BRANFORD — The season was set to begin in a few days, so Branford coach Tim Clark approached Alex Whitfield in the halls at BHS to make his pitch.
After Whitfield, also a standout softball player, helped the Buccaneers’ 4x400 relay team set a new school record in qualifying for state two years ago, she chose not to run last year.
Not wanting to be too pushy, Clark waited until late January to approach the Branford senior and lay out the reasons why she should give it a go again for her final year.
He didn’t even get a chance.
“She just stopped me and said, ‘No, I’m running. I’m running,’” Clark recalled. “I had a little momentary celebration.”
If Clark knew what was coming, he probably would have had a big party.
Back running for her senior season, Whitfield set five school records — she still holds four after the 4x800 relay team later broke its own record without Whitfield running — and earned a state medal in the 400 to cap her career. She also became the Lake City Reporter’s Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
“Whit is extremely talented,” Clark said. “I’ve had a lot of talented ones but she is one of those rare combos where she’s really talented but she’s also very, very driven and self-motivated.”
That drive helped her get to places where even she, and Clark, didn’t know she could go.
Whitfield, who signed to play softball at West Florida, admitted she decided to run her senior season, in part, because she wanted to break marks she had set two years before, including that 4x400 mark. That was a number Clark, too, said was on his mind when she informed him she would be returning since both Anna Moore and Leiah Thompson from that same unit would also be back.
Still, with a year off from competing in track, Whitfield was worried how quickly that would come.
“I thought I would be back at square one,” she said, even though she had continued to train even without competing last year. “I didn’t think I’d be up there.”
Clark noted Whitfield is one who pulls parachutes in the yard, doing speed work on her own.
“I knew she wasn’t just a slug for a year,” he said, adding he still didn’t know where the cardiovascular endurance needed for the 400 would be to start.
There was no starting over. Far from it.
At Branford’s first meet, Whitfield finished the 400 just a second off her previous best.
Her times mostly just went down from there.
That first meet is when Whitfield started to get an idea of what was to come.
Clark, too.
“The 400 is just a different beast and she had the lung capacity and the endurance in her legs to hit those target times pretty early in the season, so I knew it was going to be special by the time we were done,” he said.
Special indeed.
In addition to the 4x800 record that she helped set before it was broken again, Whitfield also kept setting and resetting school marks in the 400, 200, 4x100 and 4x400. The 200 mark was set at a home meet on April 3 in 26.12 seconds. A week later, the 4x100 relay team set the new record of 51.29 seconds at Santa Fe.
Her last two marks – the 400 and the 4x400 – both came at the Region 2-1A meet, finishing the 400 in 58.14 and then helping the relay team to a time of 4:11.78.
“She had a phenomenal year and was honestly running her best when it ended,” Clark said.
Those last two records came a week after she won four district titles, three individuals to go along with the 4x400 relay team.
That race was the one that will stick with Whitfield.
There, in a race that is a focus and favorite of the Branford track program, the Bucs trailed host Oak Hall throughout.
“The last 50 meters, I ended up beating them,” said Whitfield, who was the Branford anchor.
Clark’s favorite moment also came at district but in the 100-meter dash.
It was a race that Whitfield hadn’t raced in the entire year.
But as Branford was looking for ways to score points and give itself the best chance to make a run at Oak Hall for the district team title, Clark and the BHS coaches pulled Whitfield from the 4x100, one of her favorite races, and put her in the open 100 instead.
Without a seed time in the race the whole year, Whitfield had to run it in the slow heat “with some middle school kids,” Clark said.
It didn’t matter. She took her coach’s advice of racing the clock and running like she was being chased to heart instead of worrying about her competition.
Her 12.84 seconds was the best in the district by 0.3 of a second.
“She came out and absolutely blew the field away,” he said.
Whitfield added: “I was happy. I had been wanting to run the 100 most of the year. I wanted to see how close I was to that record too.”
Armed with all those school marks, there was only one goal left to accomplish. Part of the reason Whitfield came back out to track as a senior was to get back to state.
So in order to give her the best chance of doing that, the Bucs decided for Whitfield to not run the 200, which she also won at districts, at the regional meet to focus her time and attention and save her legs for the 400 and the 4x400.
It paid off when she went to state seeded for a medal in the 400.
“It was the best decision,” Clark said. “But if she had looked me in the eyes and said she wanted to run the 200, she was going to run it.”
