Wharton wins boys, girls titles

By JEREMY RASMUSSEN
Published April 28, 2005

TAMPA - Wharton swept the Class 3A, Region 3 meet for the second straight year.

The girls (93.50) almost doubled their nearest competitors, Boca Ciega (54) and Armwood (51), but the win came at a price.

After taking second in the 100 meters and leading the 4x100 relay to the top qualifying time in the preliminaries (48.27), Ae'Quoia Diggs pulled a hamstring in the 4x100 final and is likely out for the season.

Diggs limped to the finish line to help Wharton finish fourth. Boca Ciega won in 48.64.

Sophomore Kristen Farrell was watching TV at home when coach Wes Newton called her to say the team needed her for the 4x400. Newton dispatched an assistant to pick up Farrell.

And she arrived just in time to run her best split of the season (1:02) and help the Wildcats qualify for the state meet by taking fourth in 4:11.76.

"That shows you the kind of girls we have," Newton said.

The Boca Ciega girls won the 4x400 in 3:58.56, fifth best in the state this year. That topped their previous best of 4:02.5 at the Pinellas County Athletic Conference meet April8.

Teona Rodgers and Deanna Simpson went 1-2 for Wharton in the 100 hurdles. Newton said he was delighted given that Rodgers was seeded fourth and Simpson 12th. In the boys meet, Wharton got two distance wins from Ryan Courtoy, but Plant's Sam Gibbons gave him all he could handle in the 1,600. Gibbons closed during the final 50 meters, but Courtoy edged him at the finish.

The Wildcats scored 93 points to surpass Plant (63.50) and Brandon (51.50).

East Bay's Stanley Suber starred in the 400, turning in the state's best time and nation's fifth best this season at 47.27. Middleton football star and South Carolina signee O.J. Murdock took the sprinting double, winning the 100 in 10.49 and the 200 in 21.61.

[Last modified April 28, 2005, 01:19:11]