Vault, run & walk: Creekside's Maya Till celebrates graduation to remember at FHSAA track

Once upon a time in track and field annals, today's triple jump held the name of hop, step and jump.

On Saturday, Maya Till invented an entirely new event: the vault, run and walk.

In the space of about an hour on Saturday afternoon, the Creekside senior placed at the Florida High School Athletic Association track and field championship at Hodges Stadium — and then, after a quick cross-campus dash, participated in her graduation ceremony just a block away at the University of North Florida.

"We ran over there and everything," she said. "So it was pretty cool."

By the evening's end, Till added another chapter to her day when Creekside finished atop the Class 4A girls team standings, securing the first state championship in the program's history.

Till helped Creekside reach the top of the podium. In her final high school meet, she matched her season best, clearing the bar at 10 feet, 10 inches and finishing sixth place to collect three points toward the Knights' 4A trophy.

When a 53-minute lightning delay paused the proceedings on track, Till traversed the campus, passing the nearby Harmon Stadium for baseball to join her Creekside classmates.

When the storm delay stopped and Till returned to watch the remainder of the pole vault, she was dressed in cap and gown with diploma in hand as fellow vaulters congratulated her.

An FHSAA pole vault finalist in all four years of high school, Till graduated summa cum laude as a National Honor Society member, and plans to continue her studies at the University of Florida.

Bartram Trail, Beachside among spring winners

There's one more week to go for spring football, and rosters are just beginning to take shape for the 2024 fall season.

Nearly two dozen of Northeast Florida's programs already kicked off their spring games during the past week, while many others take the field on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

A few of the early takeaways:

• Bartram Trail, as usual, looked dangerous on offense in a 28-27 win at Sanford Seminole. Jaden Weatherly threw two touchdown passes, De'Andre Caldwell caught four passes for 103 yards and Arthur Lewis IV scored on a run from midfield and a kickoff return.
• With program mainstays Colin Hurley, Cameron Anderson, Miles Burris and Darnell Rogers among those moving on, Trinity Christian is on course for a drastically different roster. The revamped Conquerors won 23-10, with rushing scores from Terel Dallas, Camren Hall and Brian Lewis.
• Beachside scored in bunches in 2023, and it looks like more of the same may be coming in 2024. The Barracudas racked up nine touchdowns on offense in their jamboree, scoring 42 points against Episcopal and 21 more against Wolfson.
• State finalist Bradford split a three-team jamboree, defeating Suwannee and losing to Gainesville Buchholz in Live Oak.
• Defenses were on top in an all-Columbia County clash. Columbia topped Fort White 14-7 in a game marked by first-half turnovers.

School records fall at FHSAA track

The records are tumbling.

In addition to Creekside's first-ever state championship in Class 4A, athletes from numerous local programs set school records during the four days at UNF.

A few of the new marks:

• Fleming Island recognized multiple school records: Gabrielle Flores cleared 5 feet, 9 inches while winning the girls high jump, Brooke Reynolds ran 5:12.55 in the girls 1,600 and the boys 4x400 relay ran 3:19.97.
• Bartram Trail's Ethan Fox broke the Bears' record in the boys discus at 169 feet, 2 inches, and Amelia Thomas ran a school-record 1:03.39 in the girls 400 hurdles.
• Bishop Kenny's Emily Wheldon lowered her own school record to 10:46.89 in the girls 3,200, and she teamed with Davis Johnson, Alexis Holmes and Taylor Lawhon for a Crusaders record of 9:13.84 in the 4x800 relay.
• Middleburg's Anthony Pasquale set a school record of 152 feet, 9 inches in the boys javelin.

Episcopal's Jones joins exclusive club

Grace Jones closes her high school career among Northeast Florida's all-time strikeout queens.

The Episcopal pitcher finished her senior year with 343 strikeouts, third in the state behind Melbourne's Jasmine Francik (399) and Port St. Lucie Centennial's Hailey Brereton (365), and recorded 1,029 for her Eagles career, which included part-time pitching roles in seventh and eighth grade.

After her 344-strikeout season in 2023, Jones is also the first area pitcher to have two seasons with 340 or more strikeouts, and joins Mandarin's Kellie Wilkerson (321 in 1996, 302 in 1997) as the only area pitchers with two 300-strikeout years.

Her total of 687 strikeouts for 2023 and 2024 ranks second for a two-year span in Northeast Florida history to only Palatka's Katie Brosky, who struck out 242 in 2002 and a state-record 471 in 2003 for a total of 713.

Locals fuel SJRSC national runs

St. Johns River State College is in the hunt for National Junior College Athletic Association championships in both baseball and softball, and Northeast Florida ballplayers are fueling the Palatka-based institution's postseason run.

Carrying a six-game winning streak, the SJRSC softball squad holds a 51-15 record entering Wednesday's second-round game in the NJCAA Division II Softball World Series at Tyger River Park in Spartanburg, S.C. The Vikings beat Des Moines Area Community College 2-0 in Monday's opening round.

Former Creekside outfielder Kendall Catherwood leads the team in several batting categories (.431 average, .510 OBP, 25 walks, 93 hits, 19 doubles, 3 triples) and Baker County graduate Emily Griffin is hitting .281 with 11 doubles and 28 RBI.

For Vikings baseball (38-23), Atlantic Coast's Aaron Potter (7-3, 5.08) and Suwannee's Payton Waters (7-2, 3.92) have formed two-thirds of the starting rotation, with Providence's Ben Barrow (.277, 3 HR, 18 RBI) and Union County's Tripp Davis (.382, 2 HR, 23 RBI) both seeing action behind the plate.

The baseball team begins the Division II national tournament Saturday at the David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Okla.

Around the area

Paxon guard Delvin Bell Jr. signed with South Georgia State basketball. … Raines pole vaulter Jabari Armant signed with Bethune-Cookman men's track and field. ... White running back Darien Hookfin signed with Mount Union football and catcher Javier Rosa-Franco signed with Adrian baseball. … Ponte Vedra fullback Natalie McCann committed to North Florida women's soccer. … Ponte Vedra infielder Cade Eidam committed to Oglethorpe baseball. … Hilliard guard Auneria Doyle committed to Florida State College at Jacksonville women's basketball. … Menendez named Melissa Harmon as head girls swimming coach. … Ponte Vedra named Kyle Berry as head swimming and diving coach. … Former Ponte Vedra pitcher Tony Roca surpassed the University of North Florida's all-time record for career baseball strikeouts with 241. … Dan Marsee of Suwannee won the Florida Dairy Farmers Coach of the Year award for boys weightlifting after the Bulldogs' championships in Class 1A for traditional and Olympic lifts, while St. Cloud junior Michael Ziss was named Mr. Weightlifting. ... Nico Snyder of St. Andrew's won the Florida Dairy Farmers Mr. Tennis award, and Juhnyee See of Coral Springs Charter repeated as Miss Tennis. Brian Schleifer of Delray Beach American Heritage won the Coach of the Year award. ... The next FHSAA board of directors meeting is set for June 3-4 in Gainesville.