Mainland's Kajuan Curry qualifies for the state track championships in three events

Amyah Watlington won the girls 100-meter hurdles at the Region 2-3A meet.

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The 800-meter run is Kajuan Curry’s third-favorite track event. The Mainland High senior prefers running the 200 and the 400. His opinion hasn’t changed even after discovering this year that the 800 is his best event.

“I didn’t start running the 800 open until later last season,” Curry said. “But it’s become the one I’m best at.”

Curry placed second in the 800 with a time 1:58.96 at the Region 2-3A track and field championships on Friday, May 2, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He automatically qualified for the state championships. He also ran the anchor leg on the Bucs’ 4x800 and 4x400 relay teams, both of which also placed second to qualify for state.

“I’m hard on KJ, but he ran his butt off today,” Bucs coach Terry Anthony said. “It was a very grueling day.”

Mainland's Amyah Watlington was the Bucs’ only regional champ. The senior won the girls 100 hurdles with a time of 14.13 seconds, breaking her own school record of 14.31 that she ran at districts.

“She’s had a great year,” Anthony said.

And it’s not over yet. Watlington has the seventh-best time in Class 3A heading into the state championships on Friday, May 9, at the University of North Florida.

The boys 4x800 relay team also broke a school record. In fact, the foursome of Khalil Wilmore, Liam Ciferri, Dray Wood and Curry blew it out of the water with a time 8:05.04. Wilmore was a member of the team that had set the previous school record of 8:14.56 two years ago at the 2023 regionals.

The current foursome’s previous best was 8:21.05.

“I can’t believe our time,” Curry said. “We were at 6 minutes when I got the baton. That was the fastest I’ve ever seen it on our third leg. I knew I had to run fast.”

New Smyrna Beach won the event with a time of 8:02.62.

“We really pushed it to run with (NSB’s) pace,” Anthony said. “We ran a great race.”

Wilmore, Wood and Curry also ran on the state-qualifying 4x400 relay with a personal record of 3:21.82 with Fabian Jeune running the second leg.

The Bucs also have two at-large qualifiers to the state meet in Ethan Figueroa, who placed third in high jump at 1.92 meters (6 feet, 3.5 inches) and Antonio Wilson, who placed fourth in discus at 44.92 meters (147 feet, 4 inches).

Seabreeze’s Logan Smith is an at-large qualifier in the javelin. The junior placed third with a PR throw of 50.01 meters (164 feet, 1 inch).

Other Mainland and Seabreeze athletes who placed among the top four at region were Mainland’s Eddie Lake (third in the 100), Houston Cadette (third in the 110 hurdles) and the girls 4x100 relay team (fourth place); and Seabreeze’s Hunter Shuler (fourth in both the 1,600 and 3,200 with PR times in both), Tabitha Hick (fourth in the 400 hurdles) and Emma Uneda (third with a PR in the triple jump).

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