For the second weekend in a row, the Big Bend’s athletes were split between two meets. The Bolles Bulldog Classic was held in Jacksonville on Friday night, while the Rutherford Ram Relays took place in Panama City on Saturday. Both meets played host to thrilling races and brought further glory to our local trackies.

Coach Gowan and his Chiles disciples joined the female runners of Florida High in representing the Tallahassee area at Bolles. Both the Timberwolf girls and boys placed third overall, not an easy task at a meet of this level. The ladies of Chiles were led by a third place vault by Haley Watts (9 feet), a second place discus throw and shot put toss by Raven Otway (114-11 and 35-10.50), a third place 100m dash by Ashton Gallaher (12.56), a sixth place finish in the 1600m run by Carly Thomas (5:29), and a one-two finish in the 3200m run by Lily Williams (11:21) and Kaia Hampton (11:24).

The Timberwolf men were led by Brandon Bassett’s first place high jump (6-00), a one-two placing in the pole vault (Brandon Bassett with 14-00 and Harrison Stierwalt with 13-06), a fourth place 4x400m relay team (3:36.27), and a second place finish in the 3200m run by Brandon Lingerfelt (10:07).

Florida High’s girls proved they are a serious threat for the state title by taking first overall at this highly competitive meet. This impressive showing was made possible by Ena Johnson’s third place finish in the 200m dash (26.12), Elizabeth Ichite’s first place finish in the 400m dash (57.98), a first and second place sweep in the 100m hurdles by Ena Johnson (15.31) and LaKetra McGee (15.44), a first and second place domination of the 300m hurdles by Ana DeTorres (49.25) and Brittany Corbett (50.58), a second place 4x100m relay team (50.39), and a third place 4x400m relay team (4:17.22).

One day later and one time zone to the west, the Rutherford Ram Relays gave runners from Maclay and Wewahitchka a chance to stretch their legs. Maclay’s girls placed twelfth overall in the high school division and tenth in the middle school division. Marauder middle schooler, Merina Allen placed third in the middle school 1600m run, with a time of 6:14.

The maurader males placed eleventh overall in the high school division and sixth overall in the middle school division. Jacob Coates, Lee Williams, Austin Stevens, and Patrick Swain formed the distance medley relay team that took second place and set a new Maclay school record for the event (11:06.41). Middle schoolers, Travis Covert (5:16) and Jack Rutledge (5:30) placed first and second in the middle school 1600m run.

Wewahitchka placed eleventh overall in the girls’ high school division, ninth in the girls’ middle school division, seventh in the boys’ high school division, and ninth in the boys’ middle school division.

It was another great week in the world of north Florida track and field. With the mercury climbing and the days getting longer, it is safe to say that we are firmly out of the dreary days of winter and ready for the excitement of spring. As we prepare to wave goodbye to those frosty months, we would also be wise to make plans to bid farewell to the marks that currently fill our record books. With big-time meets like the FSU Relays and State fast approaching, the season can only go in one direction, up. Likewise, the times have only one way to go, down.