Columbia coach Lawrence Davis describes James Williamson’s season as “peaks and valleys.”
There were plenty of ups and downs.
Williamson had to battle through two calf injuries and a strained hamstring that caused him to miss a few weeks, but he never stopped working toward his ultimate goal — the medal stand at the state meet. He made it there too, and also broke a couple of school records.
In his final season at Columbia, Williamson set new school marks in the 100m and 200m, won district titles in both events, and qualified for state in the two races in addition making it in the 400m as well. To put an exclamation point on his career, Williamson placed third in the 100 at the Class 3A meet to bring home a bronze medal.
It capped off a year in which he also won the 100 and 200 at the Hamilton Quad Meet and Santa Fe’s Last Chance Meet, as well as the 200 at Ron Hall Invitational. For his accomplishments this season, Williamson is once again the Lake City Reporter’s Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year.
“My goals were just to try and break records and put my name in the history book at CHS and try and improve every week,” said Williamson, who was also the LCR’s Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year in 2019.
Williamson set new school records in the 100 (10.61 seconds) and 200 (21.78) at Santa Fe’s Last Chance Meet to win both events midway through the season, then proceeded to break his own marks again in the postseason. Ten days later, Williamson won District 2-3A titles in both events and he set a new record in the 200 with a time of 21.75.
Although he didn’t break his 100 record at districts — running a 10.69 — he did set a new mark in the event at the Region 1-3A meet where he placed second with a time of 10.66. Williamson then ran a 10.57 at state to finish third.
He’s since signed a scholarship to run the 100 and 200 at Southeastern next year.
“It was kind of shocking,” Williamson said. “I just wanted to see where I was this year from last year. I was just going out and having fun. That was really the point of this year, just having fun and leaving it all out there on the track. My teammates pushed me in practice and that’s really what helped me break the records at CHS.”
Williamson could have walked away with a fourth-place finish in the 200 at state as well. Actually, he did, until he was disqualified on his way home.
After placing third in the 100, Williamson’s hamstring tightened up on him and the decision was made not to run the 400 in order to rest up for the 200 later in the night. Unfortunately, the FHSAA has a rule that requires every athlete to check in for each of their events, even if they plan on not finishing it, or they’re disqualified from the rest of their events left in the meet.
Yet, officials still let Williamson run the 200 later on, a race he finished in 21.61 seconds that also would have set a new school record. Williamson even went home with the medal and wasn’t asked for it back.
“I was disappointed that I couldn’t run the 400,” Williamson said. “When they called for the 400 boys, I couldn’t walk over there. So I wanted to just stretch it out and wait for the trainers. But I was kind of sad because of how they disqualified me (in the 200) because I didn’t run the 400.
“But I still placed. It was a good time at state.”
Lost a little in his success in the 100 and 200 this season is also his ability to run the 400. Williamson placed fourth in the event at districts and then third at regionals.
Davis believes Williamson would have medaled in all three of his sprint events if he had been fully healthy.
“I felt like James was the only sprinter who could have gotten on the medal stand in all three sprint events,” Davis said. “I believe that James would have been able to separate himself from every other sprinter in the state if he was able to do a triple — the 100, 200 and 400. That’s my perception of James and his capabilities. Not every sprinter can do the 400.”
Unfortunately, Williamson never got the chance to thanks to his hamstring, an injury that he says cropped up at regionals. Williamson will never know if he could have met Davis’ high expectations of three medals, but he says he’s plenty pleased he walked away with a bronze in the 100.
And another medal in the 200 too, even if it didn’t “officially count.”
“It hampered me a lot,” Williamson said of his hamstring. “I really couldn’t pick up my legs but it’s all right. I still came home with some hardware. It was an honor just to bring it home to Lake City.”
