Johnson, DeGale Seal The Deal At Spikes & Spurs Classic

A slight breeze swept across the Flagler County Fairgrounds on a beautiful Saturday morning in September. The weather conditions of around 70 degrees and overcast set the perfect atmosphere for what turned out to be an extremely competitive race on a blazing course. Nearly 367 boys and 331 girls spread across 20 teams turned out for their first official meet of the season. Sticking with the theme of a course which had a chute located in a rodeo arena and was titled “Spikes and Spurs,” hosting Coach Dave Halliday and his volunteers began the race with the unorthodox crack of a bull whip. The dead silence of a largely compacted group of athletes erupted into the sound of a stampeding herd, as the familiar sound of cross country season began.

In order to avoid being boxed in, the leaders on the boys’ side set out to a lightning quick pace. The lead pack of around 10 runners came through the first mile around 4:50, and from there the group minimized to 6 runners competing for first due to a slow backwoods that was waterlogged and muddy. 
 
The race for first came down to the wire as Ryan DeGale of Lake Mary barely held off the speedy kick of Ryan Aponte from St. Augustine. DeGale won with a time of 15:51.79 over Aponte who finished in 15:51.94. Perhaps even more notable would be the outstanding performance of Ocala Vanguard freshman Joey Fitzpatrick who clocked a time of 15:54.80 in his first official high school 5K, earning him a 3rd place finish. From the onset, the visiting Georgia behemoths Peachtree Ridge flexed their team superiority, while Bartram Trail and Ocala Vanguard fought hard for second place. Peachtree Ridge won the team race with 57 points and a team average of 16:31.41 Bartram Trail’s powerful top 3 finished in the top 20 and their tight pack of top 5 finished in the top 30 to edge Ocala Vanguard for second in the team race. Bartram Trail scored 80 points and averaged 16:46.15, while Vanguard scored 100 points and averaged 16:47.54.
 
On the girls’ side three girls were able to break the 19 minute mark. Sinclaire Johnson of Lake Brantley clearly took the crown in a time of 18:28.62, followed by Fatema Jaffer of Lake Mary (18:36.83) in 2nd, the duo of Ocala Vanguard  Audrey Carpenter (18:57.34) and Elizabeth Mulford (19:18.93) in 3rd and 5th, and Alyssa Bayliff of Seabreeze (19:14.90) in 4th. Ocala Vanguard put their top 2 in the top 5 and their top 4 in the top 15 with an average of 20:05.07 to score 77 points and grab the team title. Peachtree Ridge placed their top 5 in the top 35 to score 116 points and average 20:45.47, good enough for second. In a virtual meet based on returners from last year, 3A District 5 competitors Seabreeze and Vanguard are ranked 2nd and 3rd overall in 3A, so today’s early season performance may foreshadow the possible future events come championship season as Vanguard scored 89 points less than Seabreeze’s 166.
 
Overall, the course produced some extremely quick times and did not fail to produce the anticipated excitement. For many runners, it was a great start to the season on which they will look to build over the course of the long cross country season ahead.

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