Check out the weekend's fastest performers
Freshmen Alyson Churchill and Valerie Lastra battled it our in the girls race as Niceville captured the team title. On the boy's side it was a rematch of regionals as Creekside edged out Chiles for the team trophy, but the Timberwolves crowned the individual champion in junior Michael Phillips. Andy Warrener recaps class 3A.
Sukhi Khosla of Leon is the only one to have gone under 15 minutes at the Apalachee Regional Park course in Tallahassee and he did that at Pre-State. Khosla, now at Oklahoma State, owns the fastest time from the XC Finals at the ARP with a 15:01.80 from 2014 and nobody has come close to breaking that. On the girl's side, three members of the class of 4A all have times in the top ten and will face off on Saturday morning. Defending champion Bailey Hertenstein has the fastest time, her PR 17:32.55, while runner-up Kayley Delay is 4th (17:56.72), and Rafaella Gibbons (18:05.50) is 8th on the list. We rank the top 500 girls and boys times at the Cross Country Finals held at Apalachee Regional Park.
Check out over two thousand photos from last years state meet by Cedric Gillette.
Michael Warre takes a statistical look at the Cross Country Finals for the boys. He plans on doing the girls version next year for us due to the short amount of time before the meet!
The Pine Crest girls broke the streak of runner-up finishes after finishing behind Bolles the past four years. This year, the Panthers defeated the Bulldogs running an 18:41 team average, the 4th best team average in Florida State Finals history, scoring 29 points (8th lowest in State history). We merged the results of every classification to find out the top girls teams regardless of class. Where does your squad stack up?
Buchholz senior Calum McFetridge and Durant senior Hafton Fliegelman finished third and fourth at the 4A Cross Country Finals and will be the favorites come November. See the top 500 returning times from the 2015 Cross Country finals and which boys have the best shots at bringing back the crown
The lone state champion returner from 2015 on either the boys or girls side is Riverview junior Bailey Hertenstein. Hertenstein's 17:32.55 is the fastest time regardless of class on the Apalachee Regional Park course in November. 2014 state champions Tsion Yared (2A) and Rafaella Gibbons (4A) also return for another ring. See the top 500 returning times from the 2015 Cross Country finals and which girls have the best shots at bringing back the crown.
The 2016 Cross Country Finals are less than three months away at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee. We looked at the top returning boys individuals and teams in every classification and ran virtual meets for 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A to see who had the best shot of taking home the hardware.
The 2016 Cross Country Finals are less than three months away at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee. We looked at the top returning girls individuals and teams in every classification and ran virtual meets for 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A to see who had the best shot of taking home the hardware.
Now's your chance to show everyone your knowledge of the sport (or just your powers of prediction)... It's our 2016 Cross Country Finals Prediction Contest... and you have just two days to enter. Guess correctly and you could be on your way to some sweet prizes. Ready... set... go!
Grace Blair of Oak Hall was third at last year's Cross Country Finals and the Eagles finished 4th. It marked the first time in a long time that Coach McTureous' program failed to make the podium. Is 2016 the year Blair and the rest of the girls win another title? Will Chase Hyland of the Pine School end his high school career with a championship? We answer these questions and more in our 1A preview.
Across the board 2A might be the most competitive classification. On the girl's individual front, three of the top five runners in the whole state, Natalie Varela, Amanda Beach and Tsion Yared go head to head with 2015 runner-up Caitlin Collier. Yared's Pine Crest Panthers look to end the four year title streak by Collier and the Bolles Bulldogs. Speaking of streaks, the Trinity Prep boys have won four in a row and are looking to make it five, but Coach Butler one of the winningest coaches in state history and his Satellite Scorpions have other plans. We preview the class 2A state meet.
Florida sees its fair share of freshmen talent every year and 2016 is no different. In the 3A girls race two of the state's best will be on display in Lincoln's Alyson Churchill and Mater Academy's Valerie Lastra. On the boy's side it will be yet another duel between UF commitment Matthew Clark of Creekside and Michael Phillips of Chiles. Add in Joshua Collins of Belen Jesuit and this race will be fast with major team implications on the line. Belen Jesuit has been missing from the podium the last two years and Collins can change that. The girls team battle is one-sided with Niceville, the best regardless of class, leading the way. We preview all the action of class 3A.
In the state's largest classification 4A, three of the four state champion individuals and teams from 2015 have a good chance to repeat in 2016. The easiest perhaps is in the team races where the Winter Park girls are looking for their third straight while the St. Thomas Aquinas boys are favorites to go back to back with their core nucleus. Bailey "Hurricane" Hertenstein is the reigning girls champion, is ranked number one, and has lost one race in her whole career as a junior. On the boy's side the title is up for grabs with a group of runners all relatively close in time and skill. We take an in-depth look at the 4A meet.
