Sports: Top moments of 2014

State champs
A former three-sport athlete, Emily Harding gave up basketball her senior year to focus on running.
The move paid off in May when Harding captured a pair of state titles at the Class 3A State Track & Field Championships, in Jacksonville.

Harding ran a personal best 4 minutes, 51.61 seconds to win the 1,600-meter run by nearly two seconds. She returned to the track later that day to claim the state title in the 800, finishing in 2:15.12 to edge past Miami Carol City’s Julia Porter (2:15.43).

Harding also helped the 4x800 relay team capture a fifth-place medal.

Earlier on the track, Cardinal Mooney senior Grace Casagrande captured a pair of individual Class 1A state championship medals of her own. Casagrande won the 3,200 in 11:01.54 — her first gold medal. She also finished fourth in the 1,600 in 5:12.75.

Passing mark
Reese Vita had personal aspirations of breaking the Cardinal Mooney passing record before the season was over, but the Cougars’ signal caller didn’t know how close he actually was to the mark.

It wasn’t until Cardinal Mooney called a timeout following Vita’s 18-yard completion on the Cougars’ opening possession versus St. Pete Catholic Oct. 10 that Vita realized what had happened.

Vita had just surpassed Jamie Burke as Cardinal Mooney’s all-time leader in career passing yards. Burke set the mark of 3,375 yards in 2001.

Vita, who finished with 209 yards and two touchdowns in the Cougars’ 49-7 homecoming victory over the Barons, achieved the milestone in just two-and-a-half years as a starter.

Monumental milestone
In her third season with the Lady Tornadoes, Yamaris Guevarez reached a milestone that only a handful of players achieve throughout their high school careers.

The Booker High junior guard was 17 points away from hitting the 1,000-point mark heading into the Lady Tornadoes’ non-district game versus North Port Nov. 24.

Guevarez, who first began talking about reaching the milestone in middle school, scored her 16th and 17th points on a basket in the third quarter, giving her exactly 1,000 points for her career. She finished with a game-high 27 points.

Going out in style
Karan Higdon couldn’t have scripted it any better.

Donning his Riverview High jersey for the final time Nov. 7, the Rams’ running back led his team onto the field against rival Sarasota in the season finale for both teams.

In his final high school game, Higdon put together his best performance of the year, rushing for 236 yards and four touchdowns to lead Riverview to 33-7 victory over Sarasota.

Higdon scored on runs of 16, 94, 10 and 4 yards to lead the way for Riverview.

With the win, the Rams earned their third straight victory over the Sailors. Following the victory, Higdon joined his teammates in the end zone in celebration in front of a jubilant Riverview Kiltie Band.

Softball sluggers
Clinging to a one-run lead, the Lady Blazers were two outs away from making school history and landing a berth in the Final Four.

Ace pitcher Cheyenne Miller forced a groundout and a pop out in the top of the seventh inning to close the game and give Sarasota Christian a 7-6 victory over Vero Beach Master’s Academy in the Class 2A-Region 3 finals May 5. It was the Lady Blazers’ second-consecutive one-run game of the regional tournament.

With the win, the Lady Blazers, who were making their first regional final appearance since 2004, captured their first regional championship in school history.

As the regional champion, Sarasota Christian earned a berth in the Class 2A state semifinals May 7.