Florida athletes shine at the Great Southwest Classic

Ka'Deem Wynn - American High School freshman and Miami Gardens Xpress stud Tyrese Cooper traveled way out west to compete at the Great Southwest Classic in New Mexico on Saturday. He came close to dipping under 46 seconds in the 400, running 46.04 to get the win uncontested.

It wasn't quite the race that everyone anticipated, but it was still worth the watch.

Weather turned rainy and caused a delay in the schedule, but the meet continued throughout the night once it was clear to proceed.

Though he looked smooth as he usually is, Cooper wasn't quite adjusted to the dry western air and altitude.  Albuquerque sits 5,312’ above mean sea-level, making it slightly difficult for him to breathe while competing. Though he won by a sizable margin of 1.20 seconds over second place finisher, Jandon Briscoe from Louisiana, it's known that the time wasn't exactly what he nor his coach wanted.

“It was a great race and a great time, so I am pleased.”

- Darius LawShea, Tyrese Cooper's Coach

Not facing too much opposition in Florida, they came to the meet in hopes of facing greater competition, most notably Akeem Bloomfield from Jamaica (PB 44.93), and Keshun Reed (PB 45.75) of Texas.

However, neither of the two showed up for the race.  Bloomfield pulled out after the Jamaican boys team finished second in the 4x100m relay citing an injury and Reed never travelled to the meet, citing an injury as well.

Darius LawShea, Cooper's coach, was not pleased with the sudden absence of the two best 400m runners ahead of Cooper, as they were the entire reason why they flew out to New Mexico.

Having them not in the race was a blow.

“They said he's the best and Tyrese trained all week to run against him and it didn't happen,” LawShea said in a recent interview with DyeStat Florida.

In the 200m, Cooper had better luck in terms of someone to help push him. He had two boys from Texas, Shamon Ehiemua (PB 20.62) and Dartez Hamlin (PB 20.72).

Cooper finally got the push he needed in the 200, but for the first time in nearly two years, he lost, taking third in 20.74 respectively, being the third out of four guys to go under 21 seconds in that race.

“For the first time in two years he decided not to wear his MGX headband. I tell you that thing has powers…”

- Darius LawShea, Tyrese Cooper's Coach

The search for someone to take it all the way to the line with is over in the 200m, but is still on in the 400m. LawShea says that this was probably the last meet with high school athletes that had the potential for Cooper to truly be pushed to run fast, and is possibly considering throwing him in with some professional athletes.

If that does happen, it'll be a sight to see on where he'd stack up against the competition. Until that becomes a reality, Cooper will run again at New Balance Nationals Outdoors, then the USATF National Junior Olympics in Sacramento, California.

“I just thank God for letting me be able to PR in both of my events.”

- Ka’Tia Seymour regarding her victories

Florida had a number of athletes compete at the Great Southwest Classic in New Mexico this weekend, and a small group of girls proved why we use the hashtag, "#FloridaFast."

Palatka junior Ka’Tia Seymour really put on for Florida, as she won both the 100 and 200m dash Elite races. Coming in with a seed time of 11.53 which she ran at regionals back in late April, and after nursing an injury while running at Golden South, Seymour obliterated that time in a high-class performance, running a wind-legal new US #2 11.26 (FL #1).

“I honestly didn't think I was going to win.”

- Ka’Tia Seymour regarding her 100 victory

Then she came back for the 200m and took off, taking fellow Florida sprinter Symone Mason with her, as the they went 1-2, running 23.44 (FL #1, US #7) and 23.84 (FL #3) respectively, with a -0.1 headwind.

Seymour said that she knew there were girls that had faster times than her, and it made her slightly worried. Perhaps fear does make people run faster.

On the distance side, Kayla Johnson went toe-to-toe with with some great girls in a fast race. Johnson finished third overall, running 2:11.48 respectively.

However, despite these great performances, there were anomolies.. In a strange turn of events, both Seymour and Johnson, along with four others, didn't show up to run the 400m leaving the elite field with only 2 runners taking to the oval.

When asked what happened, Mason said that she, along with others, were unaware of a schedule change causing them to miss their race.

“They were supposed to run the 4x1 before us but they had run it earlier.”

- Symone Mason regarding her missed race

With there having had been a weather delay earlier, there might have been a small tweak to the schedule, possibly speeding up the running of events and likely the reason why both Mason and Johnson missed the 400m.

Though it might have been a great race, all of the Florida girls competed well and represented the state of Florida very efficiently. The girls still have a couple more weeks to prepare for either Brooks PR, the Adidas Dream 100, or New Balance Nationals, and we'll keep an eye out as these girls may be ready to drop some more fast times.