Track and field | Despite rain, Lakewood Ranch gets tune-up at IMG Academy Invitational

BRADENTON -- Lakewood Ranch packed up its tent and headed to its team bus outside IMG Academy Stadium with nearly two hours of competition left in Bradenton.

Two delays totalling 3 1/2 hours due to rain and thunderstorms had pushed the IMG Academy Invitational into the evening and left the track wet and grounds soaked.

So, even though the Mustangs held the lead in the team standings, the perennial state meet contenders called it a day.

"Truthfully, I don't worry about the preseason stuff," Lakewood Ranch coach Mark Napier said. "We're there to work on the steps forward to make each one better, so there are certain things we work on and I'm not worried about distances, times, necessarily. We're working on the process."

The Ranch girls still finished third with 65 points, 20 points behind first-place Tallahassee Chiles. The IMG Academy girls finished fifth with 40 points, and Manatee, which brought a small roster, finished 17th with six.

The Mustangs were also the top local finisher on the boys side, coming in eighth with 21 points. IMG finished ninth with 17. Chiles again won with 114.

Ranch boasted four individual winners on the girls side, led by Sophia Falco in the 100-meter dash. Falco finished fourth in Class 3A last year as a sophomore with a

time of 11.78 at the state meet in Jacksonville. The junior breezed to a win Saturday in 11.97 seconds.

"She needs to improve on her start. She knows that," Napier said. "But 11.97 for this early is heading in the right direction."

Junior Kristine Akervold won for Lakewood Ranch in the 100 hurdles, junior Maddison Krstec won in the 1600 emerging athletes run and senior Olivia Ogles took the top spot in the long jump.

Napier was also excited by the progress Akervold made in the long jump, even though she fouled on all three attempts. Napier spent a large portion of the afternoon Friday working one on one with Akervold as she took her long jumps. Napier was encouraged to see her technique come along.

"I think she is special," Napier said. "She's already jumped right at 19 feet, but she's a big jumper."

The Ascenders, who will host the state championships in May, finished with two individual winners at their event. Selena Alcazar Arjona won the 200 dash and Simon Urdup won the long jump.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Track and field | Despite rain, Lakewood Ranch gets tune-up at IMG Academy Invitational ."