The Oak Hall School girls and boys track teams concluded their seasons on Wednesday at the FHSAA Class 1A State Championships at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida.
While they didn’t bring home any gold, the Eagles did have some success.
The Oak Hall boys 4×800-meter relay team of seniors Andrew Eisner, Benjamin Gallogly, and Matthew Silva and freshman Henri Pelletier finished second in the state with a time of 8 minutes, 8.03 seconds.
They helped lead the Eagles to a tie for 15th place.
“It’s very meaningful,” Eisner said of their silver medal in the event. “I’ve trained with these guys all year long, and it’s really special to me that we were able to execute today, and just very proud of my teammates and them showing up every day. So, it’s very meaningful to me.”
At the Class 1A-Region 2 championship, Eisner, Gallogly, Silva and eighth-grader Alexander Braithwaite teamed up to finish fifth. However, they made a change to the lineup that paid dividends.
They were able to shave 22 seconds off their time from last Friday.
“Regionals didn’t go our way, and we knew that we had to fix some things, get better at our exchanges, get better at our effort, and we executed well today,” Eisner said. “We had to change up our order and team, and we just had to figure out which one, which team would be the best for the state meet, and Henri executed very well today, so I’m very proud of him.”
Gallogly also credited the freshman.
“He’s like the MVP of this race because he ran about like 10 seconds faster than everyone thought he would do,” he said. “And you could see at the end there, like we were in a good position, and then he just held that position, so it was just amazing to see that.”
Individually, Eisner made the podium a couple of times. He finished sixth in the 1600m run (4:28.49) and he placed seventh in the 800m run with a personal best time of 1:58.14.
He finished out his career by leading the Eagles to an eighth-place finish in the 4×400, which was the final event of the night.
“I started running in sixth grade, kept consistent over all those years, and it taught me a lot of good skills,” Eisner said. “I feel like I work very hard. I know how to work very hard now. I have that discipline, and it’s really nice to run with the people that I’ve grown up with. Some of my teammates I’ve grown up with since kindergarten, so being able to have them as my teammates has been really fun and touched my heart. It was very fun to run for my guys, run for my school. It’s going to be sad letting go, but it’ll be good.”
The area wasn’t completely denied a gold medal as Saint Francis Catholic Academy senior Dominick Diaz finished first in the boys pole vault with a vault of 4.50 meters (14 feet, 9 inches).
Hawthorne sophomore Willie Sutton finished sixth in the boys triple jump with a leap of 13.75, while Hornets’ senior Darian Bowie just missed the podium with a ninth-place finish (13.35).
Senior Blake Pilkington of Branford also made the podium with a seventh-place finish (50.22) in the 400.
The Oak Hall girls 4×800 relay team of senior Estella Collante, seventh-grader Reese Allen, junior Lola Murfee, and sophomore Alexis Thur de Koos finished fourth in the state with a time of 9:45.63.
The Lady Eagles, who finished first (9:55.10) in the event at the Class 1A-Region 2 championship, placed 8th in the event at the state meet last year.
“I think it’s definitely a big improvement from last year, since we got eighth last year,” Murphy said. “And I’m just very, like, proud of our girl, just and because one of our girls is a dual sport athlete, since she’s not at many practices, and just like, getting forth with a dual sport athlete is incredible.”
Collante finished third in two events to help lead the Lady Eagles to a 16th-place finish.
In the 1600, she collected a bronze medal with a time of 5:07.11.
“It was a good race,” she said. “I just wanted to go out there, stay with the other girls, and see what I can do. They really pushed me through, especially those first few laps, but I decided to sort of slow down a little bit to save myself a little bit for the eight.”
The senior, who beat her regional time by four seconds in the 800 (2:14.36), took a moment to reflect on her career at OHS.
“Honestly, it’s been it’s so great,” she said. “I love my team. I’m so thankful for my coaches, my teammates, my parents, and honestly, just everyone. They’ve been so supportive, like throughout my whole career, and I wouldn’t have been able to be here without them. It was really a great part of my life, and I’m glad I did this.”