Whitfield then came through at state, battling through a windy day at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium on May 10 to run a 58.87 to finish seventh.
“There was no other way I wanted it to end for her than with a medal around her neck,” Clark said. “As the season progressed she kept getting different goals and she started hitting them, we were like, ‘Dang Whit.’”
ALL-AREA TEAM
100m: Alex Whitfield
Branford, senior
The LCR’s Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year ran an area-best 12.84 seconds to win the District 5-1A title; placed 12th in Region 2-1A.
200m: Alex Whitfield
Branford, senior
The LCR’s Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year ran an area-best 26.13 at the Oak Hall Mini Meet and won the District 5-1A title.
400m: Alex Whitfield
Branford, senior
The LCR’s Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year ran an area-best 58.14 seconds for a third-place finish at the Region 2-1A meet before placing seventh at the Class 1A state meet; won the District 5-1A title.
800m: Anna Moore
Branford, sophomore
Ran an area-best 2:24.59 to place 12th at the Class 1A state meet; placed second in District 5-1A and fourth in Region 2-1A.
1600m: Ryleigh Hermanson
Suwannee, junior
Ran an area-best 5:13.43 at the FSU relays; won the District 2-2A title and placed 10th in Region 1-2A.
3200m: Ryleigh Hermanson
Suwannee, junior
Ran an area-best 11:59.81 at the FSU Relays.
100m hurdles: Samantha Ray
Branford, junior
Ran an area-best 18.00 seconds at the Oak Hall Mini Meet; placed fifth in District 5-1A and 16th in Region 2-1A.
400m hurdles: Delilah Poore
Branford, sophomore
Ran an area-best 1:15.58 to place 14th at the Region 2-1A meet following a fifth-place finish in District 5-1A.
4x100 relay: Branford (Mya Proesl, R’Nell Manley, Leiah Thompson, Amyah James)
Placed third at the District 5-1A meet before finishing ninth in Region 2-1A with a time of 53.28 seconds.
4x400 relay: Branford (Mya Proesl, Anna Moore, Leiah Thompson, Alex Whitfield)
Won the District 5-1A title before running an area-best time of 4:11.78 to place third in Region 2-1A; finished 11th at the Class 1A state meet.
4x800 relay: Suwannee (Kennedy Jennings, Olivia Hermanson, Montana Lewis, Ryleigh Hermanson)
Won the District 2-2A title with an area-best time of 10:11.98 before finishing seventh in Region 1-2A.
High jump: Sophia Kendrick
Lafayette, sophomore
Won the District 5-1A title with an area-best leap of 1.54m before finishing seventh in Region 2-1A.
Pole vault: Mya Proesl
Branford, freshman
Area-best throw of 2.40m to finish fifth at the Region 2-1A meet and qualify for state, where she finished 17th in Class 1A; placed second in District 5-1A.
Long jump: Amyah James
Branford, freshman
Season-best jump of 4.42m at the Branford Meet #2; placed ninth at District 5-1A meet before finishing 19th in Region 2-1A.
Triple jump: Madison Ward
Branford, senior
Area-best leap of 9.78m to finish eighth at the Region 2-1A meet following a runner-up finish in District 5-1A.
Shot put: Zi’onay Green
Suwannee, senior
Area-best toss of 9.95m at the Tommy Taylor Invitational; placed second at the District 2-2A meet to qualify for regionals.
Discus: Destiny Ramirez
Lafayette, senior
Area-best toss of 30.32m at the Lafayette Meet #2 and won the District 5-1A title before finishing 10th in Region 2-1A.
Javelin: Danielle Whitfield
Branford, sophomore
Placed third at the District 5-1A and Region 2-1A meets before finishing 13th at the Class 1A state meet; season-best throw of 30.22 at the Cedar Key Meet.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Tim Clark, Branford
Clark had three individual state qualifiers in three events, highlighted by Alex Whitfield’s seventh-place medal in the 400m, and also saw his 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams make it to state as well. That capped off a postseason where the Buccaneers placed second at the District 5-1A meet with five titles while qualifying 17 individuals in 15 events plus all three relays for the Region 2-1A meet, where they finished ninth. Branford also won the Branford Meet #1, Bell Meet, Lafayette Meet #1 and Suwannee Mini Meet #2.