Lely track teams produces solid showing at district meets

Heading into Friday’s Class 2A-District 12 track meet at Immokalee, Lely coach Mark McGarity knew there was little chance his Trojans could take the team title.

With Dunbar’s boys and girls boasting deep and talented squads, he just wanted his team to give an outstanding effort.

The Trojans certainly did that and more, with the boys taking second in the team standings and the girls finishing third.

“We had a lot of kids reach down and pull from the heart today and give everything they’ve got,” McGarity said. “And that resulted us in walking away with second and third, and we’re going to walk away with a lot of pride.”

Kenneth Anyaehie (shot put), Sergio Morancy (triple jump), Ian Rivera-Garcia (1,600), Quentin Warren (800) and Gregory Joseph (pole vault) were individual winners for the boys. On the girls side, Ellie Poling won the 3,200.

“It was a great day all the way around,” McGarity said.

The Trojans don’t have much time to revel in Friday’s success, as they are now turning their focus to regionals and hopefully states.

“Right now what we want to do is try and get them focused for qualifying for the next step up,” McGarity said. “We’ll be working on quality and trying to get their heads focused on what they need to work on, what they need to do to compete at that next level.”

McGarity gave the Dunbar program plenty of respect, saying they’re a fun team to watch.

“They have really got a great program started, they’ve got an AAU program they’ve started which gets the kids ready so by the time they get to Dunbar, they’re contributing right away,” he said. “The kids work all year long so when track season starts, they’re competitive. They’ve done a great job developing that program. Very impressive.”