The moon eclipsed overhead, stadium lights illuminated the cool night, and Florida's cross country stars were shining brightly! The first nighttime state meet was, by nearly all accounts, a fine innovation. It created a wonderful mystique and the cool weather promoted some very fast times-including a new state record by Jenny Barringer.
The crowd got interested after she came through the mile at 5:08; putting her on pace to beat the elusive 17-minute mark. Then at mile two when it was announced that she was 20 seconds under the pace she set at the flrunners.com Invitational (where she ran a 17:23) interest turned complete captivation. As she rounded the final bend toward the finish line, all eyes shifted like a ping pong match: Jenny, the clock, Jenny, the clock. We all wondered if she could do it and cheered in response. The Oviedo junior responded with a big sprint the last 200 meters.
Jenny accelerated to a 16:54 state record--smashing her previous best time on the course by 29 seconds and her previous state meet record by well over a minute. As she crossed the line, she could not contain her emotion. Barringer threw up her arms and screamed in excitement. Parking: $2. Admission: $7. Seeing Jenny Barringer crush her 17-minute goal: Priceless.
There was plenty of other excitement at Ed Radice. In the shadows of the 4A girls race, behind Barringer, many failed to notice sophomore Kerry Allen's fantastic run of 17:55--the second fastest time of the night. Laura Bowerman is finally healthy; she took control early of her 3A Girls race and took it all the way home to an 18:05 state championship all alone.
The 1A girls race was a race of domination, though not as dramatic: Robyn Debenedet of Episcopal lead practically from start to finish and Holy Trinity's imposing pack easily crowned them with another state title. Nicole Schappert and Jackie Areson served up a 1-2 finish, propelling their young Pope John Paul team past Bishop Kenny. It was hard to say after the race: BK had an impressive pack, but PJP had the 1-2 punch plus a surprisingly tight 1-5 pack. In the end the group of rookies edged out the perenial titans. After the race Schappert and Areson told flrunners.com laughingly about some of her teammates who are new to running: \"...we were doing 800 meter workouts on the track, and a few of the girls asked how many laps it was!\"
On the boys side of things, Tim McLeod made the 1A individual titles an Episcopal sweep. He easily won, while leading his team to their first title in well over a decade. Winter Park\'s Coleman Hoover had to dig deep to out kick Taravella\'s relative unknown Jake Wilke who had a huge PR. Hoover was joined closely by the awe-inspiring Winter Park pack, and the Wildcats will be adding another trophy to their self.
The 3A race was extremely exciting, with the lead changing constantly before a three-pack of Alex Miletich, Scott Hans, and Bryan Anderson broke from the lead pack. They would take it down to the final turn and in an all guts battle Miletich came out the victor finding a bit of breathing room over Anderson and Hans in the final 50 meters.
Along with Barringer\'s record, the most thrilling race of the evening had to be the 2A boys race. At the mile mark Jeremy Criscione had taken the initiative, holding on to a couple second lead over flrunners.com Race of Champions winner Eduardo Arguello, followed closely by Chris Mullaney. The front three looked strong and surprisingly had gained some separation to the next bunch featuring studs such as Bryan Sharkey, and Enoch Nadler. But where was Andy Billadeau? It appeared as if he again would not be a contender; after finishing 14th at the flrunners.com Invitational, many were already counting him out of the medal stand.
At the half way point, Andy had inched his way back up alongside Sharkey and Nadler, but the group still had considerable ground to make up. By two miles, Criscione began to fall back, holding on desperately to third place behind Arguello and Mullaney, who were changing lead and drafting positions every few seconds. But there foot by foot came closing the rat pack of Biladeau, Sharkey, and Nadler. Hidden by the curve and the hill, what happened next was obsconded from my view; however, once the group emmerged and neared the 800m-to-go point it was Biladeau! No one could hold on. Andy finished with his first cross country championship with a time of 15:19, Sharkey came next at 15:27, and Nadler at 15:36. The chase back had done it. Arguello held on on to fourth, followed by Mullaney, Larry Woener and Criscione.
Biladeau said after the race that it wasn\'t so much a matter of him coming back from a slow start to the race, but instead a matter of splits. \"I am a kilometer guy,\" he said, \"I was looking at the K marks and knew that if I hit 3:03 on each of those that they would have to run at least a 15:15 to beat me.\" It was that discipline that allowed him to stay calm and cool his nerves, while some of his competitors went out at a quicker pace. Andy hit is 3:03 splits almost precisely.
What a race! What a night!
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We are currently working on touching up, formatting, and choosing the best photos from the 350+ that we took of the meet. Expect at least some of those to come out early this week. We also are awaiting the results from either the timekeeper or the FHSAA. We will post them as soon as they are provided.