Pinellas Park Patriots Poised for Regionals

Compared to districts, the regional track meets are a whole new world. 

Last year, The Pinellas Park Patriot's girls track team scored 13 points, coming in 19th out of 28 schools. They'll move up the ladder this year.

Senior Christina Quay has a very good chance to get to in the state finals in both the 100 meter and 300 meter hurdles. She won the girls 100 meter hurdles at districts with a time of 16.05 seconds. That time would have snagged her third place at last year's regionals, grabbed six points for the team and sent her to the state finals.

But Quay finished in eighth place at last year's regionals in 17.35 seconds. This year she's improved and could claim regional champion at the 100 meter.

In 300 meter hurdles, Quay was second at districts with a time of 50.70 seconds. Every runner in the final 300 meter hurdles from last year's regionals was under 50 seconds. 

Freshman Deterrica  Simpkins, shocked District 5 last Wednesday, when she took the district crown in the 200 meter with a time of 25.70 seconds. Unless, she completely fumbles this meet, she stands a very good chance at making the state finals. If she ran that time at last year's regionals, she would have grabbed 4th place, 5 points for her team and a ticket to the state finals.

Junior Nikori Bailey would have posed a threat in the 400 meter. Her preliminary time, just under 1:03 minutes at districts was best in the field, but  in the finals she ran almost 4 seconds slower and missed qualifying.

Bailey and teammate Simpkins will be running in the district champion 4x100m relay team. The 4x100m team ran a 51.03 second time. That would have kept them out of last year's regional finals by 0.13 seconds. So they have a good shot at scoring points and a fair shot at making the state finals.

The girls district runner-up 4x400m relay team will be on the outside looking in. Last year's team came in 8th at regionals and they were faster than this year's team, which is three quarters intact.

Junior Jenna Sperna won shot and disc at districts and stands a very good chance to make it to the state finals. Her shot throw of 37 feet 6 inches was almost three feet further than the second place finisher. Sperna threw 35 feet 7 inches at last year's regionals and qualified for the state finals. Her disc throw of 105 feet 10 inches at districts was over 6 feet further than second place, but she needs to throw over 110 feet if she wants to get into the state finals in disc.

Sophomore Jasmine Laska will be competing in disc, but her throws need a drastic improvement if she wants to make states. She stands a good chance of scoring some points for her team though.

Senior Andrea Ezell took first place at districts in high jump at 4 feet 10 inches. She will at least need to get 5 feet to score any points for The Patriots. Ezell also made regionals in shot, but she is far from a state final throw.

Junior Abby Vivlamore and Sophomroe Brittany Galan both made regionals in pole vault. Abby got 10 feet and Brittany 9 feet 6 inches. They will both need to jump 10 feet in order to score any points. If they can make at least a 10 feet 6 inches jump it's almost a sure bet they'll make it to the state finals.

On the boys side:

The Patriot's boys track team only scored 4 points at last year's regionals, coming in 23rd out of 26 teams. It's expected that they make a marked improvement this year.

It starts with Jeremi Powell. Powell will be competing in: 110 meter hurdles, high jump, long jump and triple jump.

Powell's 110 meter hurdles time of 15.31 seconds at districts, would have nabbed third place at regionals last year, qualifying him for states and surpassing last year's point total for the boys team. His high jump height of 6 feet 4 inches at districts would have tied him for second place at last year's regionals.

With last year's regional champion, Mario Hooks graduated and Gigi Petion out on an injury, Powell stands a good chance at nabbing the regional championship in high jump.

His long and triple jumps of 20 feet 9 inches and 42 feet 6 inches respectively, won't be enough. He needs to make significant improvements.

Senior pole-vaulter, Edward Galan, cleared 14 feet 6 inches in his second-place bid at districts. The bar keeps getting higher in boys pole vault this year. , 14'6" A good enough bet to make it to state finals is a pole vault at 14 feet 6 inches.  

Don't miss one moment of the action from the 4A Region 2 tournament at Leto High School this Wednesday at 1 p.m.

Stay tuned to Largo Patch for updates on this exciting regional competition.