(This story has been updated to correct an inaccuracy.)
The Northside is back on top of Jacksonville’s track and field scene.
Host Raines brought home its third Gateway Conference boys championship in six years and Jackson repeated on the girls side in the annual track and field meet for Duval County public schools, one final test before the postseason.
For Raines, the wins started early and kept on coming: Johdeem Jones in the shot put (55 feet, 2 1/2 inches), Zalen Martin in the discus (125 feet, 10 inches), Kelvin Brown in the 100 (11.15), Owen Kaye in the 200 (22.15) and the 4×100 relay team. The Vikings scored 126 points, ahead of 93 from Jackson and 79 1/2 from 2025 boys champion Mandarin.
Iason Williams became the Vikings’ first athlete to win both the Gateway 110 hurdles (15.09) and 400 hurdles (56.69), and Raheim Roberts entered the school’s all-time top five with his winning 6 feet, 2 1/2 inches in the high jump.
For the Jackson girls, late events made the difference to secure 117 points, overtaking Fletcher at 103 and Riverside at 81. Danielle Hagans won the 100 (12.15) and 200 (24.80), Nijah Garnes topped the 400 hurdles (1:04.74), DeAsia Smith leaped 16 feet, 5 inches in the long jump and the Tigers won the 4×400 and 4×800 relays.
It’s another sign that, once more, Jacksonville will likely be celebrating some champions when the Florida High School Athletic Association meet returns to the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium from May 6-9. National website MileSplit has projected the Raines boys as an early favorite alongside the likes of Cardinal Newman and Montverde Academy for the Class 2A portion of the state meet, back in a four-day format.
Raines boys track has won three prior FHSAA team titles in 1976, 1989 and 1998, the first two under Hall of Fame coach James Day and the latter under Kim Anderson.
More feats from the Gateway meet:
Paxon flag football breaks through
A two-minute whirlwind made Gateway Conference history for Paxon flag football.
In one minute and 55 seconds, Paxon hit formerly-unbeaten Mandarin for three touchdowns before halftime and captured the Golden Eagles’ first Gateway trophy in a 26-0 road shutout.
Now 11-1, perfect except for a 13-0 loss to undefeated Ponte Vedra on March 26, Paxon is dreaming big.
“I really believe that if we’re really executing, there’s only several teams that can compete with us in the state,” Paxon head coach Patrick Logue said.
Paxon struck fast. At 1:55 in the second quarter, Jordyn Moxon powered up the middle to break a 0-0 tie. Fast-forward to the 16.7-second mark, after a Mandarin three-and-out, and Elyanna Perez fired a touchdown pass to Taniya Booker. On the next play, Booker intercepted Mandarin for a pick-six, her second touchdown in 11 1/2 seconds. At 19-0, the Golden Eagles were in command.
“It just comes to me easily,” said Booker, who finished with three touchdowns. “Everything that Coach tells us, we just put it in our heads and we go out there and execute.”
Fueled by constant pressure off the edge from 21-sack freshman Saniyah Hawkins, described by Logue as a “complete game-changer,” Paxon kept Mandarin off balance all game and limited the Mustangs (11-1) to two first downs.
Paxon enters the regular season’s final week in a close race with Choctawhatchee for the potential top seed in Region 1-2A, and with it home field advantage for regionals.
“This is a big step toward what we want to do at the state championship,” Perez said.
Rare tie for Sharks, Flashes
Trivia time: Who won the final regular season baseball game of 2026 in St. Johns County?
(Roll Final Jeopardy music…)
The answer: nobody.
St. Joseph and Ponte Vedra played to a rare 6-6 tie in the regular season finale on April 10, following an unusual sequence of events that left the Flashes at 18-5-1 and the Sharks at 15-9-1.
St. Joseph led 6-2 entering the bottom of the seventh inning when lights failed at Ponte Vedra’s field. Eventually, the lights came back on, and Ponte Vedra rallied to knot the scores at 6-6, with a ball off the bat of Evan Rubocki plating the tying run.
After the inning ended, with extras looming, the game was called at 6-6. That averted the prospect of a long extra-inning matchup that could have depleted the pitching staff of both teams ahead of FHSAA districts.
The tie is believed to be the first on record for Ponte Vedra baseball, which began play in 2008-09.
Gateway finals balanced in 2025-26
With only softball left to go, the Gateway Conference is near the end of one of its most balanced recent seasons.
In all, eight different schools have lifted Gateway trophies, following the successes for Raines, Jackson and Paxon during the past week’s action.
The roll call: Baldwin (baseball), Fletcher (boys golf, boys swimming, girls swimming, wrestling), Jackson (boys basketball, girls basketball, girls track), Mandarin (boys cross country, girls weightlifting), Paxon (flag football), Raines (football, boys track), Stanton (bowling, girls golf, boys tennis, girls tennis) and Wolfson (girls cross country, volleyball, boys soccer, girls soccer).
April 16 is the championship date for softball, a sport won by Baldwin for five consecutive years.
Note: The original version of this story incorrectly identified the Raines head coach for the school’s third FHSAA track championship.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Raines, Jackson build track and field speed ahead of FHSAA districts
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
