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Plant City Girls Shine In Griffin Relays

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By SCOTT PURKS

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 28, 2009

TAMPA - Many of the top athletes were resting for Tuesday's County Championships, or they were in Tallahassee for the FSU Relays, or they were getting their hair ready for Saturday's prom, but, despite all the absentees, the annual Manuel/Griffin/Fraundorfer Relays offered up some bright spots, particularly from Plant City's girls.

The Raiders' girls won with 73 points, 11 ahead of second-place Gaither.

"This is a meet for sprinters and today our sprinters did a great job," Plant City coach John Ackerman said. "I know some other teams didn't have all their runners here today, but, today, our runners all showed up and ran a great meet."

Leading the way was Raider Jasmine Pope, who led Plant City to victories in the sprint medley, the 4X100, the 4X200 and the long jump, in which she placed second as an individual.

"She has been outstanding," Ackerman said. "I couldn't ask for much more."

On the boys' side, Hillsborough won with 59 points, eight ahead of second-place East Bay.

The Terriers won despite the absence of two the state's top track athletes, Lindsey Lamar and Terrence Mitchell, who Terrier coach Joey Sipp said were resting for Tuesday's County Championships.

"That's okay because today we got a chance to run a lot of younger guys," Sipp said. "Some guys really stepped up. Now we know that if we give some of these guys some more work they can take it to the next level."

Gaither girls coach Ladd Baldwin voiced similar optimism for his underclassmen.

"We had four freshman run in the (4X200), three fresman compete in the long jump and two freshman and a sophomore compete in the triple jump," Baldwin said. "And they all did great. This was a great chance to get the younger athletes some work. I think a meet like this helps the whole team."

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