There’s a rhythm to the seasons. No one familiar with that rhythm is shocked when the temperatures get a little lower at this time of year, or the sun starts setting a bit earlier. You expect it.
Cross country season has its rhythm too, and no one familiar with that rhythm should be surprised at the little lull we’re getting before the state championship series.
The lull did come a little earlier than usual when the Panhandle Championships were cancelled in Marianna. In the west Panhandle, teams looking for a replacement race traveled to Pensacola for West Florida Tech’s meet. The Niceville Eagles swept the team titles, the girls finishing on top of an eight-team field with 41 points, and the boys winning a ten-team competition with 38. Choctawhatchee sophomore Shawna Lindsay edged Niceville sophomore Claire Crist 19:32.92 to 19:33.95 to win the girls' race. West Florida Tech junior Alexander Bulloch ran 16:58.92 to win the boys race for the home team.
Other Northwest Florida teams headed to Monticello, in the far east of the region, for Aucilla Christian’s Warrior Rampage. Chiles senior Jacob Kemp won the boys' 5K, touring the grounds of the UF/IFAS Jefferson County Extension Service in 17:24.50. Behind Kemp, the Chiles Timberwolves scored 35 points, winning the meet. The class 1A contenders from Maclay were second with 58 points. However, the Timberwolves that defeated Maclay and eight other teams on Saturday weren’t the Timberwolves that are leading the class 3A rankings. It was the Chiles “B” squad in Monticello that morning. The “A” squad was off training for District, which should give you an idea of just how dominant Chiles is this year.
Chiles senior Jacob Kemp setting the pace in the boys' race at the
Aucilla Christian Warrior Rampage
The first two miles of the girls’ 5K featured a duel of sophomores, Wakulla’s Haleigh Martin versus Maclay’s Caroline Willis. On the hilly last mile of the course, though, Martin broke the race open, going on to win the race in 19:47.60. It was a career-best time for Martin and her fourth win of the 2014 cross-country season. The Maclay Marauders, however, used Willis’s 20:17.80 second-place finish as the foundation for a 25-point score and the team title. In spite of the Martin’s win, Wakulla scored 73 points to place a distant second in the seven-team field.
Wakulla sophomore Haleigh Martin steals a lead on Maclay's Caroline
Willis with just over a mile to go in the girls' race at the Aucilla
Christian Warrior Rampage
Fort Walton Beach was one of the teams taking a break from competition during the Oct. 18 weekend, but they’ll be back in action on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Okaloosa County Cross Country Championships, one of several county, city, league, and conference championships taking place around Florida. You never want to discount Pensacola or Panama City, but as the home of Choctawhatchee, Fort Walton Beach, and Niceville, Okaloosa County is the heart of cross country west of the Apalachicola River. The Fort Walton Beach boys are favored to repeat, The girls’ race is not so clear. The Fort Walton Beach girls are the defending champs, and they have Emma Rudman, the 2012 and 2013 champ, on their side. But Fort Walton Beach has only beaten the Niceville girls once this season while placing behind them twice, and it’s Niceville’s home course. We’ll just have to see which team brings their game to Northwest Florida State College that afternoon.
Several Tallahassee schools will be visiting Greenwood Plantation near Thomasville, Georgia, on Saturday morning, Oct. 25, for Thomas County Central’s Yellowjacket Invitational. The Leon Lions will be there, but just as we didn’t see Avery Bartlett racing for Chiles at the Warrior Rampage, don’t expect to see Sukhi Khosla competing on the grounds of Greenwood. For the Lions, this is a chance for their sub-varsity runners to get in one more race.
After the Oct. 25 weekend the lull is over, with the District round of the State Championship series. From Oct. 28 to Nov. 1 there will be 128 different District races in Florida, which just might make it the cross-country’s busiest week. For Northwest Florida teams, District meets will take them to Baker, to Blountstown, to Lake City, to Milton, to Niceville, to Pensacola, and to Tallahassee. If you’re near one of those meets, you should go. Because for some of those teams, District could be their last race of the season. And for some of those runners, District could be the last race of their career.
Northwest Florida Correspondent Herb Wills
Herb Wills' running career goes back to the 1971 boys' age-group mile at the Florida Relays. Since losing that race he has won the 1976 Florida High School class 4A cross-country championship, 1979 AAU USA junior titles in cross-country and the 10,000 meters, and the 1989 TAC USA 30K national championship. As a distance runner at Florida State University from 1978 to 1982, he was NCAA All-American three times in track and once in cross country, and won a silver medal in the marathon at the 1981 World University Games. Graduating Florida State with a degree in mathematics, in the following years Wills ran in the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and placed tenth in the Boston Marathon in 1989. After more than a few years of duty as a hurdle setter and lane judge at track meets, Wills discovered that the public address announcer not only got to sit down at meets but was also sheltered from the rain. Since that revelation you can hear him with a microphone in his hand at several track and cross-country events in the Tallahassee area. Writing is another activity you can do while sitting down, and Wills has written about running for Racing South magazine and Tallahassee's local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat.
You can read more running related tidbits in his blog at http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/
Herb Wills NorthWest Florida Reports LINK
