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By KEITH NIEBUHR and JAMAL THALJI
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000
GAINESVILLE -- Chelo Canino's weekend itinerary went something like this:
Defend her state title in the pole vault at Saturday's Class 4A state meet, qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials and make it back home in time for prom.
Canino, a Bloomingdale senior, will have to settle for two out of three.
She did claim the state championship, winning her event with a leap of 11 feet, 6 inches at the University of Florida's Percy Beard Stadium.
And she took off soon afterward to get back to Tampa in time for prom.
"She was happy to get the title but disappointed with her performance," Bloomingdale coach Dave Cunningham said. "It's a hard thing to have prom on the same day as state."
Canino, a senior headed to Princeton, also won the state title in 1999.
After easily clearing 11-6 on Saturday, Canino switched to a new pole and failed to regain her early form.
Canino's 11-6 leap was far from her season best of 12-6. To qualify for the Olympic trials, she will need to leap 13 feet at the Golden South Classic May 27 at Longwood Lyman to achieve her third aim.
Still, Canino was clearly Hillsborough County's top performer, and the pole vault the county's strength, against a difficult field on the last day of the state finals that saw 10 state records fall.
Gaither's Dara Altman was second behind Canino with a vault of 11 feet. Chamberlain's Alison Myers tied for fourth with Plantation's Lisa Scheaffer at 10 feet.
Plant City's Yolanda Whigham earned the silver in the high jump at 5-6. But the defending state champion was disappointed with what she considered a subpar performance, considering the winning leap was also 5-6.
"I should have won, I should have won this thing," she said. "I've jumped 5-8 so many times this year."
Hillsborough junior sprinter Aminah Bilal medaled in two events. She took sixth in the 200 meters with a time of 25.51 seconds, and eighth in the 100 in 12.63.
Hillsborough's Joshua Allen was seventh in the long jump at 21-41/4. Chamberlain's Helen Larry took eighth in the 400 in 1:00.23.
The top performances were turned in by junior Erica Whipple of Palm Beach Lakes and Hilary White of Gainesville Buchholz.
Whipple won titles in the 100, 200 and 4x100, setting a state record in the 200.
White, a senior and University of Florida recruit, won titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 to give her five career state championships.
Miami Central won the boys title with 69.5 points, while Miami Southridge took the girls championship with 87.
Bloomingdale's boys finished 17th, Gaither and Plant City tied for 22nd, Chamberlain was 27th and Hillsborough 32nd.
Bloomingdale, which finished 38th, had the best local girls finish. Chamberlain took 43rd and Hillsborough 49th.
East Lake did not score.