GAINESVILLE - St.Johns Country Day School double state champion Matthew Stratton gave a little glimpse of what the University of Florida hass for the next four years with a scintillating track performance Friday night at the University of Florida’s Pepsi Relays track invitational.

“This was my first race since I got here and my first real test in the last two months,” said Stratton, the Class 1A cross country state champion and the Class 1A 3200 track champion last year for the Spartans, now a freshman as a Gator in Gainesville. “I couldn’t run much when I first got here with a little injury, but have had two months of training to use tonight. It’s a little overwhelming.”

Overwhelming was Stratton’s courageous attachment to the front pack of runners in the final event of Friday’s Pepsi Relays docket; the 5,000 meters, with the company of two University of Alabama standouts; Will Pinson, also a freshman, and the eventual winner in 14 minutes, 28.33 seconds, and Gator teammates Ethan Geiger, a sophomore, second in 14:28.61, and Cavan Wilson, a fifth year senior, third in 14:28.84, and Stratton, in an surge at the end that put the first four finishers under 15 minutes with Stratton in at 14:29.18.

“When Cavan went in second to last lap, I wanted to stay with him and see if I was strong enough to finish with him,” said Stratton. “He took the shot and I went. The other responded in the final lap and that’s how we finish.”

Stratton, running in a vacation-like Miami running singlet as an unattached runner, look comfortable as the 3.1 mile race opened with a lead pack of 12 runners cruised the first two miles in a relatively cautious pace before runners within the group, including Stratton, started to surge on the track’s backstretch to test the mental will of the pack as the pace increased slightly for the next of the last five laps.

“We were throwing body blows on the backside, regrouping and assessing,” said Stratton. “I was very comfortable and well within myself. I was getting tanked up for the final two laps to see if my training would carry me. It was getting fast.”

Also in the race, but relegating to the behind the initial power pack of 12 runners was University of North Florida Kameron Wallizada, a Fleming Island High standout also on the track and in cross country, who has responded from nagging injuries through the latter part of his high school career to the college regimen with a recent 30-plus 10K (6.2 miles) track win a week ago at the River City Classic race at the University of North Florida.

“I just had a bad night (15:07.60) for 20th place,” said Wallizada. “I wish I could have been up there with Matthew and mix it up, but my legs were not there after last week. That would have been fun.”

With 11:40 on the clock, Stratton and Wilson made the strongest surge of the night with a power move that looked to separate a four-man pack; two Gators, two Alabama runners, from the rest of the field.

With two laps, Stratton sat in third place with Geiger, Wilson and Pinson taking the front before the bell lap unleashed Wilson to the front with Pinson and Stratton chasing to stay up.

“Once it got slow, we wanted to ramp it up,” said Stratton. “When Ethan went first, I thought I could catch him. He can ramp it up very quickly.”

At 200 meters, Stratton sling-shotted to the outside of the trio in lane two to make a move to the tape.

At the finish, with four runners crashing the line, Stratton hit the tape then hit the track with a big smile.

“That tells me the training and rehab is going fine,” said Stratton. “Not bad for a couple of Jacksonville boys. I saw what Kam did in the 10K and said, ‘He’s back’.”

In the sprints, former Orange Park High sprinters Alex Collier, 400 state champion, and Markez Sermons; at FSU and FAMU, respectively, finished 39th in 21.75 for Collier and 47th in 22.45 for Sermons in the college 200 meters.

In triple jump, Oakleaf state champion Loren Johnson, now at USF, was 12th at 39-2.5.