WHAT ─ A ─ WEEKEND!!!! With so much going on it was almost easy to miss something because, well, everything was top-notch and full of nothing but all-out speed! Personal-best, season-best, records broken; some may argue that it’s too much to put into one article.

We’re going to challenge that, and we’re going to give you the FULL recap of how our Florida athletes competed not at one, not two, not even three, but FOUR high-caliber track meets. Let’s start with the Brooks PR Invitational.

Brooks PR Invitational

We had a total of four athletes ─ Chauncy Smart (100-meters), Brandon Cachon (400-meters), Jan'Taijah Ford (400-meters), and Janaya Chambers (400-meters) who received Golden Tickets and competed in Seattle, WA.

Running at Renton Memorial Stadium, which has held the meet there since its move from indoors to outdoors in 2014, our athletes went head-to-head with some of the best in the nation and came out on top.

Chauncy Smart ran in a very stacked 100-meter dash, with places two through five all being separated by a mere half second. Smart, running a very "smart" race finished third in the field, running 10.62. A great way to end a spectacular season. And the best part? He’ll be back next year.

Recent Barron Collier graduate, Brandon Cachon, went toe-to-toe with some of the best 400 runners, including Keshun Reed from Texas (PB 45.75). Cachon came off of the final turn burning all cylinders, crossing the line with a third-place finish in 47.83.  What an amazing way to end such a fantastic high school track and field career.

Brandon Cachon after his third-place finish at the 2016 Brooks PR Invitational

Jan'Taijah Ford and Janaya Chambers took to the 400 as well, and they sure did run. Ford, a FRESHMAN mind you, took second place in a very strong field, running 53.83, INSANE! Chambers competed well and had a strong finish coming home, taking seventh in 56.66. Maybe not quite where she aspired to finish, but what a way to finish a spectacular high school career at such a prestigious meet. As for Ford, well, we’ll be seeing her around.

Jan'Taijah Ford on the podium after her second-place finish at the 2016 Brooks PR Invitational

Adidas Boost Boston Games

A total of three Florida athletes competed at the Adidas Boost Boston Games, now in place of the New York City Diamond League Adidas Grand Prix, which usually hosted the Dream Mile and Dream 100 until the meet was discontinued after last year’s event.

To start, Bolles sophomore Caitlin Collier, who has had one of the most incredible track seasons that we’ve ever seen, established herself as Florida’s fastest female miler ever after she finished fifth in the Dream 1500, running an outstanding 4:19.05 (US #6), which is 4:38.09 for 1600 and 4:39.7 for a full mile!

Racing among fast names like Nevada Mareno, Katie Rainsberger and Kate Murphy, Collier ran 4:19.05, a new U.S. #6, being the only sophomore in the field. I’m sure we’ll more Dream Miles from her in the years to come.

Collier's splits per lap via her coach, Dan Dearing, were 68.9 seconds, 69.6 seconds, 69.4 seconds, and her final 300 meters ─ 50.6 seconds.

Wow.

This Dream 100m and Mile weren’t like years previous, the mile was contested in totally different location than the 100m. And to top out the changes, the 100m was ran in the middle of the street in Boston, as the track was built over night.

In the Dream 100, we had some, well we had some...we’ll just tell you what happened.

In the Dream 100, Florida had 3 girls in the race, that’s tied for the most girls to represent the state at one time.  Amaru Patterson, Katia Seymour, and Tamari Davis went 1-2-3 in the 100-meter dash, not leaving any room for any other state to get in. In other words, they showed up, showed out, and were truly #FloridaFast.

Going into the race, Seymour was the favorite with her 11.26 time earlier this year. But, Patterson coming off her Golden South win showed she was a force to be reckoned with, as she came away with the historical win. Patterson ran 11.59 which is slightly off her personal best of 11.53. Seymour ran 11.66 to place 2nd, afterwards saying she was coming off of injury at Golden South, I know she’s not too upset with the performance. The 3rd place finisher, to round out the Florida sweep, is the youngest person to run the Dream 100 and the fastest 7th grader in the nation, Tamari Davis.
Davis ran 11.77 to tie her personal best, while still not even touching high school yet.

ALL of these girls will be back next year, with Patterson and Seymour becoming seniors, and little Davis will be a freshman. But don’t worry, she’s not afraid to run with the big girls. Who knows, maybe these three girls will have a 1-2-3 repeat next year and maybe switch up the order. Only the clock can tell.

Our lone male up at the adidas Boost Boston Games, Anthony Schwartz handled himself well. We spoke with Schwartz before he left for the big trip, and he mentioned that he was still in the mix of getting back healthy. Even though he was working through those pains, he goals were to still be in the 10.2 – 10.4 range.

Schwartz made it known that he had some travel delays on the way to Boston Commons, that could have attributed to things not going the way he planned. He ran 10.66, to come up towards the end for 2nd place, but obviously it wasn’t what he was shooting for. Some time after the race, he went to Twitter, stating his aspirations for next season, saying “10.1-10.0 next year, wait on it.”

