Dr. Phillips freshman Hudson shows speed at Florida Relays
Dr. Phillips freshman phenom Nakira Hudson won the Florida Relays girls 400-meter dash championship with a historic performance last weekend.
She covered the lap in 54.39 seconds at Percy Beard Track on the UF campus to edge Montverde Academy junior Alivia Williams (54.40).
Hudson’s time is the best ever by a Central Florida ninth-grader, according to the FLrunners.com database. It ranks No. 2 among U.S. freshmen this year, trailing a 53.37 turned in by Skyler Franklin of Western High School in Broward County.
Franklin ranks No. 2 on the 2022 national list; Hudson is No. 9. If all goes well, they will race the metric quarter-mile in the Class 4A state championship meet at UNF on May 20.
Hudson is unbeaten in the 400, including a win at the Sam Burley Invitational in Miami. She’s also among the area’s fastest in the 100 (12.27) and 200 (25.09) going into Saturday’s Panther Invitational at Dr. Phillips.
“Nakira is very focused,” DP track and field coach Frank Fountain said. “Not much playing around. It’s very rare to see an athlete so focused on her running and goals at this age.”
Hagerty senior Miguel Pantojas, a UF commit running on his future college track, clocked the nation’s No. 5 time of the year in the boys 800 (1:50.92) to place second behind indoor national champion Nathan Cumberbatch of Wisconsin, who ran a personal best 1:50.33.
Pantojas ran 1:50.09 as the Florida 4A runner-up last season and then turned in a career-best 1:49.90 at the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle last June.
Montverde Academy’s all-star sprinters again made their marks in a big meet.
Eagles senior Issam Asinga ran a Florida Relays record and 2023 national No. 1 time of 10.10 seconds in the boys 100. West Orange senior Valentino Rudolph ran 10.55 for third and Sanford Seminole senior Amari Turner was fifth at 10.60 in a loaded event.
Montverde junior Adaejah Hodge, the U.S. leader in the girls 100 with an 11.18 at the recent FSU Relays, backed that up with an 11.26 meet record time.
Meets set for Friday include the Coach Ernest McPherson Invitational, hosted by Sanford Seminole, and the Celebration Invitational.
The Metro Conference East Division championship meet is Saturday at Cypress Creek.
The Metro West meet is April 14 at Lake Buena Vista.
On Wednesday, Lake Mary will host the Seminole Athletic Conference meet and the Orange Belt Conference meet is set for St. Cloud.