{"id":265564,"date":"2026-05-10T10:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T10:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/265564\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T10:26:08","slug":"vanessa-waite-adds-fhsaa-200-meter-title-to-age-group-exploits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/265564\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanessa Waite adds FHSAA 200-meter title to age-group exploits"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE \u2014 Two elite triple jumpers, two Ocoee High standouts, two young distance prodigies, a pole vault winner with gymnastic experience, and a sprinter who set a national record before she hit high school \u2014 all among the best in Central Florida history \u2014 scored state titles to highlight Orlando area accomplishments on the final three days of the FHSAA state track and field <\/a>\u00a0finals at the University of North Florida.<\/p>\n

Kissimmee Gateway junior Maxwell Garcon became the sixth Orlando area boy to leap 50 feet in the triple jump in Friday\u2019s Class 3A meet. He jumped from second to first place by bouncing out to 50 feet and three quarters of an inch on his fourth and final attempt.<\/p>\n

That came a day after Montverde Academy junior Samuel Johnson, already in the exclusive 50 foot club, jumped 50-4\u00bc to take the 2A championship. Johnson, who leaped 50-9\u00be\u00a0 to win at the Florida Relays, also won the long jump for the Eagles.<\/p>\n

The all-time triple jump record-holder is Seminole High graduate Andre Scott, who set a national record (since broken) of 53-7\u00bd as a 2003 senior in Orlando\u2019s discontinued Golden South Classic postseason meet. Scott\u2019s FHSAA meet record of 52-5\u00bd still stands. He became an Auburn All-American and has been a college assistant coach for more than 20 years \u2014 now at Ole Miss.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the all-time triple jump list:<\/p>\n

53-7 Andre Scott, Seminole, 1993.<\/p>\n

51-6 James Beckford, Boone, 1993.<\/p>\n

51-2 Armani Wallace, Colonial, 2025.<\/p>\n

50-9\u00be Shane Lewis, Deltona, 2010.<\/p>\n

50-9\u00bd Samuel Johnson, Montverde, 2026.<\/p>\n

50-3\u00be Maxwell Garcon, Gateway, 2026.<\/p>\n

Ocoee senior Jaiden Manning, who\u00a0 gave up football after going out for track as a sophomore, won Saturday\u2019s 4A boys 110-meter hurdles in 13.92 seconds. He\u2019s now confident he will earn a college scholarship to race.<\/p>\n

His senior teammate, Devin Matthews, an oh-so-close state runner-up in the 800 last year, erased that disappointment with a 47.24 victory in the boys 400. He is also getting college attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt really relaxed and for the last 200 I just left it all on the track,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cThis means a lot because I felt short last season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OcoeeOcoee senior had a lot to smile about on Saturday. He won the Class 4A state championship in the 400-meter dash. (Stephen M. Dowell\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

On the girls side, Lake Minneola sophomore Vanessa Waite had to settle for second in the 100-meter dash with an 11.57 time, but then sped to a 4A victory in the 200 with 23.17 performance. That\u2019s Florida\u2019s fastest this year and the No. 9 time in the nation. Waite set a 15-16 national age group record with a 23.26 time to win at the 2024 AAU Jr. Olympics and was happy to finally eclipse that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little down about not winning the 100, but I know I\u2019m better in the 200,\u201d Waite said. \u201cThat\u2019s my race. I\u2019m very confident in myself now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaching changes, and 8th-grader Vanessa Waite sets U.S. 200 record | Varsity Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n

Bishop Moore freshman Annabella Tomasic ran a career best 4:53.25 to win the 1,600 title in 3A. That\u2019s her third state title \u2014 along with her November cross country win and the cross country championship she claimed as a seventh grader running for Lake Highland Prep. Tomasic was Friday\u2019s runner-up in the 3,200 at 10:44.47.<\/p>\n

Montverde Academy senior Nakira Hudson won the 2A girls 400 (53.24), finished fourth in the 200, and ran on the winning 4\u00d7400 relay as the Eagles tied Bolles of Jacksonville for the team title. Both scored 84 points. Montverde senior Jizelle Holland piled up points with runner-up finishes in both hurdles finals, a sixth in the triple jump and a leg on the winning relay.<\/p>\n

Lake Nona Arrabella Duffel, a tiny sophomore (5-feet-tall) who was a highly-ranked age group tennis player before switching to distance running, won the 3,200 with a strategic 10:29.10 effort.\u00a0 Finishing 15th out of 16 in the 2025 state meet was her motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been wanting this for so long,\u201d said Duffel. \u201cIt\u2019s like tennis in a way because every single lap is like a different (tennis) set.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rain fell for much of Saturday\u2019s 4A meet, and competition was stopped for just over an hour in the afternoon. UNF\u2019s rubberized track held up well for fast race events, but wet conditions were a challenge in the pole vault for Lyman junior Nora Garraughty. That didn\u2019t stop her from winning with an 11-feet, 9\u00be-inches clearance. She has vaulted 12-3\u00bd in drier conditions and wants to climb past the 13-foot mark with continued training with Bill Cashman, whose Thin Air Vault Club has produced nearly 60 state champions in four decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was fun vaulting in the rain. But the hard part was gripping the pole,\u201d Garraughty said with a smile. \u201cI wanted to jump higher, but I still have summer meets.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHECK HERE FOR ALL STATE MEET RESULTS, MAY 6-9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Class 4A girls<\/p>\n

