Posted on Sun, May. 04, 2008

The Southridge boys' track and field team can finally take its place among its school's rich sports tradition.

Seniors Brandon O'Connor, Olarenwajuk Adeyemi and Brian Knight each won two individual titles as the Spartans cruised to their first boys' state track championship Saturday at Showalter Field at Winter Park High School.

''Ola and me said all season we were going to finish by winning our two best events,'' O'Connor said. ``Having Brian win two for himself made [the victory] even better.''

Southridge dominated the meet, as it did all season, finishing with 75 points to win by 29 points.

Carol City finished second for the first time since 1997. Senior Robert Sands, who is headed to West Virginia on a football scholarship, won a state championship in the long jump (24-2).

Northwestern finished fourth, and its state-best 1,600-meter relay team of senior Tommy Streeter, sophomores Corvin Lamb and Michaelee Harris, and freshman Hugh Graham Jr. won a state title in 3:14.98.

Southridge made history, however. The boys teamed with Southridge's girls, who also won a team title, for the first team sweep of a state championship by a Miami-Dade school.

The victory gave Southridge its first boys' state championship in any sport since the wrestling team won in 2000.

The wrestling team has won seven all-time, the football team has won two, and the baseball team (which is in the regional finals this season) has advanced to the state finals six times.

LONG TIME COMING

'I'm looking around at all these guys' faces, and the memories are coming back from when they were freshmen,'' said Southridge coach Rodney Wright, a former Spartans runner, who has coached the team to an undefeated dual meet record the past four years. ``I've watched them put in the time, and this is the payoff.''

O'Connor entered last year's state championships with hopes of winning up to four events, but came up short in the 200, 400, triple jump and long jump. This time, having already run the nation's fastest times in the 200 and 400, he finally felt what it was like to be a state champion.

A Florida State University signee, O'Connor ran 20.82 to win the 200 meters, which as of Saturday is the fastest nonwind-aided time in the country for a high schooler, according to Dyestat.com. O'Connor had earlier run the fastest overall time (20.63).

O'Connor secured the 400 by running a time of 47.12 seconds. His national-best time this season was 46.50.

''I wish I could have done this last year, but this was a perfect ending to my career,'' he said. ``My coach was always my biggest motivator. I just thank him for all he's taught me.''

Knight edged O'Connor to win the triple jump and kick off the Spartans' big day with a bang. O'Connor came in with the state's top distance in Class 4A and jumped 47-4 ½. But Knight edged him by a quarter of an inch at 47-4 ¾. He also won the high jump (7-0).

''I just went in hoping to score some key points for us,'' Knight said. ``It's great that all three of us had the same finish.''

REDEMPTION

Adeyemi, a University of Kentucky football signee, had waited a year to redeem himself in the 300-meter hurdles. Last season, he finished second in 37.01 -- a 100th of a second slower than Northwestern's Malcolm Anderson.

Adeyemi ran the exact same time in the 300 hurdles Saturday, and this time he finished a winner.

''When he ran that, I told him that was classic,'' Wright said. ``All the little things went exactly the way we needed them to go.''

A few events earlier, Adeyemi had won the 110 hurdles in 14.21 seconds. He ran the fastest time in the state this season -- 13.90.

''Everything off the track felt right from the moment we got up here,'' O'Connor said. ``I ate well, slept well and everything just felt good. It was a great day.''