{"id":203885,"date":"2026-03-24T13:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203885\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:13:07","slug":"florida-breakthrough-performances-week-6-mar-16-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203885\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Breakthrough Performances: Week 6 (Mar. 16-22)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Mar 24, 2026\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kala Valarias<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Gulf Coast<\/a>\u00a0is one of several Florida athletes who delivered standout performances in week six.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: M. Stonecipher<\/p>\n

Each week, Florida high school track and field athletes are setting personal records and delivering standout performances across a range of events. Week after week brings new breakthroughs-here’s a look at a few athletes who made big strides during week six of the 2026 outdoor season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Based on performances from\u00a0March 16-22.<\/p>\n

Cherldine Paul <\/a>(Barron Collier<\/a>) threw 46-7.75 in the shot put at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic on March 21, improving from her previous best of 43-8.8. The mark ranks #3 in Florida and set a school record. Paul also set a personal record in the discus with 112-9.5, up from 108-10.<\/p>\n

Grant Alward II<\/a> (First Baptist Academy<\/a>) threw 147-1.5 in the discus at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic, improving from 138-11.25. The mark places him #87 in Florida and #28 among seniors. Alward finished 5th of 30 competitors.<\/p>\n

Kiara Rakes<\/a> (Gulf Coast<\/a>) ran 2:17.53 in the 800 meters at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic, lowering her previous best of 2:20.93 from March 2026. The time ranks #58 in Florida and #17 among seniors. Rakes placed 2nd of 72 runners.<\/p>\n

Giuliana Serra<\/a> (Cardinal Gibbons<\/a>) ran 2:17.91 in the 800 meters at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic, improving from 2:20.92. The time ranks #69 in Florida and #16 among juniors. Serra also set a personal record in the 400 meters with 1:02.24, down from 1:02.73.
\nNasir Cruz<\/a> (Mater Academy Charter<\/a>) threw 46-10 in the shot put at the Dade County Youth Fair Championship on March 19, improving from 45-0.25. The mark ranks #120 in Florida and set a school record. Cruz also recorded a personal best 110-4 in the discus, up from 104-11.06.
\nXander Muchallah<\/a> (Christopher Columbus<\/a>) ran 1:56.57 in the 800 meters at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic, improving from 1:59.22. The time ranks #75 in Florida and #11 among juniors. Muchallah finished 6th of 68 runners.
\nMatthew Hood <\/a>(Palm Harbor University<\/a>) ran 9:33.82 in the 3200 meters at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic, improving from the 9:41.80 set in March 2026. The time ranks #83 in Florida and set a school record. Hood won the race among 41 competitors.
\nKala Valarias<\/a> (Gulf Coast)<\/a> ran 11.84 in the 100 meters at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic, improving from 11.97. The time ranks #53 in Florida and set a school record. Valarias also set personal records in the 200 meters (24.05, from 24.62) and 400 meters (55.25, from 55.59).
\nKeymani Dillingham<\/a> (St. Stephens Episcopal<\/a>) ran 14.08 in the 100-meter hurdles at the Guy Thomas Memorial Classic, improving from 14.24 set in February 2026. The time ranks #18 in Florida and #6 among seniors while setting a school record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 24, 2026 Kala Valarias\u00a0of\u00a0Gulf Coast\u00a0is one of several Florida athletes who delivered standout performances in week six.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,93715,30,29,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-203885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-breakthrough-performances-week-6-mar-16-22","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}