Track and field | Lakewood Ranch sweeps Manatee County championships with win in final event
Track and field | Lakewood Ranch sweeps Manatee County championships with win in final event
BRADENTON -- Michael Petruzzi leaned on the fence separating the track and Moore Athletic Complex at Turner Fields from the bleachers as night fell Tuesday on the Manatee County Varsity Championships at Saint Stephen's Episcopal School.
He was exhausted.
After three individual wins, Lakewood Ranch needed him for the meet's final relay to edge Manatee High.
"I hope they have a stretcher for me," he joked between deep breaths while leaning on the fence after the Mustangs' championship-sealing win.
The Ranch boys trailed by two points entering the 1600-meter relay. After Petruzzi's run, Lakewood Ranch led by four.
The Mustangs had rallied for a 198-194 win against the Hurricanes to sweep the county championships in Bradenton.
"It ended up being a lot closer than we thought it would be," Petruzzi said. "We just went in knowing we just had to try our best like normal. I just turned to my 4x4 team -- we've been doing this since the beginning of the year -- and they picked me up, got me going, got my second wind in me and we went."
Petruzzi, who also won the 300 hurdles, high jump and triple jump, was one of two athletes to win four events and one of two for Ranch to win at least three.
Canes senior Kavious Price won the 100 and 200 dash, long jump and anchored the Hurricanes' defending-state-champion 400 relay team, which ran a 41.79.
Kristina Akervold won in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and long jump to lead to lead Lakewood Ranch's girls to a blowout win with 212 points.
The Canes also finished second on the girls side with 101 points. Braden River finished third, Palmetto checked in with a fourth-place finish, IMG Academy came in fifth, Southeast finished sixth, Bayshore finished seventh and Saint Stephen's rounded out the field in eighth.
The Tigers finished third on the boys side, followed by the Falcons, Pirates, Seminoles, Bruins and IMG.
"The girls are always doing well," Mustangs head coach Mark Napier said. "With the wind, you don't always get the times and stuff like that. It was windy, so that took off some time, but still just the competition, you know it's in there."
Ranch also led the way with 16 individual county champions. Lakewood Ranch won relays in the girls 3200, boys 3200 and boys 1600. Cree Lotterer won the girls pole vault, Ben Lacina won the boys pole vault, Sam Jackson won the boys discus, Andrew Dean won the boys 400 dash, Shay Lee won the girls 800 run, and Sophia Falcon won the girls 100 and 200.
Manatee was the only other team with more than two individual champions. Jacque Armer won the girls shot put for the Hurricanes, Seth Walter won the boys shot put, Reggie Carter won the 100 hurdles, Colin Rottes won the boys 800, Marcel Sanchez won the boys 3200 run, and Raquel Lespasio won the girls 1600 run and 3200.
"As a team we had some very good individual performances. We had some champions," Canes head coach Mike Smith said. "Just not quite there yet, but we continue to work on it and we'll continue to work on it."
BRHS and the Ascenders each won a pair of individual championships on the girls side. Braden River bookended the meet with a pair of championships. Emma King opened the day with a win in the high jump and the Pirates finished with a win in the 1600 relay. IMG won girls 400 relay and Sarah Nicol added a win in the 400.
PHS' Elizabeth Atkinson and SSES' Kaitlyn Siegel won the remaining two individual titles. Atkinson took first in the long jump and Siegel claimed a title in the triple jump.
This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline " Track and field | Lakewood Ranch sweeps Manatee County championships with win in final event ."