Gibbons runs all the way to finish line
BUNNELL — Rafaella Gibbons didn’t have to give it her all coming down the stretch of the 1,600-meter run on Thursday. The Winter Park senior is winding down one of the most illustrious careers in area cross country/track history and one more first-place region ribbon really doesn’t matter much in the big picture for a girl who has signed with North Carolina State and already owns a stack of state titles.
But Gibbons didn’t become a state titlist in both track and cross country by resting on her laurels. Instead of settling for second, she gutted out her third win of the day, out-dueling Lake Mary freshman phenom Mya Bodrato in a photo finish to win the metric mile at the Class 4A Region 1 track and field championships at Flagler Palm Coast.
Gibbons won in five minutes, 3.15 seconds, only twohundredths of a second ahead of Bodrato’s 5:03.17.
“We’re a little behind [in the team title race], so I wanted to get as many points as possible,” Gibbons said. “My coach [Kristin McWilliams] really wanted me to win.”
Gibbons anchored the winning 4x800 relay at 8:30 a.m., won the 3,200 three hours later, and then finished a long day with the 1,600 title and sweat rolling down her cheeks on both sides of a big smile.
Her final meet in a Winter Park uniform comes next week at the FHSAA state finals at UNF in Jacksonville.
“I think if anything I’m more motivated to finish strong,” Gibbons said. “I want to finish every race giving it my all.”
West Orange’s girls won the final event, the 4x400 relay, to capture the first region championship in program history by a two-point margin (57-55) over Winter Park.
Lake Brantley’s boys piled up 76 points to win by 31 over co-runners-up Lake Mary and West Orange.
Junior football prospect Damarius Good swept the sprints and ran on the winning 4x400 to pace the Patriots. Joab “Jo Jo” Francois and Josiah Soto also had big days for Brantley.
Two-time 4A state boys 1,600 champ Timothy Doyle of Freedom won that event and the 800 to maintain momentum heading into a state meet at his future college home stadium at UNF.
Timber Creek senior Austin Thompson, also a UNF recruit, upped his career-best for the pole vault to 15 feet, 9 inches and just missed on two of his three tries to surpass 16 feet.
Olympia ninth-grader Hannah Douglas swept the girls sprints, taking the 100 by a one-hundredth-of-asecond margin over surging Seminole senior Nicole Smith.
Another youngster, sophomore Amaya Ugarte of Windermere, won the girls high jump and had seconds in the 4x100 relay, the long jump and in the 300 hurdles — which was won by West Orange senior Jasmine Williams in a career-best time of 43.92 seconds.
Apopka won the boys 4x100 with its season-best time of 41.92.
Oak Ridge senior Marquasha Myers won the triple jump and the 100 hurdles with a career-best 14.48 time.
West Orange junior Russell Robinson fouled on five of his long jumps. But his one legal leap covered 23-8 and made him the region winner.