Girls Recap
Kayley Delay and her Fletcher team haven't ventured far from Duval County. A scheduled trip to FSU PreState Invitational was cancelled due to Hurricane Matthew so there wasn't an opportunity to test herself. Her closest competition was the Katie Caples meet where she won by 38 seconds over eventual FSU PreState winner, Alyson Churchill of Lincoln.
Saturday, Delay ran comfortably and came away with another win in a time of 18:21.38.
"I wanted to run a decent time. I knew the weather was going to be cooler," said Delay. "I thought I could bust out a good time, but I wasn't really feeling it. "
Delay had her sights on the team outcome. They've won the District title once in her career and were favored to win Saturday. They did not disappoint as they came away with the win 33 to 55 over Mandarin.
"I figured maybe we would win since we had our top five in the top fifteen," said Delay after being informed of her team win. "That's so exciting. I'm really pumped for next week."
Fletcher's regional qualifying chances were buoyed by freshman Liberty Pigg who shaved off 49 seconds off her best time to take second in a time of 19:09.87.
Pigg never took running too seriously until this year. A 5:42.83 mile in middle school showed potential, but it wasn't something she was sure she wanted to do.
Joining the team this summer came as somewhat of a surprise to her father and UNF Head Cross Country and Track and Field Coach, Jeff Pigg. What was even more surprising was that after Liberty's first practice she reported that she had run with the state's top runner, Kayley Delay for four miles.
"It was at eight minute pace and she said she and Kayley ran together," said Pigg who also mentioned that Delay congratulated Liberty after her middle school race.
"I started running and I was like 'this is fun!,' " said Liberty. " The team are all such good people and so sweet. They helped push me along. I worked to try to be as good as I can be."
With seven teams entered four advanced to next week's Region 1 meet. Flagler Palm Coast finished third with 61 points, and Fleming Island finished fourth with 89 points.
Individually Lindsay Vansant of Lee was the only runner to qualify with her fourth place finishing time of 20:00.81.