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Letter to the editor

Track club snags 14 gold medals

By TERRY JONES
Published June 29, 2007

The Seffner Track Club came away from a statewide competition with a second-place team finish and nine gold medal winners.

Carly Patton, 13, paced the Seffner team with three first-place track medals at the Sunshine State Games held June 15-16 in Winter Haven.

Overall, the team captured 14 individual gold medals.

After the track competition, her parents drove her to the judo tournament. She also won that competition, giving her a four gold-medal weekend.

Club head coach, Mike Zelazo got a special concession in the track competition in order for Carly to compete in a second sport.

"Her judo competition was timed too close to two of her final throwing events, so we petitioned officials and they allowed her to throw early, not knowing anything about her competition, " he said. "She didn't know the results until she finished with judo."

On the track and field side, her winning shot put toss was 29 feet, 11 1/2 inches. On Saturday, she threw the discus 73 feet, 8 inches and her winning javelin thrown was 79 feet, 1 inch.

Chris Chatfield, 11, Brittany McGee, 11, and Kate Patton, 16, each won two individual gold medals. Brittany, a fifth-grader at Mintz Elementary School, has been training and competing with the club about three years.

She won the 100-meter dash and long jump, and finished second in the 200-meter race.

"I expected more competition in my age group for such a big meet, " Brittany said. "The 200 meters run was the hardest race, because you have to sprint the whole way and your legs really get tired."

Chris won the 80-meter hurdle race and the high jump.

Kate Patton took the discus competition in her age group with a toss of 109 feet, 4 inches and the javelin throw (99 feet, 11 inches.)

The other gold medalists included Siddiq Canty, Mia McCoy, Tyra Hepburn, Deiondre Porter and Chanelle Canty.

"I was proud of all 19 Seffner Club athletes competing in the meet, " Zelazo said. "Every one of them brought home some points for the team."

[Last modified June 28, 2007, 08:10:03]