In Her Own Words: Alex Eaton - The "Triple Crown" & Team Bonding



This past 
Friday my teammates and I ran districts at Taylor Lake Park. It's crazy that I will never race at this park again. It's one of the only legit cross country courses in Pinellas County and I have probably raced there like 20 times. I have so many memories here and I added one more great memory Friday morning.

My teammates and I went into districts with one goal: to repeat a district champions. Both boys and girls were going for the "Triple Crown" which is a city, county, and district championship. It's a big deal on our team. Our coaches get crowns from Burger King, staple three together, and present them to us before school.

The weather was cool and nice and we were so excited to race! We warmed up, stretched, got to the like, and before I knew it, the race had begun. I started out towards the front along with Grace Casagrande. We ran the majority of the race together and she ended up beating me by seven seconds. Grace is having an amazing year and I'm so happy for her!  I ran 18:28, which is a season best for me by 30 seconds. I finally felt good while I was racing and I actually really enjoyed the race. It was so nice to run with someone. My teammates had great races: Olivia Rovin finished 3rd, Sophia Velsey finished 4th, Kai Greenles was 6th, and Savannah Broome was 8th. Also placing well for the Chargers were Rachel Knauf (12th) and Peninah Benjamin (16th). Our girls team finished first was a score of 23 points.

We cheered on our boys during the race, and they did great as well. Ross Porter was second and Luke Peterson was third. Our others boys ran really well too. Josh miles was 7th, Justin Scoby was 8th, and Casey Cuerton was 15th. Josh Katz and Matt Meismer also finished strong, placing in the top 20. The boys also won.

After the races and awards, we did not return to school. Instead, we had a really fun day of team bonding. We went to Panera and to teammate Peninah Benjamin's house. There, we paddle boarded, had a sand/mud fight, went in the pool and hot tub, and went boating. It was a great day and I couldn't imagine a better team to spend the day with.

This week we will be heading over to Melbourne for regionals. I'm so excited to race there! I'll have great competition once again, which is so exciting for me.

Congrats to those who qualified for regionals and best of luck to you this week. If you didn't, don't despair. There is plenty of opportunity in life to run more. Happy running!

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