Amanda and Emily Gale, the super twins from Cypress Bay in Ft. Lauderdale, both set personal bests in the opening week of outdoor track and field in Florida to complement a whole slew of PRs by the entire club. On Wednesday evening, Amanda eclipsed her personal best with a vault of 9’6″ and her sister, Emily, raised her personal best to 10′. These heights are directly attributed to the amount of time the girls have spent training in the winter and off season since both girls had personal bests of 8’6″ at the end of the 2010 outdoor season. In the same meet, Rudy Magasrevy, also from Cypress Bay, set a newpersonal best of 12’6″. Looks like a good year ahead for Cypress Bay High School.
Moving into the northern part of the state, Deland High School had an awesome opening season meet as well. 3 vaulters on the Deland team set personal bests on Tuesday at their home meet. Taylor Gunderson set a new PR at 12’6″, Carolyn Coffey set a new PR at 9’6″, and Taryn Cornejo set a new PR at 8’6″. Deland High School will undoubtedly be in one of the toughest regions in the state this year for class 4A so keep up the great work. In Polk County, Josh McDaniel from Lakeland High School, aka J-Mac, set a new PR of 13’6″ at Sebring High School on Thursday as Josh begins his drive to win the 3A state championship as a junior. Sounds kind of like a junior, PVC owner Bobby Haeck, back in 1986 at Leesburg High School who managed the same feat. I just wanted to be mentioned in the same article with J-Mac.
Brevard County went crazy with personal bests as Shelton McLean, Amy Bauer, Kristen Petry, Johnny Batch, Andrew Bocci, Blake Bocci, Jessica Stavrokas, Samantha Olsen, Anna Haeck, and Becca Bower all set personal bests at the same meet held at Merritt Island on Tuesday. Shelton McLean, a junior at Merritt Island High School, bumped his PR up by a foot to 12′. Amy Bauer and Kristen Petry, both juniors from Cocoa Beach High School set PR’s of 10′ and 9’6″ respectively. Johnny Batch and Andrew Bocci, both freshmen at MIHS vaulted 10’6″ and 9’6″ as they attempt to break their freshman record of 11′ held by state record holder Mike Vani. Anna Haeck, daughter of yours truly, boosted her PR up to 8′ with an acrobatic backwards clearance, which is neither endorsed nor recommended by this coaching staff. Jessica and Sam both cleared 8′ and probably would have vaulted much higher if their coach, me, hadn’t made them stop after only 8′ so we could complete the meet. Becca, also a freshman, began her season with a 7′ PR. Blake, older brother of Andrew, set his PR at 9′. It looks like a great year for those two schools and Brevard County as well.
Cristina Valdes, the acrobatic, weight lifter from Hagerty High School in Oveido, increased her PR on Friday night at Lake Highland Prep by 8″ to 10′. Both Cristina, Emily, and Amanda will all be vying for the 4A state title this year. This year has truly begun with a bang and the coaching staff is extremely proud of the achievements of these vaulters as well as those whom did not make the article. Those PRs will keep coming, just keep your eyes on the prize!
