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Track stars proud of second place

With just the "Fab Five" members of the boys team, Freedom High achieves an amazing feat and falls behind Hallandale by only one point.

By TERRY JONES
Published May 14, 2006

Freedom High School changed the rules.

With only five members of its boys track team qualifying for the state meet, the Freedom Patriots placed second in the recent Class 3A state championship meet.

"Since they won the first regional championship ever for Freedom, the other coaches and myself call them the Fab Five," said Freedom head boys track coach (and head football coach) Leon Brockmeir.

The five are seniors Calvin Smith II, Eddie Davis and Mikese Morse, plus junior Charles Griffin and sophomore Keyon Jones.

"These guys are not only superb athletes, but they are all excellent students and just plain all around great kids," Brockmeir said.

Just placing second at the state meet would be an exceptional achievement for any track team in Florida. But with only five athletes, it's even more of an accomplishment.

The eventual champion, Hallandale, had around a dozen athletes on its team to help accumulate points but still struggled to edge out the Patriots.

Even more to their credit, the Freedom team missed winning the team state championship by 0.06 of a second in the final event of the meet. They placed second to Hallandale by only one point.

A second-place finish by Freedom or a second-place finish by Hallandale in the 4x400 relay would have tilted the title to the Patriots. But Freedom placed third in the event and Hallandale edged Miami Washington by 0.06 of a second.

"I know the guys kept going back over the meet, trying to figure out if they could have come up with just one more point, but no one is disappointed in any of them," Brockmeir said.

Calvin Smith II was the only gold medal winner. The speedster won the state championship in the 200 meters (21.43 seconds), bronze in the 400 (47.52 seconds) and was ran a leg in the third-place 4x400 relay (3 minutes, 17 seconds).

His dad, Calvin Smith Sr., was a gold medal sprinter in the 1984 U.S. Olympic team and a bronze medalist in the 1988 Games.

"I kept thinking I could have done better in my 400 race or run faster in the relay," Smith said. "But I'm still proud of our guys."

Davis and Smith are the team captains. Morse is captain for the field events unit.

"Maybe we could have done better somewhere in the meet, but that's behind us now and my teammates did a great job," Davis said. "I will miss everyone on the team, but Charles and Keyon will be back to lead the team and all the young guys next season and I know they will do well."

Davis placed second in the 100 with a time of 10.65, third in the 400 with a 21.30 and was part of the 4x400 relay. He has already signed a football scholarship to play for West Virginia next year, and hopes to walk on to the college's track team in the spring.

Morse is a jumper. He won both the district and regional meets in the long jump and high jump and was second in the triple jump. At the state meet, he was fourth in the long jump and fifth in the triple.

"I can't say enough about our Fab Five," Brockmeir said. "We will all miss Kevin, Eddie and Mikese, but look forward to working with Charles and Keyon again next year."

[Last modified May 14, 2006, 10:48:43]