Brownlow-Dindy, Gant win gold at 4A state track meet

JACKSONVILLE — Lakeland junior Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy continued his dominance in the discus, and teammate Tayler Gant continued his late-season surge in the 100 as each won a gold medal on Saturday at the 2021 FHSAA Class 4A State Track and Field Championships at the University of North Florida.

Their wins give Polk County athletes nine state titles at the four state meets.

Both Brownlow-Dindy and Gant came away with two medals as Brownlow-Dindy finished state runner-up in the shot put, and Gant finished fifth in the 200.

Although football is Bronlow-Dindy's primary sport, and he’s one of the top recruits in the state, winning the state title in the discus was a big deal.

“It was very important,” he said. “I’m graduating early so that was very important to me and I wanted to go out with a gold medal.”

Brownlow-Dindy started slow as he was sitting in third place after his first two throws with a mark of 152 feet 11 inches, trailing Niceville’s Ryan Driscoll (156-03) and Olympia’s De’Andre Robinson (155-07). On his third attempt, Brownlow-Dindy launched a throw of 169-09 and no one got close to him. Wekiva’s Luther Johnson surged into second place with his final throw of 161-09, but it still was eight inches shy of Brownlow-Dindy’s mark.

“The first one I was trying to get comfortable and get a mark,” Brownlow-Dindy said. “Then after that, you try to get better as go and throw it harder, so that’s what I was trying to do."

Brownlow-Dindy knew he had a winning throw after releasing the third attempt.

“It looked like it was going out to begin with then it curved back in and hit the 50 (-meter) mark, so I was happy with it,” he said.

In the shot put, Brownlow-Dindy’s best throw came on his first attempt. His mark of 56-04.25 was good enough for first by a half inch into the second round. However, Niceville’s Ben Miazga passed him with a throw of 57-07, and Brownlow-Dindy had to settle for second place.

“I knew I was going to have to do better (than his first throw),” he said. “I knew I had some good competition out here. I was happy with it. It was a PR for me, and I was always striving to get better.”

In the 100, Gant for the second week in a row, knocked off higher seeds to win the 100. He went into the race seeded seventh and ran 10.72, his second-best time of the season, to edge out Timber Creek’s Ethan Exilhomme, who ran 10.75.

“I was very confident,” Gant said. “I had to trust my training and work hard.”

Gant said he wasn’t quite sure he had won the race until the times were posted on the scoreboard.

“It was a very good race,” he said. “I got out of my blocks kind of slow and just had to work hard to get first. I didn’t think I won it at first until I looked at the time. I was just happy (after seeing the time). I was very happy that I got first. I wasn’t favored to win it and I came out and won.”

Gant later finished fifth in the 200 in 22.03, just off his personal-best of 21.69. He also snagged a medal with the Dreadnaughts’ 4x100 team that finished eighth.

“It was my start,” he said of the 200. “I thought I could have done a little better.”

Haines City’s Jameson Appolon had one of the most emotional finishes of the day. Running in the slow heat of the 110 hurdles, he won the heat in 14.93 then bounced around celebrating and hugged his coach after seeing his time hold up for fifth place after the fast heat was completed.

The George Jenkins' 4x400 team finished fourth, and the Eagles' Jordan Rupe finished 10th in the 400.

On the girls side, Polk athletes won two medals. 

George Jenkins senior Alicia Ruiz finished seventh in the 800 with a time of :15.27. She won the event in 2019, but got caught up in the pack on Saturday and couldn’t pull away.

The only other medal of the 4A meet by a Polk athlete came from Haines City’s Aquilla Kerr, who finished tied for seventh in the high jump. She barely missed out on a second medal by finishing ninth in the triple jump. She also took 12th in the long jump.

The George Jenkins’ girls 4x400 team finished 11th.

Lakeland’s Guerlens Milfort was 12th in the discus, and Haines City’s Nathan Bowers and George Jenkins’ Kristian Runcie finished 15th and 16th respectively.