Hit or Miss: Jen Blanco

Sumner Mullins eased up down the stretch of the 110-meter hurdles and turned back to Riverview High track coach Jim Anderson. 

He couldn’t help but grin. 

Four months ago, Mullins didn’t expect to be spending an overcast spring afternoon sprinting down the track. 

Now, the Rams’ top hurdler is back on the track, looking to make the most of the final weeks of his senior season. 

“It feels great to actually finish something I started,” Mullins said. “Of course I want to win, but I’ve learned I can finish something and I won’t quit when it gets hard.” 

In January, while his teammates were training for the season, Mullins was recovering from microdiscectomy surgery to repair three herniated discs  — an injury he suffered while deadlifting in the weight room over the summer leading into his junior year. 

Mullins felt the bar begin to slip through his fingers. The Rams linebacker reached down and picked it up. 

It wasn’t the smartest move — the bar weighed 425 pounds. 

Mullins immediately felt his back begin to pop. He laid down on bench thinking he had pulled a muscle. 

He hoped the pain would subside. It didn’t, but try telling his ego that. 

Mullins ended up playing through the injury before eventually seeing a neurosurgeon in January 2015. 

It was thought to be a career-ending injury. 

Clearly, someone forgot to tell Mullins that tiny bit of information. Or he just didn’t buy it. 

He sat out his junior track season and senior football season before returning to the track at the beginning of March. 

“I figured out a lot about myself,” Mullins said. “I learned to not take things for granted, and I rekindled my relationship with God.” 

Mullins is still in pain, but now it’s a different kind of pain. After not working out at all for 14 months, Mullins has been gradually trying to get back into shape. 

“I’m still weak,” Mullins said. “I hurt in places where I didn’t hurt before.” 

Mullins skipped the Rams first few meets as part of his training plan. The move appears to be working. 

On April 1, Mullins won the 110-meter hurdles at the 6th annual Marcus Freeman Invitational in 15.84 seconds. The following week, he finished second in the same event at the Sarasota County Championships with a season-best time of 15.36. 

Having only been back on the track for less than two months, Mullins already is near where he left off at the end of his sophomore season where he posted a personal best time of 15.14 and won the district title. 

Mullins returned to the track for the Class 4A-District 8 meet April 20 where he was expected to compete in the 110 hurdles as well as the 300 hurdles, which had been his signature event prior to his injury, for the first time this season. A top-four finish there and Mullins will advance to the Class 4A-Region 2 meet April 30. 

“I would love to make a push to states,” Mullins said. “That’s been my goal this entire time.” 

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SarahBeth Wengerd etched her name into the record books during the Class 8A-District 8 championship against Lakewood Ranch April 14. 

The Sailors third baseman, a University of South Florida commit, launched a solo home run in the top of the third inning to put Sarasota on the scoreboard. It was the 24th home run of Wengerd’s high school career and made her the school’s all-time home run leader. 

It was the lone bright spot of the night for the Sailors, who left Lakewood Ranch as the district runner-up after suffering a lopsided 16-1 loss. 

Wengerd, who also had a bunt single in the top of the first inning, had Sarasota’s only two hits of the game. 

It’s not what you would typically expect from a state runner-up team with four scholarship signees and a handful of other college commits on its roster. 

Wengerd was the hero on more than one occasion last season, most notably in the district championship game when her walk-off double gave the Sailors the Class 7A-District 10 title. 

It’ll be interesting to see how many more quality at-bats Wengerd has in store, as the Sailors travel to Clearwater Countryside for a regional quarterfinal game April 21 and an opportunity to extend their season another week. 

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