, 12:19.92; 100h: 1. Leah Martin-Gonzales, St. John Neumann, 15.14; 2. Hannah Casey, FBA, 16.54; 3. Kristen Julmeus, ECS, 17.28; 300h: Leah Martin-Gonzales, St. John Neumann, 46.99; 2. Hannah Casey, FBA, 47.21; 3. Grace Coggins, SFCA, 50.52; 4x100: 1. ECS, 49.81; 2. Bishop Verot, 52.01; 3. First Baptist, 52.23; 4x400: 1. ECS, 4:19.02; 2. Bishop Verot, 4:20.94; 3. FBA, 4:24.38; 4x800: 1. Bishop Verot, 10:23.68; 2. ECS, 10:32.97; 3. St. John Neumann, 10:36.21

High Jump: 1. Rebecca Weir, Seacrest, 1.57m; 2. Lara Kendall, Canterbury, 1.57m; 3. Bethany Casey, FBA, 1.52m; Pole Vault: 1. Dominyka Romero, Bishop Verot, 2.10m; 2. Olivia Smith, ECS, 1.95m; 3. Abigail Anderson, St. John Neumann, 1.95m; Long Jump: 1. Leah Martin-Gonzales, St. John Neumann, 5.60m; 2. Hannah Casey, FBA, 5.08m; 3. China Jenkins, ECS, 4.90m; Triple Jump: 1. Raven Gadson, Bishop Verot, 11.03m; 2. Hannah Casey, FBA, 10.15m; 3. Zaira Mitchell, ECS, 10.00m; Shot Put: 1. Carole Ann Hussey, Seacrest, 9.83m; 2. Kirstin Koert, FBA, 9.44m; 3. D’Yani Donnell, ECS, 8.29; Discus: 1. Grace Dean, FBA, 27.13m; 2. D’Yani Donnell, ECS, 26.18m; 3. Kirstin Koert, FBA, 25.81m; Javelin: 1. Grace Dean, FBA, 32.40m; 2. Rebecca Weir, Seacrest, 30.90m; 3. Carole Ann Hussey, Seacrest, 28.40m

Follow Southwest Florida Sports Writer Alex Martin on Twitter: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Bishop Verot boys, ECS girls take home wins in Private 8 track meet