Somerset Academy’s Aleesa Samuel is Broward Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year

Somerset Academy’s Aleesa Samuel is only a sophomore, but she is quickly making her mark on the Florida high school track and field scene.

Winning state titles in three individual events at one state championship will do that.

It also made Samuel the clear-cut choice to be the Miami Herald’s Broward Girls’ Track and Field Player of the Year.

Samuel won all three individual events she competed in at state last month, held at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville.

She won the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.44 seconds, the 200-meter dash in 23.84 and the 100-meter hurdles in 13.67 seconds.

Samuel is just the sixth girls athlete from Broward County to ever win three individual events in a single state meet.

The others: St. Thomas Aquinas’ Sanya Richards in 2000 (100 dash, 200 dash, long jump) and in 2002 (100, 200 and 400 dashes), Coral Springs Christian’s Caitlin Browne in 2007 (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, high jump), St. Thomas Aquinas’ Danialle Leach in 1992 (100 dash, 200 dash, long jump), Westminster Academy’s Jennifer Garvin in 1988 (220-yard dash, 440-yard dash, high jump) and Northeast’s Cheryl Wilson in 1984 (110 hurdles, 330 hurdles, long jump)

Those three state titles accounted for 30 of Somerset’s 42 team points that put them in fourth place as a team in Class 3A behind local powerhouses Miami Northwestern (80 points) and Dillard (75.5 points) as well as Rockledge (51 points).

It also brings Samuel’s career individual state titles to four through her first two seasons. In 2022, when Somerset competed in Class 2A, Samuel won the 100-meter hurdles while also finishing in third place in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

And she’s just getting started. Samuel has two more years to continue to add to her legacy.

Richards holds the Broward County record for most career individual titles with 10.

Could Samuel match that?

It’s not out of the realm of possibility.