Creekside girls track earns FHSAA team title: 'Really amazing'

After a full day of narrowly missing the top of the podium, Creekside saved the best for last. Exchange after exchange, lap after lap, the Knights raced away with the last girls race of the night and the most important, capturing the girls team championship at the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4A track and field meet on May 9. The 4x400-meter relay quartet of Parris Lee, Madalynn Clark, Milica Gobec and Sofia Killin needed near perfection in the last race of the night.

They got it, wrapping up the Knights' second FHSAA team title in three years at a soggy, stormy Hodges Stadium. "We were just trying to execute, run fast and do what we needed to do," Lee said. Creekside's relay and ensuing girls team championship put a fitting cap on the week for Northeast Florida athletes, amassing more than a dozen individual trophies with team titles for Raines, Bolles (the latter shared with Montverde) and now the Knights.

For Creekside coach Ricky Fields, also with the 2024 team, this triumph was special in its own way. "I'm just so happy for them," Fields said. TEAMWORK LIFTS KNIGHTS TO TROPHY In contrast to the Knights' 2024 state title, Creekside relied on scattered points here and there — pole vault, shot put, relays and more — to overcome Aquinas and its South Florida speed under stormy skies at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium.

"There were a lot of people who stepped up in a way like we weren't expecting, but stepped up when we needed them," said Creekside senior Sarah Rose, also a standout on the 2024 champions. "It was really amazing to see. " Relays brought steady points: The Knights also took second in the 4x800 and a close second (0.