Spruce Creek Sets Pace at Deland Invitational

The funny thing about statistics is that while they never lie, their story can be shrouded in mystery. Take the tale of this year’s Deland Invitational, for instance.
Apparently, a slightly new course was no problem for the very adaptable girls. Last year 9 % of the field finished the 5K in under 21 minutes. This year it was 7%; statistically consistent. The boys however, seemed pace-challenged. In 2006 23% of them finished the race in less than 19 minutes. This year it was 11%. And with the meet being pretty much a two team event--Spruce Creek took both girls’ races and Lyman both boys’, with the other team finishing second in three out of the four races--victory was certainly a game of numbers.
 
In winning the Varsity Girls Race Mandy Perkins continued her domination of Volusia County (veni, calcitrus, vici: I came, I kicked, I conquered), pulling team mate Brooke Nebel along in her wake.
 
“I know in the beginning Brooke Baumann (Deland) was near the lead with Mandy and the Lyman girl (Ruth Ashley, last year’s overall winner in 19:52.59).” explained Nebel. “When I passed Brooke, the Lyman girl came up with me. She passed me and went with Mandy for awhile. When Mandy began her kick in the woods (half a mile to go), the Lyman girl managed to stay with her for a ways. But Brooke Baumann slowed significantly.”
 
Ashley, the Lyman sophomore, picks it up from there: “I caught up to Mandy Perkins at about 2 1/4 and started pacing off her. At about 2 ¾ she pulled away. I wanted to finish strong, but when I started my kick Brooke Nebel sprinted past me. “
Perkins (19:23.07), Nebel (19:30.16) and Ashley (19:34.87) provided the day’s most thrilling finish. Although finishing third, Ruth wasn’t entirely disappointed. “I felt it was still a good race because I PR’d for the season and felt good all the way.” (Her career best, run last year at the Regionals, is 19:27.)
 
Not far behind the aforementioned trio, Father Lopez’s Julie Mayfield (20:44.98) and Spruce Creek’s Raksha Ravikumar (20:48.23) heated up the pace in the last half of the race. And, while she wasn’t able to catch Mayfield, Raksha outran her former PR (20:52).
 
“Last week at ERAU (where she managed a slower 23:35), we were mentally out of it. With those hills and sand it is an intimidating course, even though we trained on hills specifically for the race,” explained the Spruce Creek senior.
“We really like this meet. It feels like our home course and we always run fast here. Plus, we had intense workouts--repeats--all week. The coaches were thinking past this meet, to flrunners.com (October 6th in Titusville) and state.”
Of course, after further questioning, Raksha let slip what was probably the biggest factor in her spectacular (overall) fifth place finish.
 
“I was up all night making these good luck charms--little feet--for my team mates…and besides not getting any sleep, it almost caused me to miss the bus (to the meet), so I didn’t eat breakfast either.” (Hmmm, no sleep + no food= PR…Eureka!) Ironically, she was so tired that she forgot to pass out all those intricately crafted “little feet’” and they all sat in her athletic bag the entire race. So does that mean that she was the recipient of their cumulative good luck?
15 year old sophomore Chris Rudloff of Mainland didn’t need any luck in the Boys Varsity race because he had worp drive.
 
Senior Alex Frazier of Spruce Creek was all set to win the race when Rudloff whooshed by. “Lewis (Coleman of Warner Christian) and I were running together,” sighed Frazier. “He (Chris) came up and I thought he was pacing off me. In the last 800 I let him pass to kind of switch off, but he just out kicked me. I guess he had more heart.”
 
“Alex Frazier and this blond kid with a red shirt (Coleman) were in the lead. I was worried. I thought I’d finish third,” confessed Rudloff. “I ran against Alex at Astronaut and he beat me by nine seconds. (Prior to the race) I looked on flrunners.com and saw the outrageous times. I just wasn’t too sure of myself. But honestly, my Dad and my coach (Chris Saylor) said I could win.”
 
“My coach advised me to run my own race and if I did I would have a chance to beat him. (In preparation) I had my pasta and pizza and downloaded and just tried to stay with him.In the last 200 yards I managed to get in front of him and kicked my hardest…I didn’t even want to look back.” 
 
Although Rudloff set a 16:56 PR at the Astronaut Classic, he never considered himself a front runner until after his DeLand finish. “I won only one other race before, but this is the first one with a lot of schools. I feel like a threat now. I feel really good…I made myself recognized.”
 
The Spruce Creek Girls JV team, aka The Orange Army, took 1-2-3-4-5-6-8-9-11-12-13-14-15--guess which school managed to squeeze into 7th and 10th?--for a perfect 15 point shutout of the rest of the 67 runner field. Led by Brenna Mathis in 22:47 (good enough to have placed 15th in the varsity race), they seemed to be stretching on to the horizon…or at least all the way around Sperling Sports Complex. One wonders if their coach uses that image to help himself fall asleep at night.
 
Things were a little tighter in the Boys JV race. The 1-2 finish of Lyman’s James Maloney (19:18) and Jake Running (19:24), however, made the difference…that and Lyman placing five runners among the top ten finishers. Lyman and Spruce Creek seem to have a way of eliminating everyone else from competition when they show up at the same meet.
 
Finishers: BV-63; GV-69; BJV-91; GJV-67 Total: 290
 
Footnotes:
Coach Jim Lowenstein, never quite satisfied with his Sperling Park course, likes to tweak it every single year. First he’ll move the finish. Then he’ll take a loop here, and move it over there. Straighten this part and sinuate that. Erase a tangent and add an arc. The first mile is never in exactly the same place. In fact, eventually it might become the second mile…or maybe the third. If this sounds complicated, consider the returnees (from 2006) among the 290 harriers (appropriate name here) that completed the 2007 Deland Invitational. Still, the kids all love this meet , and look forward to it. It is also popular with spectators, who can move freely from spot to spot and watch the race(s) from any number of vantage points.