Anthony Schwartz crossing the line of the Dream 100 at the 2016 Boost Boston Games. (PC: Michael Scott)

New Balance Nationals

Just giving you a fair warning, after three days, it’s a lot. Here we go…

In the finals of the Girls Championship 100m, two Florida girls made the finals and became 2016 All-Americans. Twanisha Terry gets a close 2nd place with a time of 11.41, and a new U.S. #5. The next Florida girl was Sophia Falco with a 5th place finish, a time of 11.59 and a U.S. #16.

The Girls Championship 200m saw two girls becoming All-Americans. In 5th place was Symone Mason, running 23.58, that time bumps her from U.S. #32 to U.S. #14.  In 4th place was Ka' Tia Seymour, who had an eventful weekend by flying from the Dream 100 to then compete at New Balance Nationals. Seymour ran 23.51, to secure her spot as an All-American.

The Boys Championship 400m, was one of the highlights of the whole track meet and it featured several Florida guys doing what they do best. Taking 1st and 2nd were Tyrese Cooper and Jamal Walton, respectively. Walton tied his season best that he ran earlier this year, and his 46.23 puts him in great shape to continue to get better and possibly be on the Cayman Islands Olympic Team.

Cooper was the male sprint start of New Balance Nationals, and the 400m was just a single part of his success.  Being only a freshman, he broke the 400m Freshman record by running 45.69 and won the Emerging Elite 200m in record setting 20.90.

Just missing All-American status was Kyle Fearrington (47.96) placing 10th overall out of the earlier sections.

Moving on to the Girls Championship 400m, our girls just missed out on being All-Americans. The top Florida placer was Karimah Davis placing 7th with a time of 54.00. Following behind Davis was Janae Caldwell running 54.20. Caldwell will be a great asset to her new team, the Tennessee Volunteers in the fall. Kayla Johnson would have placed 12th overall, but due to an apparent line infraction she got disqualified. Even though Johnson was disqualified, she still ran 54.82.

In the Boys Championship 110mh had one guy representing Florida, Braxton Canady. Canady got 5th place in the final to become and All-American, with a time of 13.96.

Following the boy’s hurdles, was the girls 100mh and Timetria Mitchell was the only Florida girl in the final. Mitchell ran a 13.76, just off her season best and U.S. #14 of 13.52. Continuing with the hurdles, in the boys 400mh, McKinly Brown just missed the 6th place All-American spot by 6 thousandths of a second. Brown ran a  new personal best of 52.80 to give him a 7th place finish. In the Girls 400mh De’Andreah Young, placed 3rd running 58.84, giving her the new U.S. #4.

In the distance events, Hannah Brookover shined for the Florida girls, placing 17th and running a 5:00.26 mile.

In the Girls 5K, Amanda Beach (17:48.29) placing 22nd.  Noah Perkins (15:22.68) placed 25th in the Boys 5K.

In the relays the girls shined! For the 800m Sprint Medley, South Dade Express came out with the win, running 1:41.85 and a new U.S. #1. Those same girls got 2nd in the 1000m Sprint Medley with Symone Mason, splitting 52.86 to bring them to a time of 2:08.86. In the 4x400m Relay, Miami Northwestern took 2nd place running 3:40.56, the new U.S. #4. The Northwestern girls took a hit, as they got disqualified in the 4x200m Relay reasons not seen on video.

Sophia Falco had a great outing in the Triple Jump.  Currently FL #3, at 40' 5", Sophia matched her season best winning the Emerging Elite division also leaping 40' 5" to match her season best. Surprisingly enough, her leap would also have won the Championship Division.

Nazah Reddic won the Girls Emerging Elite High Jump tieing her season best jumpin 5' 7.75".

Raines TC's boys 4x200 relay held off four other heats! They are your 2016 Emerging Elite CHAMPIONS! 1:29.49 (+1.7)

Latasha Smith from Fast Lane TC won heat five in the Girls Freshman 400 and finished seventh overall, running 57.34. (+1.3).

Kaitlyn Kirby and Gillian Morrison took eighth and tenth place in the girls Heptathlon Championships with 829 points and 753 points respectively.

Ulani Toussaint finished fourth overall in the Girls 400m Emerging Elite, running 56.27.

Juan Moscoso walked 6:51.31 in the boys 1 mile race walk, grabbing second! Great performance!

South Dade Express TC's Jazmyn Smith finished eighth in the girls 100m Emerging Elite in 12.36.

Raines TC boys finished with the top time of 42.30 in the prelims of the Emerging Elite 4x100 relay, then won the Emerging Elite title in 42.26!!!

Timetria Mitchell finished seventh in the 100-meter hurdles, running 13.76 (+0.7).

John Lyons ran 1:56.23, and finished 23rd in the 800.

Jamaica National Trials

Damion Thomas wins the Jamaica 110m hurdles prelims (winning time in the heats was 14.00 seconds in a (-4.6 m/s) negative headwind.) before going on to win the Jamaica 110m hurdles junior title - 13.50 secs (-3.2 m/s)!! Thomas will now compete in the IAAF World Junior Championships for Jamaica being held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, 19 Jul 2016 - 24 Jul 2016 . What a great accomplishment by such a great young man.