Jackson’s Holt, Pompano’s Walters secure state titles
After a top-five finish last season at the Class 3A state track and field meet, Miami Jackson’s Byron Holt wasn’t going to settle for anything short of a gold medal.
Holt, competing this season at the Class 2A meet, accomplished his goal Thursday night when he won the 110-meter hurdles race in 14.24 seconds to secure his first state championship.
Holt’s victory was among the five events that South Florida athletes won at the meet which took place at James G. Pressley Stadium in Gainesville.
Pembroke Pines Somerset Academy’s girls posted the top finish of any South Florida squad placing third with 51 points behind state champion Jacksonville Bolles (68) and runner-up Montverde Academy (62).
Freshman Aleesa Samuel led the Panthers by winning the 100-meter hurdles in 13.73 seconds. Samuel finished two-tenths of a second behind the fastest time run this season in the state in the event. She also finished third in the 100 and 200 meter races.
Holt, who also finished seventh in 300-meter hurdles, is a junior. He became the second state champion in the 110 hurdles from Jackson High, joining Dwight Stanley (2007).
One of the closest finishes came in the boys’ pole vault where Calvary Christian’s Ty Noble edged Cardinal Gibbons Sam Mrky on a tiebreaker for the state title. Both Noble and Mrky jumped 4.50 meters but Noble won on a tiebreaker after he hit his mark on his first attempt after Mrky had not.
At last year’s state meet, Mrky finished ahead of Noble with a height of nearly a foot more as they finished third and fourth respectively.
Noble became the first ever state champion for Calvary Christian in the pole vault.
Pompano Beach senior Avondre Walters made some school history by winning the 300 hurdles in 38.26 seconds. Walters became Pompano’s first state champion since pole vaulter Oren Woodward in 1958 and the school’s first in a track event.
Miami Killian’s boys’ 1,600 relay team secured the state championship of that event in 41.67 seconds. It was the first time the Cougars boys won that event since 1991.
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