Track and field | Lakewood Ranch's Sophia Falco, Manatee's Kavious Price win multiple region championships to help bring home team trophies

KISSIMMEE -- Sophia Falco won a pair of individual Class 4A-Region 2 championships in the field Saturday in Kissimmee, and added two second-place finishes on the track to help Lakewood Ranch win a team championship with 118 points. Falco started the day with a region championship in the long jump and added another title in the triple jump before finishing second in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

The girls long jump was the Mustangs' best event at Osceola High School. Ranch swept the top three spots with Kristine Akervold finishing second and Olivia Ogles, who won a region championship in pole vault, coming in third. Akervold added another second-place finish in the 100 hurdles and a fourth-place finish in the 200.

In total, Lakewood Ranch won five region championships and qualified 19 for the Class 4A meet, which begins Friday in Bradenton. The top four finishers in each event qualify for the state championship, which will be held across two days at IMG Academy.

Sam Jackson won the Mustangs' other field region championship in discus and John Rivera gave Ranch another on the track in the 800 run. Reide Ryans was Lakewood Ranch's only other athlete to qualify for the 4A championship in multiple individual events with a second-place finish in the high jump and a third-place finish in the 100 hurdles. Cree Lotterer finished second in the pole vault, Shay Lee finished third in the 800 and Michael Petruzzi finished fourth in the long jump. The Mustang girls' 1600 relay finished third, and the Ranch

boys' 3200 and 1600 relays both finished fourth to reach IMG Academy Stadium.

Manatee won three region championships, led by Kavious Price's first-place finish in the 100 and 200 dash, and his position as the anchor of the Hurricanes' region-champion 400 relay. Lorenz Allen, who also competes on the relay, finished second in the 100 and third in the 200.

Jacque Armer won the Canes' other region title in shot put. Seth Walter gave Manatee seven qualifiers with a second-place finish in shot put.

The Hurricanes are also bringing one team trophy back to Bradenton after finishing runner-up to Osceola with 65 points. The Kowboys led the way with 92 and Lakewood Ranch finished sixth with 43.

The Mustang girls nearly doubled up their nearest competition. Tampa Wharton finished second with 68 points. The Canes finished 15th with 15.

This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 11:46 PM with the headline "Track and field | Lakewood Ranch's Sophia Falco, Manatee's Kavious Price win multiple region championships to help bring home team trophies ."