Gillian Morrison was a one-girl wrecking crew at the recent Broward County middle school girls' track and field championship meet at Coral Springs High School.

The eighth-grade student at Westglades Middle School won all three of her events and recorded a personal-best time in the high jump (5 feet, 4.5 inches) en route to helping her team to a third-place finish in the season-ending competition. She came through with 30 of her team's 35 points.

While Morrison excelled individually, it was William Dandy Middle School that stole the show from a team standpoint.

The Wildcat girls ran off with the school's second consecutive championship in that sport with 77 points. Parkway Middle took second place with 44 points, while Westglades (35 points) and Pompano Beach (30) were third and fourth.

Morrison, 14, also won the long jump and successfully defended her 100-meter hurdles title as she cruised to a nearly two-second victory.

"It was awesome," said Morrison, whose previous mark entering the high jump was 5 feet, 2 inches.

After winning the long-jump competition with the top score on her first attempt, Morrison prepared for the hurdles race.

She entered as the second seed despite winning the hurdles race last year. Her qualifying time of 16.26 was just behind Falcon Cove's Carla Daza's 15.80.

But she produced in the clutch.

"It was nerve-racking (in the hurdles) because that was the one I was supposed to win because I won it last year," said Morrison, who won a bronze in the pentathlon in the Junior Olympics last year while competing for the FINESSE (Families Intent on Nurturing and Encouraging Scholastic and Sports Excellence) track club based at North Broward Preparatory School.

Originally posted here:
Girls on fast track to success