In the girls triple jump, Makenzie Holmes finished second to qualify for regionals as the only member of Plant City’s team to qualify in a jumping event.
In girls track, Erica Holloman was the district runner-up in both the girls 100 meter finals and 200 meter finals and Kiana Kropp finished third in the 800 meters. The team of Makenzie Holmes, Jalayah Shaw, Makayla Holmes and Holloman won a district championship in the 4 x 100 relay while the team of Destiny Headley, Heaven Davis, Briann Hawthorne and Kropp won a district championship in the 4 x 800 meter and qualified for regionals with an fourth place finish in the 4 x 400 meters.
In boys track, the Raiders qualified for regionals in each relay event. In the 4 x 100, Plant City won the district championship behind a team of four Plant City football players in Ian Jolly, Jae Sawyer, Reggie Bush and Romello Jones. In the 4x 400, the team of Adam Fix, Avery Coons, Sawyer and Jones finished third and in the 4 x 800, the team of Coons, Jaxon Byers, Kooper Yacinich and Fix finished fourth.
Plant City then nearly swept the qualifying field in the boys 100 meters as Bush won the district championship, followed by Jones and Sawyer in third and fourth place. Sawyer won the district championship in the 200 meter while Bush qualified with a third place finish.
“We got two guys out in the 200 and got Holloman out in the 100 and 200, then district champs with three guys out in the 100, that was a really nice surprise actually,” coach Drew Martucci said. “Reggie Bush was probably the MVP of the meet as far as I’m concerned, he had a heck of a day. Then Jae Sawyer, he’s out in four events so he’s quadrupling at regionals so that’s big time for him, I’m really excited for him. There were some big time performances, we’re coming down to a crucial part of the season and showing up. We tend to really come on strong at the right time and hopefully this year’s no different, but we’ll see.”
As a team, Plant City’s boys finished with the second-highest cumulative point total at the district meet behind George Jenkins and their girls finished with the third-highest behind George Jenkins and Celebration.
“I was very pleased with what we did on the track after the jumps but the throwing really kind of helped balance out the negatives,” Martucci said. “Overall the team, specifically the jumpers, came back and lit up the track. I feel like they obviously were frustrated with those performances and not getting out so they showed up and did what the expectation was for them.”