The early morning fog was still hovering above the ground making conditions wet and chilly for the start of this year's FSU Invitational. The sun was barely peeking above the trees as the gun fired for the start of the Boys Varsity race. You could see the runners' breath as they passed by, confirming the chilly bite in the air.
The Apalachee Regional Park is one of the prettiest cross country courses in the area. It has a permanent course markings that lead runners through a completely wooded area. This is a true cross country course as runners must navigate over uneven ground and avoid tripping over large tree roots. Spectators pushed hard against the boundaries of the flags in anticipation of their favored runners.
Both varsity races had some really exciting competition.
Julie Woolrath of Holy Trinity had another stellar outing after her great showing at Great American last weekend. The eighth-grader dipped out-paced a great field on her way to a course record time of 17:49.60 and needless to say she was quite ecstatic. The victory helped her team to a second place team finish with 53 points and a 19:01 team average. But it was Kacy Smith's Estero who went home with the big trophy, following up on their one point loss to Lakewood Ranch last week at flrunners.com Invitational with the FSU Invitational with a 10 point victory over Holy Trinity (18:59 team average). Smith finished in second place with a 17:57.02 over Teresa Ristow of Holy Trinity (18:17) and Stefanie Kurgat of Maclay (18:42).
For the boys, it was Max del Monte of Chamberlain following up his third place finish at the flrunners.com Invitational with the win in Tallahassee. He won a close one in 15:36 over Eduardo Garcia of Mandarin, who was just three seconds back. Del Monte's time was just two seconds behind Matt Mizereck's time from last year (15:34.27).
Holy Trinity's boys had an amazing top three with David Kilgore, Joey Castagnaro and Daniel Moore third (15:46), fourth (15:49), and sixth (15:55). That earned the Tigers a strong 16:15 team average, which was just a second slower than the 16:14 average that got them 11th at Great Americn last weekend. However, Estero surprisingly swooped in and grabbed victory by having a narrow 33-second 1-5 split and a 16:30 team average. Estero 62, Holy Trinity 67.