LIVE OAK — It still hasn’t completely sunk in for Suwannee’s Ryleigh Hermanson.
Even five weeks after capturing the Class 2A state title in the 1600m, it still doesn’t always compute that Hermanson is a state champion.
“It’s still kind of weird when people congratulate me and I’m like, ‘For what?’” Hermanson said.
But the dream finish to her senior season and standout career on the track is actually reality and the school record holder in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m can also now add the title of Lake City Reporter Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to the list as well.
While her gold medal achievement still is a shock at times, Suwannee assistant coach Town Williams said it wasn’t a surprise at all either.
Despite the fact that Hermanson was just the fifth seed in the 1600 — she also qualified for state in both the 800 and the 3200 — Williams said after months of working with the senior distance runner, he knew what she was capable of.
She showed everybody exactly what he had already seen at the state meet on May 7 at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium.
“Everybody was surprised that she came out of nowhere,” Williams said. “I see her train every day so I knew what she had in her legs.”
She also carried out their game plan for the race at state perfectly. Williams said the goal was to go and just run for the first three laps and see where she stood at that point.
“See where you are in that last 250 and if you are within 15 meters of them, go get them,” he said.
She did just that.
Sitting sixth after the first 400m, Hermanson got herself up to third at the halfway point. Heading into that last lap, she was fourth and sitting nearly three seconds behind the leaders — Episcopal’s Kate Brice and Bolles’ Sofie Stam.
But Hermanson followed the plan and didn’t just go and get them — she left them behind.
“When we hit the last 200 and I was third and I saw those girls in front of me, I just put it all out there and said a prayer that I wouldn’t fall over,” she said after winning the title.
She didn’t fall over. Instead she blazed past the leaders, finishing off her state title with a run of 5:01.00, more than nine seconds faster than her previous best, already the school’s record. She topped Stam by three seconds.
How did that happen? How did Hermanson complete that final lap in 1:08.11, more than five seconds faster than any of the other laps during the race?
Hermanson still isn’t sure.
“I honestly don’t have an answer,” she said. “A lot of prayer went into it. I just went out there and was like, ‘I have to do this.’ No matter what it was, I had to do this. It could be top 8 and I ended up No. 1. It was surreal. It wasn’t expected so I don’t have answers.”
In fact, Hermanson never expected to be the state’s best. The thought never even really crossed her mind.
Her goal entering her senior season was just to have the chance to run in May at Hodges Stadium. She made it two years ago and then didn’t advance to state last year.
That left her hungry. As did a change last fall.
A two-time Lake City Reporter Cross Country Runner of the Year, Hermanson didn’t run in the fall. Instead she played volleyball at Corinth Christian School.
“I think a big factor of it was coming off not having done a cross country season and just really being hungry, just really wanting back that spot,” she said.
It also helped that without her putting in the miles for cross country, she instead put in the work with Williams.
Williams said that when Hermanson decided to not do cross country, he gave her two weeks off. They then got to work preparing for indoor track and the spring season, meaning she was preparing for that meet since September.
“That was the whole plan,” he said. “I told her if you listen and you can hit times in the workouts, every time you step on the track in a big competition, you’re going to make heads turn. She did that.”
Indeed.
In mid-February, her assault on the Suwannee school record book began. First she broke the record in the 800.
Then, in early March, she set that one again while also helping the 4x800 relay team post a school best.
By the end of the month, she set a new mark in the 3200 with a time of 11:14.63 at the FSU Relays.
In April, she again topped her marks in the 800 and 1600 as well as on the relay.
She reset the 800 at the regional meet in 2:18.01 and then set the school mark at the state meet in the 1600.
“Sheer determination,” Williams said about Hermanson’s record-setting spring. “We set a goal that, no, she set a goal that she wants to make it to state and she wants to get on the podium. I said, ‘Good, then this is the plan.’ And we devised a plan to get her where she wanted to be and it worked out.”
ALL-AREA TEAM
Ryleigh Hermanson
Suwannee, senior
The LCR’s Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year won the Class 2A state title in the 1600m with a time of 5:01.00, shattering her previous school record by more than nine seconds. She also qualified for state in the 800m and 3200m, finishing 16th and 13th, respectively. It capped a postseason where she won District 2 titles in the 800 and 1600 while finishing third in the 3200 before she won the Region 1 title in the 800 with a school record of 2:18.01, was fifth in the 1600 and seventh in the 3200. She posted an school record in the 3200 at the FSU Relays with a finish of 11:14.63 and was also part of the school record 4x800 relay team that ran a 9:49.47 at the Suwannee Mini Meet.
Kensi Shaw
Columbia, junior
Runner-up in the 100m at the District 3-3A meet with an area-best time of 12.65 seconds to qualify for regionals.
Kennedy Jennings
Suwannee, senior
Reached the medal stand at the Class 2A state meet with a seventh-place finish in the 400m to cap a postseason where she won the District 2 title with an area-best time of 57.27 seconds and was runner-up in Region 1. Also qualified for regionals in the 200m thanks to a runner-up finish at districts, an event where she ran an area-best 25.62 seconds earlier in the year at the Columbia Invitational.
Delilah Poore
Branford, junior
Runner-up in 400 hurdles with a season-best time of 1:14.24 seconds at the District 5-1A meet and also helped the 4x400 relay team finish second at districts, good enough to qualify for regionals in both events. Also qualified for regionals in the 100 hurdles with a fifth-place finish at districts, an event where she posted an area-best time of 18.12 seconds at the Branford meet earlier in the year.
Raelea Bradow
Branford, sophomore
Leapt an area-best 1.42m in the high jump for a runner-up finish at the District 5-1A meet to qualify for regionals. Also qualified for regionals in the triple jump following an eighth-place finish at districts.
Mya Proesl
Branford, sophomore
Qualified for regionals in the pole vault (District 5-1A runner-up), long jump (13th at districts), 4x100 relay (district champion) and 4x400 relay (district runner-up). Her 2.40m finish in the pole vault at districts was an area-best for the year.
Brandy Posada
Lafayette, junior
Finished third at the District 5-1A meet in the 400m hurdles to qualify for regionals, where she finished eighth in Region 2 with an area-best time of 1:13.87. Also had an area-best jump of 9.48m in the triple jump for a third-place finish at districts.
Jada Copeland
Lafayette, junior
Won the District 5-1A title in the shot put and finished third in Region 2 to qualify for state, where she had an area-best throw of 9.93m to finish 13th in Class 1A. Also won a district title in the discus in addition to qualifying for regionals in the 4x100 relay.
Aysha Stokes
Columbia, senior
Finished as the District 3-3A runner-up in the discus to qualify for regionals, an event where she had an area-best throw of 33.28m at the Al Nesi Invite earlier in the year.
Danielle Whitfield
Branford, junior
Won the District 5-1A title in the javelin before finishing fourth in Region 2 with an area-best throw of 32.66m to qualify for state, where she finished 17th in Class 1A.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Erin Clark, Branford
Clark’s Buccaneers were runners-up at the District 5-1A meet behind district titles from Danielle Whitfield (javelin) and their 4x100 relay team. Sixteen athletes across 15 events qualified for regionals, with Whitfield qualifying for state in the javelin where she finished 17th.