Tremendous 10 poll features record-setting track star, softball champions

Roy Fuoco, The Ledger
·3 min read
Winter Haven's Dashanique Henry competes in the long jump where she finished third on Saturday at the Class 4A state track meet.
Winter Haven's Dashanique Henry competes in the long jump where she finished third on Saturday at the Class 4A state track meet.

The Tremendous 10 poll is back after athletes returned from spring break last week for a full slate of action, and there were plenty of standouts in baseball, softball, track and lacrosse.

In the previous poll highlighting standouts in the week prior to spring break, Bartow's Jihad Brown edged out Lakeland's Jose Garcia. Brown finished with 36.1 percent of the vote, and Garcia finished with 32.7 percent. Winter Haven's Dashanique Henry and Lake Wales' Clayton Fletcher tied for third with 11.7 percent of the vote.

Rounding out the top 10 are Lake Wales' Trent Grotjan, Lakeland's Larry Jones, Lake Region's Margaret Jenkins, Auburndale's Garrett Frost, Auburndale's Kassidy Pontbriant and Santa Fe Catholic's Gavin Steadman.

The poll will be open until noon Friday.

Winter Haven's Dashanique Henry (track and field) won the long jump with a mark of 18 feet 11.25 inches at the Tiger Invite at Toho High School.  She set a meet record in the event. Henry also won the 200 in 24.74 and set the school record by winning the 400 in 56.50.

Lake Wales senior second baseman Lilah Denton (softball) batted (.714) 5 for 7 with a double, an RBI and three runs scored in two games against Key West. She raised her average to .412.

Santa Fe Catholic junior Jacob Knisley (baseball) batted .444 (4 for 9) with four RBIs and one run scored in three games. He raised his batting .406.

Auburndale senior Kassidy Pontbriant (softball) went 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in four games as she allowed just four runs on 15 hits in 20 2/3 innings. She struck out 22 and walked six. At the plate, she batted .615 (8 for 13) with seven RBIs in the four games. Pontbriant is now batting .362. for the season.

Bartow junior Julia Heter (softball) pitched a five-inning no-hitter in the Yellow Jackets 11-0 victory over Dunedin then went 2 for 4 with an RBI and was the winning pitcher in the championship game against George Steinbrenner.

George Jenkins senior Rey Hernandez (boys track and field) won the boys 400 hurdles with a county-best time of 53.67. He also was fourth in the 110 hurdles with a county-best 14.30.

Bartow junior Yasiel Sihombing (boys lacrosse) scored 10 goals and added one assist in there games that the Yellow Jackets won, including five goals in a 9-6 win over rival Lake Wales. For the season, he has 17 goals and three assists.

Winter Haven junior Bliss Updike (girls lacrosse) led the Blue Devils to three wins by scoring 16 goals and adding one assist. She scored five of Winter Haven's eight goals in an 8-7 win over Discovery. For the season, she has 39 goals.

George Jenkins senior Richie Collazo (baseball) batted (.800) 4 for 5 with seven runs scored in three games, all wins by the Eagles. In those three games, he reached base seven times in eight plate appearances for an on-base percentage of (.875). He is batting .429 for the season with an on-base percentage of .556.

Lakeland Christian seventh-grader Paityn Donalson (softball) batted .400 (4 for 10) with two doubles, and RBI and four runs scored to help the Vikings beat Fort Meade, Lake Gibson and Cardinal Mooney. She is batting .632 for the season.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Tremendous 10 poll features record-setting track star, softball champions