Grace Blair led the Oak Hall Eagles back to the top of the podium after a 4th place team finish last year. Blair picked up individual honors as well to win her first state title. On the boy's side Mt. Dora Christian Academy's Gabriel Curtis won and helped the Bulldogs place second as a team behind Westminster Academy who won for the first time in over three decades. Andy Warrener recaps all of the 1A races.
The 2016 Cross Country Finals are shaping up to be one of the best with epic battles on both the team and individual fronts slated for Saturday on the Apalachee Regional Park course in Tallahassee. We will have LIVE UPDATES and on-site coverage including photos, videos, interviews, and recaps of all the action! This article will be your go to HQ throughout the day Saturday and weekend!
The 2015 Cross Country Finals produced eight state champions many of whom graduated this spring. Dillard's Brittany Gill is now at UCF and 3A runner-up Krissy Gear of Ft. Myers hopes to leave Tallahassee with a gold medal around her neck on Saturday. We take a look at the top returning individuals for every class.
The Mt. Dora Christian Academy (Bible) boys' cross country team is currently ranked third going into this weekend's 1A Cross Country Finals. The Bulldogs have won their last four meets in a row with sophomore Gabriel Curtis leading the team to a first place district and regional finish. Last year, he was the lone representative for the school in Tallahassee where he crossed the line in 8th place. We caught up with Coach Zack White to talk about the teams road to state.
A look back to last year's race video coverage of this upcoming weekend's state championships across the country. Flashback Friday video coverage from 2015 state cross country meets in Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.
The Chiles girls made the 3A podium for the second straight year. After winning it all in 2015, the Timberwolves were the runner-up behind Niceville this year. Chris Tucker was on-site for flrunners.com and captured this great photo of the team after the 2016 Cross Country Finals and a total of 1,675 pictures of all the action.
The 2016 Cross Country Finals lived up to the billing of exciting races, individual match ups, and team battles that came down to the wire. Don't miss a minute of action with all of our race highlight videos.
Tyler Copeland was on-site at the 2016 Cross Country Finals and snapped over TWO THOUSAND photos from all eight races including this one of Rutherford's Davide Genette in the 2A race who was dotted with motivational messages. The senior finished 45th out of 191 runners.
2A was one of the most exciting classifications of the day. On the girl's side Caitlin Collier revenged her heartbreaking loss from 2015 while the Pine Crest girls finally defeated Bolles after four years in a row as the runner-up. On the boy's side, Caleb Pottorff and Charles Hicks battled it out for 5,000 meters with Pottorff winning his first XC title. The team trophy came down to the narrowest margin as Trinity Prep took their fourth straight 2A crown. Andy Warrener recaps all of the 2A races.
If you want photos from the 2016 Cross Country Finals we have you covered with over SIX THOUSAND from three different photographers. Cedric Gillette was on-site and captured over TWO THOUSAND including this image from the girl's 3A race that pitted two of the top freshman in the state in Lincoln's Alyson Churchill and Valerie Lastra of Mater Academy Charter. Churchill won the race in a new personal best of 17:55.22.
Check out the top 500 boys cross country times across the country at the 5K and 3 mile distances from meets held between October 31st thru November 6th.
Bailey Hertenstein and Kayley Delay came into the 4A Cross Country Finals with the top two times regardless of class. In the end it was Hertenstein who came away with her second straight title. On the team front, Steinbrenner ended a two year run by Winter Park at the top of the podium. Matt Doyle of Winter Springs won his first state title to end his senior cross country season, while St. Thomas Aquinas took their third team trophy in four years. Andy Warrener recaps the class 4A meet.
The 2A boys race was the first boys race of the 2016 Cross Country Finals and also the fastest. FSU commitment Caleb Pottorff, the 2015 runner-up, battled it out with Charles Hicks of Bolles for 5,000 meters to produce the top two times regardless of class in 15:08.12 and 15:09.13 with third place finisher Trent Mandato's 15:28.29 the third fastest. We merged the results of all four classifications to find out the fastest 500 boys times and who won the week.
Riverview junior Bailey Hertenstein defended her 4A Cross Country Finals championship with the fastest time of the day of 17:40.36. A total of four girls broke 18 minutes including 2A state champion Caitlin Collier (17:44.20), 3A state champion Alyson Churchill (17:55.22), and 2A runner-up Tsion Yared (17:59.49). We merged the results of all four classifications to find out the top 500 girls times and who won the week.
The Trinity Prep boys notched their fourth straight 2A championship scoring 50 points and boasting a team average of 15:56.17 and a 1-5 split of 45.50s. The Saints edged out Bolles (64) and Satellite (66 points) to win the trophy and rank number one in our boys combined team scores. The Bulldogs and Scorpions were the second and third best teams regardless of class, meaning 2A was LOADED this year. We merged the results from every classification to see which teams were the best of the best.
It's no secret every year that some classifications are stronger than others. That is why we took the results of all four classes from the 2016 Cross Country Finals and merged them together. Would you have finished higher in another race? Take a look at the top 500 girls and boys times overall.