Spruce Creek\u2019s Mikayla Palmer and Boone senior Naima Durandisse both cleared 5-7\u00be in the girls high jump. Palmer won the state title because she had no misses until the bar was moved up to 5-9\u00be. Durandisse, who signed with Santa Fe College for basketball but hopes to get a ride to USF as a versatile jumper, had one earlier miss.<\/p>\n

Cypress Creek senior Alondra Rodriguez, who won the girls 400 hurdles last season, finished fourth Saturday with a 1:00.28 time that was not what she wanted. Nia Armstrong of Sickles (Tampa), a sophomore, won with a 58.88 time that ranks No. 2 nationally.<\/p>\n

Wekiva was third in the girls 4\u00d7100 (46.58).<\/p>\n

Kissimmee Osceola\u2019s Nicole Oliveira finished third in the girls long jump (18-5\u00bc).<\/p>\n

Ocoee\u2019s Jayla Newton was third in the javelin (124-3).<\/p>\n

Lake Brantley senior Layla Fuller finished fourth at 2:10.96 in a fast 800.<\/p>\n

Boone\u2019s girls were 12th with 19 points, followed by Lake Minneola (18), Osceola(17) and Seminole (17).<\/p>\n

Class 4A boys<\/p>\n

Oviedo senior Aiden Aysun was runner-up in the 1,600 with a school record time of 4:11.71.<\/p>\n

Taylor Royster, another Oviedo senior, long jumped 23-11\u00be to break his own school record and place second.<\/p>\n

St. Cloud\u2019s Denzel Hawkins was third in the 400 hurdles (54.42) and fourth in the 110s (14.32).<\/p>\n

Lake Minneola had two boys runners-up: Wesley Morisseau in the high jump (6-5\u00bd) and Tyler Mullings in the discus (160-3).<\/p>\n

Ocoee was fourth with 31 points in a meet won by Flanagan (77.5).<\/p>\n

Class 3A<\/p>\n

Bishop Moore\u2019s girls ran an area-best 9:16.05 for second place in the 4\u00d7800 relay. The Hornets totaled 26 points, good for seventh in the team standings. Dillard of Fort Lauderdale topped Niceville 69-64 to take the title.<\/p>\n

Innovation\u2019s Mariah Turner long jumped 18-7\u00bc for fifth.<\/p>\n

Elijah Cantero of Bishop Moore was the boys 400 runner-up (47.57) and ran on a 4\u00d7100 relay that placed second with a 41.23 time. Jones was fifth at 41.53.<\/p>\n

The Hornets and Gateway tied for 11th in the boys team standings with 16 points each. Niceville won the title with 88 points.<\/p>\n

Gateway\u2019s Ethan Antle cleared 14-3\u00bc for fifth in the pole vault.<\/p>\n

Class 2A<\/p>\n

Montverde\u2019s girls were led by senior Jizelle Holland, who scored in all four of her events. She was runner-up in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles with times of 14.30 and 59.84 seconds, sixth in triple jump, and ran on the winning 4\u00d7400 foursome (3:44.69).<\/p>\n

Also for the Eagles, Angelica Wolfe was second in the 800 (2:11.70); DaQuana Howell was runner-up in the 200 (24.25) and fifth in the 100 (11.97); Adriana Rodriguez was third in the 400 (53.88) and fifth in the 200 (24.55).<\/p>\n

Lake Highland Prep\u2019s Saleigh Simpson placed fourth with a 40-2\u00be shot put.<\/p>\n

Montverde senior Grant Williams cleared 14-feet, 9-inches to win the boys pole vault. His ninth grade teammate, Max Georgiev, placed fourth at 14-3\u00bc.<\/p>\n

Windermere Prep\u2019s Akai Tonge placed third in the boys 110 hurdles (14.55).<\/p>\n

Lake Highland Prep\u2019s Connor Allen ran 47.59 for third in the 400.<\/p>\n

Geneva football\u2019s Duke Carpenter wins state discus championship | Varsity Report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE \u2014 Two elite triple jumpers, two Ocoee High standouts, two young distance prodigies, a pole vault winner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3745,139,141,140,76046,76642,110],"class_list":["post-265564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-high-school-sports","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-social-varsity-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265564","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=265564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}