Chaminade’s Sutton, Dillard’s Gill, Aquinas’ Armenteros are Broward Track Coaches of Year

No team from Broward County took home a team track and field title at state this year, but four teams from the county — both the boys and girls from Chaminade-Madonna in Class 1A, the St. Thomas Aquinas boys in 4A and the Dillard girls in 3A — all posted runner-up finishes in their respective meets.

As a result, their coaches — Damian Sutton for Chaminade, Alex Armenteros at St. Thomas Aquinas and Davidson Gill at Dillard — are splitting the Miami Herald’s Broward Track and Field Coach of the Year awards.

Sutton and Armenteros are the Co-Boys’ Track and Field Coaches of the Year, while Sutton and Gill share the Girls’ Track and Field Coach of the Year honors.

Sutton guided Chaminade-Madonna to runner-up finishes in Class 1A on the boys and girls sides for a second consecutive season. The girls finished with 49 points, just one point shy of state champion Maclay, while the boys put up 77 points to finish behind Palm Beach Gardens Benjamin School (91.5 points)

Combined, the Lions racked up state titles in eight events.

On the boys’ side, Jeremiah Smith won the 110-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles; D’Angelo Ponds was also a double winner in the 100- and 200-meter dashes; Kwame Smith won the 400-meter dash (and finished runner-up in the 200 and fourth in the 100) and Chaminade capped the meet winning the 1,600-meter relay.

For the girls, Tyra Cox won the 400-meter dash and the Lions also won the 1,600 meter relay.

Gill’s girls team at Dillard came so close to dethroning perennial powerhouse Northwestern, posting 75.5 points to the Bulls’ 80. The Panthers had three individual state championships (the 3,200 relay, the 1,600 relay and Raquel Edwards in the 1,600 meter run), three runner-up finishes (Jade Shakir in the shot put, Alexia Reid in the 400 hurdles, Edwards in the 800) and two third-place finishes (Reid in the 100 hurdles, Shynah Collins in the 800)

Armenteros’ boys team at St. Thomas Aquinas tallied 48 points, finishing behind only Niceville in the Class 4A meet. The Raiders had one individual state champion in Jason Olivera Jr. (pole vault) along with three runner-up finishes (the 3200 relay, British Wilkerson in the 400-meter dash and Anthony Herrera in the 800-meter run) and two third-place finishes (the 1,600-meter relay and Tavius Horne in the 200-meter dash).