ALL-AREA TEAM
James Williamson
Columbia, senior
The LCR’S Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year had an area-best third-place finish at the Class 3A state meet in the 100m with a new school record (10.57) and also qualified for state in the 200m and 400m. Williamson also had a fourth-place finish in the 200m at state but was disqualified hours after the fact due to a bizarre FHSAA rule because he never signed in to run the 400m. But Williamson also won District 2-3A titles in the 100 and 200 as well, running a 21.25 in the latter for another school record. His other accomplishments on the year included wins in the 100 and 200 at the Hamilton Quad Meet, in the 200 at Ron Hall Invitational, and in the 100 and 200 at Santa Fe’s Last Chance Meet.
Garrison Beach
Suwannee, junior
Qualified for the Class 2A state meet in three events, placing fifth in the javelin (47.12m), sixth in the 300 hurdles with a new school record (39.75) and eighth in the 110 hurdles with a personal-best 15.50 seconds. He also set a school record in the javelin at the Region 1-2A meet with a throw of 47.36m to place second in addition to placing fourth in the 300 hurdles and sixth in the 110 hurdles. That was after he placed second in all three events at districts, where he also finished fourth in the 4x400 relay to qualify for regionals in a fourth event.
Brice Criggall
Branford, sophomore
Won the District 5-1A title in the 110 hurdles with a personal-best (19.13) and took second in Region 2-1A to qualify for state, where he placed 16th. He was also a regional qualifier in the 300 hurdles and 4x400 relay, placing second in both events at districts.
Jesse Cushman
Suwannee, junior
Won District 2-2A titles in the 800m (5:03.14) and 4x800 relay (8:58.92) and placed second at districts in the 800m (2:09.64) to qualify for regionals in three events.
Evan Dowdy
Branford, senior
Won the District 5-1A title in the high jump at 1.72m and then placed second in Region 2-1A at 1.82m to qualify for state. He also set the school record at the Raider Invitational with a leap of 1.85m.
Justin Hernandez
Branford, junior
Placed third in District 5-1A in the 3200m with a season-best 10:19.98 before taking sixth in Region 2-1A to qualify for the Class 1A state meet, where he finished 16th. He also qualified for regionals in the 4x800 relay after helping the quartet take second at districts.
Seth Humphries
Branford, junior
Placed second at the Class 1A state meet in the 800m to set a new school record (1.57.51) after placing third in Region 2-1A and second in District 5-1A. He also qualified for regionals in the 4x400 and 4x800 relays after second-place finishes in districts in addition to moving on in the pole vault thanks to a bronze medal at districts.
Kyson Johnson
Branford, junior
Won District 5-1A and Region 2-1A titles in the javelin, setting a new school record in the javelin with a throw of 47.31m. He placed 16th at the Class 1A state meet in the event and was also a regional qualifier in the discus thanks to a silver medal at districts.
Devin Mosley
Branford, junior
Set a new school record in the shot put to win the District 5-1A title (12.98m) and then took second in Region 2-1A to qualify for state, where he placed 16th in Class 1A. He also placed 13th at state in the javelin after placing fourth at regionals with a personal-best 44.93m and second at districts.
Austin Smith
Suwannee, junior
Won the District 2-2A title in the high jump (1.77m)
Seth Stockton
Columbia, sophomore
Placed 11th in the triple jump at the Class 3A state meet (12.96m), an event in which he also won the District 2-3A title.
Will Wainwright
Suwannee, freshman
Won the District 2-2A title in the javelin and placed fifth in the event in Region 1-2A (43.74 personal-best) to qualify for state, where he placed 15th. He was also a regional qualifier in the pole vault and the discus after placing second and fourth at districts, respectively.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Tim Clark, Branford
Clark led the Buccaneers to their first district title since 2009, with four individuals taking district crowns. Eleven Buccaneers competed in 11 individual events at regionals, with Kyson Johnson winning a title in the javelin, and all three relays team qualified for the region meet as well. From there, six individuals qualified for state in seven events, with Seth Humphries claiming a silver medal in the 800m.