Image by Barry Jones

Convential wisdom says it's tough to run fast over a mile in Florida this year. Convential wisdom was ignored last night.

Long time Florida superstar Kayla Hale decided to end her high school career on high note on her home track.

With rock and roll blarring on the speakers, the recent Holy Trinity graduate made her debut at 5000 meters on the track last night at the RunningZone.com All Star Showdown and threw down the US #1 time in the process. The Duke-bound Hale ignored the humid conditions and completed the 12.5 laps in 16:53.42.

Derek Wehunt, also making his track 5000 debut won the mixed race in 15:42.59. The University of Florida bound senior from Sickles High School is the state leader at 3200m and 1600 at 9:06 & 4:11. An ambitious pace was set early as Wehunt was hoping to run about minute faster, but the conditions & lack of competition made the task much more difficult.

Hale wasn't the only star of the night, however.

Florida State bound Darrin Gibson lead most of the boys 800 only to be overtaken by current University of North Florida freshmen Cameron Dickerson in the final 75 meters. Dickerson won in 1:52.31 to Gibson's 1:53.17.

Be sure the check out the rest of the races here on runnerspace.com/showdown

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