Heading to the podium a champion once more, this time on the track, Harrison Kozlowski savored the latest triumph in Providence's charge to the head of Florida's distance running pack.
"Wewon in cross [country]and now we won again," he said after Providence rolled to the 4x800-meter relay championship. "So that's nice."
Built for distance, the Stallions outran the best of the Sunshine State in the long events to capture four events at the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 1A track and field championships on May 6.
Providence's success, leading to an third-place team finish for the boys and fourth for the girls, highlighted a banner day of seven event victories for Jacksonville athletes on a scorching afternoon at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium.
Sam Loftin captured the boys 800,Sean Cunninghamraced away with the 3,200, Coral Sklenicka grabbed the win in the girls pole vault and the 4x800 quartet of Cunningham, Kozlowski, Charley West and Loftin pulled away at the end for first in 7:59.12.
"Coming in, we kind of knew we had the best chance to win," Loftin said. "So the whole point was just to control the race the whole time."
Also on top for the First Coast were Bishop Snyder's Kalia Bing in the girls long jump and Daniel Hoff in the boys 400, and Trinity Christian's Ja'Khari Jackson in a memorable Conqueror 1-2 in the boys high jump with teammate Nate Branch.
DISTANCE DELIGHT FOR STALLIONS
By now, Providence's long-distance mastery is no secret.
It started with the boys 4x800 relay and kept on going: Cunningham led wire-to-wire in the 3,200, crossing in 9:10.63 for a 16-second cushion. Loftin employed perfect timing in the 800, winning in 1:55.02 to edge St. John Neumann's Logan Bartelt by 0.13 seconds.
And Providence gathered distance points throughout the night as well, with a second in the girls 4x800, Loftin's third in the 1,600 behind Melbourne Holy Trinity's Evan Spreitzer and Kozlowski's fourth in the 3,200. It wasn't quite enough to unseat a Spreitzer-led Holy Trinity from the top spot, but it improved on last year's team finishes of fourth (boys) and sixth (girls).
The Stallions' Grayson Jackson took third in the boys discus, Caroline Collins was second in the girls discus and Avenlee Loewen came third in the girls javelin.
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![Providence's Coral Sklenicka clears the bar in the girls pole vault during the FHSAA Class 1A high school track and field championships in Jacksonville, Florida, on May 6, 2026. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union]](https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_usatoday_us_articles_590/3bcefbb4b1824a7bfe04fd964eed6740)
The distance runners weren't the only winners for Providence. Sklenicka, who entered with the No. 3 seed in the pole vault, said she was just hoping to finish on the podium.
But after nailing her first five attempts, the latter the deciding one at 11 feet, 3 3/4 inches, she found herself a state champion.
"I can't believe I won it," she said. "I'm just really excited."
BING, HOFF WIN FOR BISHOP SNYDER
![Bishop Snyder's Kalia Bing (96) lands in the girls long jump during the FHSAA Class 1A high school track and field championships in Jacksonville, Florida, on May 6, 2026. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union]](https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_usatoday_us_articles_590/0733c6a1c4e45378021f639371faf2aa)
Bishop Snyder's Bing acknowledged the 2026 season hasn't always been easy, but she came through when it mattered most.
Entering her final attempt only half an inch out of first place, she launched a leap of 19 feet, 4 3/4 inches to grab first place by more than six inches over Ella Helm of Indian Rocks Christian.
"While I was doing the jump, I was relaxing, like, 'This is my last jump and I'm just going to go for it,'" Bing said.
A few hours later, it was Cardinals teammate Hoff on top of the boys 400, outracing the pack around the final corner and winning in 47.65. The sophomore, attempting a sprint triple, also came third in the 100 and fourth in the 200.
The high jump, meanwhile, belonged to Trinity. Jackson and Branch were the last ones standing, and Jackson finally cleared 6 feet, 11 1/2 inches — nearly four inches past his prior personal best — for first place.
"He's always pushing me, so shout out to him," Jackson said.
In the statewide standings, Palm Beach Gardens Benjamin retained its girls title ahead of St. Petersburg Northside Christian, 62-53, in a battle not decided until Benjamin's second place in the concluding 4x400 relay. Northside Christian's Eliana Black achieved the 800-1,600 double, and Keymani Dillingham of St. Stephen's Episcopal also set an FHSAA meet record of 1:00.27 in the girls 400 hurdles.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union:Providence track & field wins four trophies at FHSAA Class 1A meet
