GREEN COVE SPRINGS - With district track and field meets looming in the next 10 days, area tracksters ventured to three different meets in a three-day span last weekend with results coming in droves with personal bests, state-ranked finishes, optimism and energy ahead of a return to the University of North Florida in May for the FHSAA state championships.

On the docket last week, tracksters were in Gainesville for the Pepsi Relay, at Clay High for the Blue Devil Invite, at Orange Park High for the Don Hall Invitational and Ribault High for the Chandra Cheeseborough Invite. Middleburg High also hosted middle school track athletes at the Northeast Florida Athletic Conference championships.

"We are moving athletes around and seeing what we can do to maximize points in the next few meets," said Middleburg track coach Paul Grybb, who was with his assistant Kenneth Yancey at the return of the Ron Riddle Track Invitational, now called the Blue Devil Invite, on the newly refurbished Clay High Track. "It's all about finding out who is strong in April and who can maybe run a different event to give us a few extra team points."

With the legendary Clay High football and track coach Ron Riddle in his familiar spot at the Fish Fry grill at the Clay High School track, a handful of teams made the day a simple testing ground—Clay High, Middleburg High, Bradford County High, Keystone Heights and Eustis High all made the trip to Green Cove Springs to get a couple of shakeout runs in before districts pop up next week. The meet format did not include field events as the track renovations were still ongoing.

"This is Coach Riddle's vision to have a track like this here at Clay," said Clay High athletic director Jared Moses. "He's the big push to get track back in our stadium."

Even without the field events on hand, the excitement was evident with back-to-back mile finish line sprint finishes highlighting the day's action.

In the boys 1600, Clay High's Theodore Davila made a final 100-meter sprint in front of the home crowd to narrowly edge a strong run from Middleburg's Adam Ruoss who secured an early lead and held it for a long as he could.
The boys 1600 had a finish of 4:53.28 for Davila and 4:53.76 for Ruoss with Middleburg's Daniel Johnson third in 4:59.17.

In the girls 1600, Clay High's Jordyne Denny was hammering away up front from the starter's gun before Middleburg's Jillian Mescall started to chip away Denny's lead in the final lap. As the two girls rounded the final turn with 200 meters to go, Denny became aware of Mescall's move and attempted a rebuttal with both girls shoulder to shoulder to the finish line—Mescall with the win in 6:12.01 to Denny's 6:12.95, with Middleburg's Kynlee Helmuth getting her personal best of 6:35.28 for third.

In the sprints, Bradford County's Elijah Lawrence dominated with wins in the 100 (11.00) and 200 (22.92) with the Tornadoes going 1-2-3 in the 200. In the boys 400, Clay's Jean Bastien held off Keystone Heights' Ryeland Wahl for a 52.58 to 53.53 win.

For the girls 400, Middleburg got the Hat Trick with flag football wide receiver ace Payton Morton, miler Lauren Rosset and soccer midfielder Isabella Munoz topping the field—Morton in 1:04.93. Morton also won the 200 ahead of two Bronco teammates—Taylor Mercer and Alivia Hempseed-Snider—with a 27.38 split. Munoz would return from her fast one-lapper to win the 3200.

In the girls 100, Middleburg also racked up a 1-2-3 with Mercer edging hurdle specialist Mikayla Burns 13.15 to 13.20 with Hempseed-Snider third.
Keystone Heights got a win in the 400 hurdles from golfer/quarterback/long jumper/pole vaulter Baylor Ford with a 1:01.01 time while Eustis got a win in the 110 hurdles from Zakai Murray over Middleburg's Kenneth Wells.

Keystone Heights hurdle specialist, soccer district champion goal scoring forward and state weightlifting qualifier Kaylee Park winning in 16.50 in the 100 hurdles.
Hunter Sheppard won the 3200 for Keystone Heights in 11:03.23 with Middleburg's Noah Biebel second in 11:10.28.