Orlando area schools bring home 8 state titles

Markel Jones made the most of the final day of his four-year career as a football and track standout for Lake Mary High School.

The slender speedster won state championships in both the 110- and 400-meter hurdles to highlight a sterling Saturday for Orlando area athletes in the FHSAA Class 4A track and field state meet, which returned to the University of North Florida.

Four more area athletes also won individual state titles for the first time and Sanford Seminole sped to two relay victories.

Jones was state runner-up in both hurdles in 2023 and was not going to be denied in his last chance for gold medals.

“I wanted one spot and one spot only. … first place,” he said. “I got way more intense about my training this year. You gotta work hard for what you want.”

The football wide receiver started the day by running a 1:54 split in a 4×800 relay fifth place performance by the Rams and followed up with career-best hurdles times of 13.86 and 52.59 seconds. The 400 mark ranks No. 4 nationally and the 110 effort is Florida’s fastest for all four classifications.

The other individual champions were seniors Miguel Pantojas of Hagerty, Valentino Rudolph of West Orange and Ma’kala Davis of Ocoee along with sophomore Kylie Niera of DeLand.

Davis won the girls triple jump with a clutch leap of 39 feet, 3¾ inches. She stood third before launching her game-winner on her fourth and final jump.

“I was so tired of not being first place at state. I knew what I had to do on that last jump,” Davis said, alluding to her fifth-place finish as a sophomore and third-place showing last year.

Davis, 17, also placed third in the high jump (5-3¾) and was a finalist in the long jump.

She’ll be a college jumper for Jacksonville University, just up the road from UNF — where her older sister plans to enroll in the fall.

Niera won the girls pole vault with a 12-3½ clearance that ties for fifth on the Orlando area all-time chart. Former Lake Mary state champ Erica Sergeant, who set the area record (13-2¼) in 2014, is the only vaulter on the list who has climbed higher than Niera as a 10th-grader.

Pantojas, No. 2 all-time for the boys 800, seized that event with Florida’s fastest time of the 2023 outdoor season (1:50.30). Apopka’s Noah Musselwhite was third at 1:52.93.

Rudolph won the boys 400 in 47.40, just off the Warriors school record. He also placed eighth in the 200 (21.81) and ran 10.85 in the 100.

Seminole won the boys 4×100 relay for the third consecutive year at 40.86 and the 4×400 at 3:14.51 with Harvard-bound senior Amari Turner anchoring both efforts.

Turner also clocked two of the fastest sprint times in area history — 10.37 in the 100 and 20.90 in the 200 — but placed second in both races behind Creekside junior jet Christian Miller (10.31 and 20.57).

Senior Marshae McDonald, junior Nazir Givens and sophomore Trarell Beckford teamed with Turner in the 4×100, where Wekiva finished fourth at 41.45.

McDonald and Givens joined Turner and senior Tyriq Lewis for the 4×400.

Seminole’s boys had the area’s best team showing, scoring 46 points for third place behind Niceville (65.5) and St. Thomas Aquinas (48) in what might be the last state meet for Ken Brauman, the ‘Noles track and field coach since 1983.

Brauman, who has coached in Florida for 51 years, said he is undecided about calling it quits.

“I’m still enjoying it,” he said during Saturday’s action. “We’ve had a great meet.”

That included a third-place finish by McDonald (48.40) in the 400 and a second in the girls shot put (41-7) by senior Sarai Simpson.

The Evans High girls finished sixth with 28 points. Miami Southridge won the title.

Hagerty junior Jonathan Leon ran a PR 9:10.40 for second in the boys 3,200.

Boone senior Shayne Grandison popped a big PR in the boys long jump (23-1¾) to place third.

Wekiva senior Justin Hutchinson was third in the 100 (10.61) and Oviedo sophomore Tristen Washington placed sixth (10.66).

Lake Mary senior Karis Reese ran a career-best 14.30 for fourth in the girls 100 hurdles, one slot ahead of Evans senior Ar’briel Scott (14.32). Reese also took fourth in the high jump.

Ocoee senior Dylan Horne placed third in the boys shot put (56-6½) and fifth in the discus (54-11).

Evans senior Kemaj Moore dipped under 55 for the first time with a 54.88 good for fourth in the girls 400. Her Trojans took third in the 4×400 (3:49.64).

Seminole High senior Sarai Simpson placed second in the shot put in Saturday’s FHSAA Class 4A state track and field meet at UNF.