Pirates win seven events at RunMatanzas Invitational

Tyson and Jordan Mills practically stepped off the wrestling mat and onto the track.

The brothers, who each took home a second-place medal at the state wrestling championships on March 5, each won a hurdles event at the RunMatanzas Invitational on March 19.

“I don't think they've had five practices with us,” said Matanzas track and field coach Tim Kane. “But they're really good athletes and really good guys. They work really hard at whatever they do.”

Tyson Mills won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.58 seconds, a full second faster than younger brother Jordan, who finished second. Jordan Mills won the 300 hurdles with a time of 43.02.

Matanzas finished second among 10 teams in both the boys and girls standings at the inaugural event, which also served as senior day for the Pirates. Seabreeze won both the boys and girls team titles.

All of the Pirates' seniors wore a red singlet at the meet. Kane would like to make that a tradition for future senior days with seniors wearing a different color. But on this day, with Matanzas seniors wearing red — the same color as Seabreeze's jerseys— it got confusing at times.

“I was rooting against a guy in a red shirt in hurdles,” Kane admitted. Fortunately, Tyson Mills won anyway.  

Senior Taylor Washington won two events for the Matanzas girls — 100 hurdles (17.01) and high jump (5 feet, 1 inch). She set a school record in the high jump.

“This is her second year with us,” Kane said. “She transferred here last year, and she was good when she got here, but she's been improving every meet.”

Washington also finished third in the 300 hurdles.

Matanzas' Bradyn Cox won boys discus with a throw of 137 feet, 9 inches.

Peter Hopfe of First Baptist Christian Academy won the boys 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:04.83. Hopfe also finished sixth in the 1,600 meters.

Matanzas also swept the 40-yard dashes and finished second in the mixed 4x400 relay — two non-FHSAA events.

“Anything different is fun,” Kane said. “Ultimately, I wanted this to be a fun meet, before we get to the heaviness of districts. The football players were really excited about the 40-yard dash. But they ran into a pretty stiff headwind. The mixed 4x4 is an Olympic event, and you can set up the runners in any order you want.”

“Anything different is fun. Ultimately, I wanted this to be a fun meet.”

TIM KANE, Matanzas track and field coach

Football player Sho'Marion Gaines won the boys 40 with a time of 4.90 seconds. Tinaya Walker won the girls 40 with a time of 5.47 seconds.

Two girls (Jordan Young and Sierra Howard) and two boys (Aiden Langford and Jordan Mills) combined to run 4:10.9 in the mixed relay.

Kane said he would like to see Run Matanzas grow into a larger event in the future.

“It was a nice start,” he said. “It's nice to have teams come to Matanzas, and we can show off our campus. And it's nice to have the community come watch and support us.”

The Volusia-Flagler Freshman/Sophomore Championships at Matanzas, which was rained out on March 9, has been rescheduled to Wednesday, March 23.