Florida’s capital city celebrates the end of its mild winter with the Springtime Tallahassee festival. Tallahassee’s best floral bellwether of spring is the azalea, with every possible color of the blossom represented on bushes throughout the city. Sometimes, though, a mild winter will cause the azaleas to bloom early. Other years an ill-timed frost will wipe out the flowers while they’re budding. So the azaleas aren’t always a dependable indicator of spring. For the past 36 years, though, the Florida State University Relays have been a reliable sign that spring has come to Tallahassee. In fact, this year the Relays were the same weekend as the Springtime Tallahassee festival, with the first of two days of competition starting on Friday morning, 27 March 2015.

The Estero girls established a theme of excellence for the day with a strong performance in the first track event, the 4 x 800 relay. Winning by close to a full straightaway, the four Wildcat girls posted a new meet record of 9:24.95. Their performance also eclipsed Florida’s current state-leading time of 9:28.20, run by Miami Northwestern ten days earlier at the GMAC Championships.

The boys’ pole vault had started before the 4 x 800 relay and was still going on after the relay. When it was over, Evangelical Christian senior Drew McMichael had won the even in 16' 5", his personal best, a new meet record, and the best high school vault in Florida so far this year.

Space Coast junior Skye Zeller set the pace through the first lap of the girls’ 800. Early in the bell lap, though, Ransom Everglades junior Lauren Archer made a move. Archer reached the backstretch with the lead, driving for home with 300 meters to go. Most of the field was left behind, but not Zeller. Zeller pounced on the final straightaway, beating Archer to the finish line 2:14.09 to 2:14.46.

There was less drama in the boys 800. When the athletes broke out of their lanes on the backstretch, Auburndale senior Calahan Warren was in the lead. He was in the lead at the start of the bell lap, and still out front on the final trip down the backstretch. If anything changed, it was the size of Warren’s lead--it got larger. Coral Reef junior Derwin Moultrie narrowed the gap somewhat on the homestretch, but Calahan was across the finish line before him in 1:54.46. Moultrie was second in 1:56.80.

Lincoln High’s John Burt did what he has been doing in the 110-meter hurdles all season long: win. For the sixth time this spring, the big senior won the final, this time going 14.13 and leaving the runner-up, Winter Park senior Gavin Rose, well behind at 14.72.

At the 2014 FSU Relays, Leon’s Sukhi Khosla had run a nation-leading 8:59.50 in the boys 3200. It had very nearly been a solo effort; no one else in the field was even under 9:10. This year Khosla was back, but the race would unfold quite differently. For the first two laps John Curtis High (Louisiana) junior John Curtis set the pace, with Khosla and the rest of the lead pack tucked in behind. Khosla got out front on the third lap, but Keith fought back into the lead before the fourth lap started. Keith was still ahead at halfway.

“I saw 4:31 or 4:32 at 1600,” said Khosla.

It wasn’t slow, but it wasn’t as fast as Khosla wanted to run, either. The Leon senior took the lead on the fifth lap. There were still five other athletes right with him, though. Sickles senior James Zentmeyer took a turn at the pace on the sixth lap. Devyn Keith led again on the seventh lap. At the bell, there were still half a dozen runners in contention.

Khosla went. Windermere Prep senior Franco Martins went after him on the homestretch, but Khosla was moving too well to be caught. He hit the line in 9:03.57, just ahead of Martins' 9:03.87. Zentmeyer was third in 9:04.15, and Wolfson senior Connor Vaughan fourth in 9:04.99. Plant senior Jack Guyton was fifth in 9:08.60. Devyn Keith, who had led so much of the race, finished sixth in 9:12.04. No one set a meet record, but five runners had gone under 9:10.

The meet finished with the girls’ 3200. The pack seemed content to follow Winter Park frosh Rafaella Gibbons until the last 800 meters when Gabrielle Jennings, a junior at First Baptist Christian in Louisiana, surged into the lead.

“I think the pace lagged a second or two,” said Gibbons. “But she definitely surged out of the blue.”

Gibbons and Pine Crest junior Julia Montgomery chased Jennings, but the First Baptist runner just kept getting farther ahead. With 200 meters to go, it looked like the FSU Relays girls’ 3200 title would be headed to Louisiana. Then Gibbons and Montgomery started to close.

It came down to the homestretch. Gibbons and Montgomery ran down Jennings on the way to the finish line, with the Winter Park frosh winning in 10:42.20. Montgomery took second in 10:43.16, with Jennings third in 10:43.75. The next three runners also went sub-11:00, with Calvary Christian junior Hannah Brookover fourth in 10:47.25, Fletcher sophomore Kayley DeLay fifth in 10:53.06, and Evangelical senior Sarah Candiano sixth in 10:56.32.

That was only the first day of the FSU Relays. Gibbons planned to be back the next day in the girls’ 1600. And after that?

“I’m running the 1600 and the 4 x 800 at the Florida Relays next week,” said Gibbons.