State cross country titles for Bishop Kenny boys, Bolles girls
Mandarin boys finish runner-up in Class 4A
Two cross country state championships and one runner-up, not a bad morning in Tallahassee.
The Bishop Kenny boys and Bolles girls, led by David Yarborough and Mackenzie Wilson, respectively, captured Class 2A state titles by the same 41-point margins. In Class 4A, the Mandarin boys were second, their best-ever finish.
The Bulldogs (58) easily outpointed runner-up Pine Crest (99) to win the Class 2A girls state championship. For the boys, the Crusaders finished with 69 points, well in front of Immokalee (110).
It was just one of those mornings where everything felt perfect and turned out that way, too.
Four of Bolles' five scorers turned in season-best times, led by Wilson, whose mark of 18 minutes, 28.85 seconds was 8 seconds faster than her previous low.
"I really felt we had some room for error today, which you don't like to have happen," said Bulldogs coach Tony Ryan. "At the end of the day, you still have to go out and run your best race. For them all to run their best race of the year, that was too good to be true."
Bolles was dominant throughout its lineup, with Rachel Shapiro, Allison Hajda and Lily Arnold finishing 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively. Ashley De Hechavarria was the final scorer, taking 20th.
Like Bolles, the Crusaders' depth was far too much for the field. After finishing second in 2011 to Ransom Everglades and returning nearly its entire lineup, Kenny coach Kevin Curran said the next step was a state title. And it was, its second since 2009, and eighth all-time, which ranks second in state history to Largo (10).
"We knew were returning a good, young team," he said. "We worked harder this summer and all season and kept ahead of the 2A competition. We ran perfectly, probably our best race of the season."
Yarborough made a push for an individual title, but spent the latter portion of the race 10 to 20 meters back of Alex Pedraza (15:44.34) of Golden Gate and could never close the gap. Kenny teammate Michael Barr wasn't far behind, taking sixth (16:14.65).
Mandarin put three runners in the top 19. The Mustangs' best finish had been a sixth in 2007.
In Class 1A, Providence was fourth in its attempt to defend its girls state title.
