The track and field showdown will also feature local girls and boys who qualified as individuals.
By ROD GIPSON
Published May 7, 2004
While the Tampa Bay Tech boys squad narrowly missed out on a team berth to the Class 3A state finals today in Gainesville, the Titans girls will compete for a state championship.
By virtue of their third place finish at the Class 3A, Region 3 meet, the Tech girls qualified for the trip to Gainesville, leaving the boys team home with a fifth-place finish. The top four squads advanced.
The Titan girls received standout performances from sprinter Racquel Parson and athletes Shenita Howell, Yvonne Perez and Melissa Cousin.
Howell placed second in the shot put and fourth in the discus. Cousin was second in the pole vault, and Perez was fourth in the 800 meter run. Parson dominated her events, winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Parson captured the 100 meters in 12.47 seconds and won the 200 in 25.84 seconds.
"We have a small team in terms of numbers, but they consistently score points every meet," coach April Winternheimer said. "They really put it all together and perform when they have to. They work hard, and that's what they are good at."
Other local girls to qualify for state as individuals were East Bay's Paige Williams (mile, 2-mile) and the Armwood 4x100 relay team of Toshiba Cobb, Sade Bowers, Dominiqua Gardner and Latonya Williams.
On the boys side, Armwood's Ronnie Anderson and East Bay's Stanley Suber are headed to the state meet. Anderson qualified in the 100- and 200-meter events. Suber will compete in the 400 and the 200.
East Bay's Jeremy Dye and Armwood's Josh Curran will compete in the pole vault, Tony Edwards of East Bay qualified in the long jump, and Brandon's Arsenio Curry qualified in the high jump. Also, the Armwood 4x800 team of Carlos Corbett, Ryan Courtoy, Evan Davis and Alex Jones will race at state.
SOFTBALL: With four local teams competing for district championships (two against each other), the Brandon area was guaranteed to be well represented in the regional tournament. In Class 6A, Bloomingdale ended its string of three straight district runners-up finishes, beating Sarasota Riverview 2-0 behind the pitching of Allison Kime.
Devan Spence's first-inning double scored two runs, and Kime handled the rest. She allowed just three hits and struck out 19 to win her 19th game of the season and remain undefeated.
In the Class 5A, District 8 title game, East Bay fell 4-0 to Plant despite solid pitching from Ashley Urbanik. The Indians (18-9) were led by Urbanik, who gave up only four hits and had 10 strikeouts. The problem was lack of offense as East Bay recorded just one hit.
The Class 4A, District 11 final featured Armwood against first-year Newsome.
The Hawks, three seasons removed from finishing 0-20, defeated Newsome 3-0 to win their first fast-pitch softball district title. Lauren McKelvey and Jessica O'Brien had first-inning triples, and Kayla Jones and Bianca Johnson had singles and scored runs in the fifth for Armwood.
All five local teams played in Thursday night's regional quarterfinals (results in Sports, Section C).
FOOTBALL: The spring football jamboree locations and teams have been announced.
Durant, Newsome and Armwood will compete at Plant City at 6:30 p.m. May 20. Brandon will host Bloomingdale, East Bay and Riverview at 6:30 May 21.
