With a pair of back-to-back, 30+ team invitationals in the Tampa area, Saturday's Land O'Lakes Gator Invite was almost a mirror image of the Mitchell Invitational the week before. Ocala Vanguard carried both team titles. Sickles' James Zentmeyer edged Vanguard's Joey Fitzpatrick for the boys title and Vanguard's Audrey Carpenter beat Mitchell's Emily Kerns for the girls title in a near carbon copy from last week.
On-Site Coverage
The girls went off first and it was Carpenter and Kerns stride-for-stride as they came out of a wooded trail, near a chain-link fence backstop at the first mile mark. The trail wound around and took a big, sandy curve near where the runners started. By that point Carpenter had gotten out in front of Kerns and Vanguard's Elizabeth Mulford worked in front of Kerns, then taking up third. The second pass near t...