Ran an easy 1.5 with the doggie and then another easy 4 on my own. Three days off was too many, but the State Meet in Jax was awesome and the weekend was spent basking in the glow. Our girls went in as slight favorites for the title and they proceeded to totally dominate with 4 gold medals, a silver, three bronzes and a couple other top 6 finishes. Our squad of ten girls accumulated 76 points to win by 23 - an impressive effort, Travis started the day as anchor of the 4x800 at about 1:45 in the afternoon. The guys had an outside shot at top 3 in the relay, but for the first time in coach's 20 years, the baton was dropped in a 4x8! Our second to third leg transition did not occur successfully, and we went from 4th to 8th in an instant. The freshman third leg rallied quickly, but blew up in the last 100 to hand off to Travis in 6th, 40 meters out of 5th and 60 meters out of 4th. Trav reeled in one and was closing fast on 4th, but the team got 5th. His 1600 early in the evening session went much much better. As expected, it was a very strategic race with all the guys ending up a few seconds off their PRs. Trav was never far out of the lead running 66, 72, 69, 61. With the 72/69 in the middle, we knew it was setting up perfectly for Trav's kick - indeed he went 61 and came off the final turn in 4th right in line with the top 3, but a couple team mates from Holy Trinity in Melbourne battled each other down the line to finish a couple seconds ahead. Trav went 4:28.39 for the bronze medal and hasn't stopped smiling since. Well, he didn't smile during the last 200 meters of the 800 he had to run 40 minutes after the 1600... he stayed in the mix through 600 but then was totally done and went 2:10. The meet was at UNF, and his coach for next year complimented him on his 1600 - made him feel purty good. |