3A State Meet Preview: Freshmen Churchill, Lastra Lead Girls Field

FLORIDA XC 2016: FHSAA CROSS COUNTRY FINALS
Eddie Romero

Boys Preview


Individuals:

The boy's 3A race this year most likely will have a tight pack of front runners.  The top five times from regionals had about an 11 second split and three of those runners ended up dipping into the 15s. In fact, all five runners have run in the 15s this season. Starting with Michael Phillips, who is from Chiles High School, ran the fastest time at a regional. He clocked 15:50.90 to win the 3A Region 1 race, which for Phillips is somewhat slow compared to his personal best. Earlier this season, Phillips won Pre-State and ran his best time of 15:27.80, which for anyone that doesn't know is the same course for states. Some could say that for him to have raced that well at Pre-State gives him a pretty decent advantage on all of the other runners but that's not the case. 

Joshua Collins, a junior from Belen Jesuit, was just a few seconds shy of beating Phillips at Pre-State. Collins set a new personal best as well that day to come in second with a time of 15:30.90. He's also coming into states with the second fastest time out of regionals which happened to be less than a second off Phillips time. Collins ran a 15:51.20 to win the 3A Region 4 race which started another win streak which he could possibly continue at states. That is unless the Creekside duo and Matthew Cashin interrupts the party. 

Matthew Clark, who is Jimmy Clark's younger brother, and Nicholas Deal will be sure to make an impact up at the front. Both seniors are teammates from Creekside High School and have ran several times this season in the 15s, making them dangerous to Collins and Phillips. Clark ended up finishing second to Phillips at the 3A Region 1 with a time of 15:57.20. Then Deal came in just a few seconds behind at 16:02.10 but ended up finishing fourth. Finishing in between Clark and Deal was, Matthew Cashin, who is a senior at Leon High school. Cashin came in third at the 3A Region 1 race with a time of 16:01.50. He's ran once in the high 15s this season so Cashin is someone we could see up in the front.    

Teams:


Looking at the boy's team battle, it seems to be a three way fight between some of the top teams in the state. Starting with Chiles, who beat Creekside at regionals by nine points and had a team average of 16:32, looks to have a strong run to a first place finish at states. But Creekside was only a second off Chiles's team average and actually had a smaller split by a few seconds. That's good for Creekside because if Chiles's fifth runner doesn't close the gap then they might have a better shot at winning the team title. In the end let's not forget about Belen Jesuit, who hasn't been on the podium for the past few years but has dominated this season. Belen scored 30 points at their regional and had a team average of 16:48, which isn't bad since their team has yet to really be pushed at a meet. With that said, Belen has a chance to pull off a victory but with Creekside and Chiles right there, it's a team race you don't want to miss.      

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