Complete results can be found here.

WESLEY CHAPEL, FL – My father retired to North Fort Myers several years ago and the idea of making a visit to him, with a track meet thrown in, might be a lot of fun. So that’s how I ended up being on an airplane leaving the frigid north in December for the sunny gulf coast of Florida. I treasure the visits to see my dad, but being able to compete in a track meet, with him there watching… is surreal.

After a huge PR in javelin in September, I had nearly three months to prepare for this meet. This set up nicely to give me a final opportunity to move up the rankings for the 2023 outdoor season. Expectations were high and I found myself drifting a little from the mindset of just having fun and enjoying the fitness it is providing me, to the full on competitive aspect. All of my plans and approach to the meet were suddenly changed when I had a back flair up about four weeks to competition. There was no training of any kind as I dealt with the pain. It was looking like my visit to Florida was not going to include the meet, but the pain subsided two days before the flight. I would be weak, and not in the best of shape, but I was feeling okay to compete.

Friday night started with Javelin and I inadvertently caused myself some drama. My first two throws went out of sector and I was being encouraged by other athletes just to toss it out there to get a safe mark and collect a bronze medal. I couldn’t get myself to do that and managed to get a 109’1″ / 33.24M mark on the final throw. It was my shortest distance of the year, but good enough to take the gold medal. My back seemed to be holding up, so I was glad I would be able to do more events on Saturday. The events on Saturday were unremarkable, third in discus doing my power throw without much power 73’7″ / 22.42M, first in long jump 10′ / 3.04M & first in high jump 4’4″ / 1.32M with no other age group competitors. I scratched from shot put to save my back, but will acknowledge I would have been third with the two gentleman I beat in javelin getting their payback.

In my first year of masters track & field, I have really enjoyed all of the great people I have been fortunate enough to meet and now call friends. Rob and Kendal had a good number of events with me and they were a blast to be around. I’ll always enjoy the laughs we had as Rob had two fouls in long jump and Kendal was almost assured the gold when Rob nailed his final jump to secure the top spot. I need to be there for the 2024 rematch!