Seniors Austin Camps, Grant Gibson and Christan Hayes along with junior Jared Hayes, sophomores Austin Hayes and Christan Camps and Freshman Jonelle Plahuta) were invited by Coach Greg Hayes to run in a college track meet at Embry Riddle University in Daytona on Saturday.

Jared Hayes ran in the 600-meter run and placed seventh out of 17 runners with a time of one minute and 23.2 seconds. His time of 1:23.2 made him the sixth fastest high schooler at that distance this year.

“Going into the race, I was a little nervous due to the fact that I was by far the youngest runner in my event,” Hayes said. “But once we got started I felt strong and hopefully ran fast enough to turn the heads of some college coaches. I am happy with how I did considering who I was running against. This gives me more confidence going into the rest of the season knowing that I am in good shape.”

While Hayes might have been the youngest in his event, Plahuta might have been the youngest athlete at the whole meet.

She ran in the 3,000-meter run placing 27th out of 42 runners with a time of 11:37, and the mile placing 14th out of 22 runners with a time of 5:49.

“I am happy with how I ran because I am not in the best shape right now, but my times are not as bad as I thought they would be,” Plahuta said. “I really liked running against college kids because they are a lot better competition and it is more exciting. At first I was pretty intimidated by the rest of the runners around me but once we got started it felt just like any other race. The good competition really helped me out and I’m glad that I did this race because it gave me good experience and newfound confidence going forward into the season.”

The team’s next meet which will be March 3 at Holy Trinity Episcopal.

By Jacob Kent and Austin Hayes