On-Site Coverage:
About the Meet:
The Key West XCursion meet has always been a relatively low-key meet that usually caters to a handful of teams from South Florida, but to kick off this season, there were over 100 athletes from nine different schools attending yesterday, making it one of the biggest races they've ever put together. The race is run on the Key West Golf Course, but don't let the bermuda grass fool you, as this two-loop monster has almost 50 hills and truly earns it's name as "The Gauntlet". Although very rainy throughout the weekend, with high chances of storms, the morning of the competition was beautiful as the races kicked off just after sunrise. A big thank you goes out to everyone in the Southernmost Runners Club and the staff at Key West HS for putting on this great event, with special thank yous to Coach Rick MacKenzie and Coach Terrence White for making everyone feel welcomed and setting up a great all around cross country meet! And for those that are interested, in two more weeks the second round of the Key West XCursion is on the meet calendar!
Girls Race:
Heading into this race there looked to be a tough three team battle on the girls side: Westminster Christian, St. Brendans, and John A. Ferguson were all coming into this meet with pretty strong packs and depth. As the race kicked off, there was a very large green uniform pack heading through the half mile, Westminster and St. Brendans both wearing their green jerseys for the meet, with only a couple of gray Ferguson jerseys and one navy Carrollton jersey sprinkled in. As the race developed, the Ferguson girls worked their way through the pack toward the front to make it a very competitive finish. Although Westminster had their fourth girl through the line before anyone elses, Ferguson was able to push their 4-5-6-7 inside Westminster's fifth girl to help them solidify the team victory. And although St. Brendans was also able to push their 5-6 inside of Westminster's fifth girl as well, they didn't have enough of a 1-2 punch to catch the runner-up position and finished third. Carrollton, Key West, and Cypress Bay finished out the scoring respectively, and while they all had close packs as well, a strong top three individual finisher for Carrollton helped them secure the fourth place finish.
The top female finishers. First, second, and fourth through eighth, in the top row. Ninth through 15th in the bottom row.
Girls Award Winners:
Individual Champion: Aylwyn "Aileen" Hernandez (20:40.51)
Team Champions: John A. Ferguson HS - 37 points
Team Runner-up: Westminster Christian - 47 points
Boys Race:
The virtual meet on the boys side showed this competition to be a little bit less competitive for the team title than that on the girls side. While there were plenty of strong individuals from multiple teams (as seen by the variety of jerseys in the picture below), the team from Ferguson had a little bit more depth than it's competitors. Similar to the girls race however, the competition went our fairly quickly and all of the different teams were scattered from the first half mile through the mile mark, but after that the strong Ferguson pack moved up throughout the race to help them secure the team championship by placing three boys in the top eight, and then charging through in 11th-12th-13th-14th-15th-17th places. The next pack that followed had a couple of boys from Westminster Christian, Key West, and Homestead, but by only placing one boy in the top ten for Westminster and Homestead versus two in the top five for Key West, meant the host school would pick up the runner-up honors. Westminster finished third and Homestead fourth, with Atlantic Christian and Florida Christian closing out the team scores in fifth and sixth respectively.
The top male finishers. First through eighth, 19th in the top row. Ninth through 11th, 16th through 18th in the bottom row.
Boys Award Winners:
Individual Champion: Abiel Payano, Ferguson HS (18:07.00)
Team Champions: John A. Ferguson HS - 27 points
Team Runner-up: Key West HS - 54 points
The girls and boys team champions from John A. Ferguson HS with Coach Ryan Raposo (top left).
And for those that are interested in running the second Key West XCursion meet for 2014, check out the meet page for more info!