Palm Beach County stars capture state track titles

Two Palm Beach County athletes won state track and fifield titles this past weekend at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Atlantic senior Christian Brown, who will play football and run track at Princeton University next year, was a winner in the 110-hurdles ( 13.84 seconds) and fifinished second in the 300-hurdles (37.29) in the Class 4A competition. His victory in the 110-hurdles was the fifirst at state of his high school track career.

Oxbridge Academy junior Hannah Kanjian won the high jump at the 2A meet. Kanjian, who fifinished seventh at last year’s state meet, made her third attempt in a tiebreaker with Nicole Hall of The Villages and Daishon Spann of Hallandale. All three cleared a height of 5-3.75 to force the tiebreaker.

In other area state track highlights:

■St. Andrew’ s junior Nicole Whitaker finished second in the discus at the 2A meet with a throw of 135 feet, 9 inches.

■ King’s Academy’s Justin Bridgewater fifinished second in the 1A 800-meter race in 1:57.27. In the girls 1A meet, King’s Academy senior Brianna Oats fifinished third in the 100-hurdles (14.96) and 300-hurdles (44.82).

■The Pahokee boys 1,600-meter relay team fifinished second in Class 1A with a time of 3:25.34.

American Heritage wins three state tennis titles: American Heritage won a trio of titles last week at the Class 2A state tennis championships in Altamonte Springs.

Senior Melissa Sakar, who will play at Columbia University in the fall, won the over- all girls singles championship with a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5) win over Natalie Block of Plantation- American Heritage.

In the girls’ overall doubles event, Sakar and freshman Hayden Bethea advanced to the championship match.

Stallions senior Steven Sun won the boys singles championship with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over John Sakellarides of Tarpon Springs. Sun will play in college at Harvard.

Sun also teamed with senior Hunter Robbins to win the overall boys doubles championship with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Stefano Viel and Diego Amilibia of LaSalle. Robbins will play college tennis at Florida Atlantic.

In team competition, the Stallions’ boys advanced to the semifinals.