Ana Wallace Blazes 17:26.50 At Great American, Garners Individual & Team Runner-Up Trophies

Great American Festival
Todd Grasley


Ana Wallace became the first Floridian of 2017 to go under 18 minutes when she ran 17:56.84 at the Buffalo Invitational. At Alligator Lake, it seemed like more of a workout for the Chiles senior who was 5th in 19:35.80. Maybe she was just looking ahead to the Great American XC Festival Race of Champions. Against a field that included Kelsey Chmiel from NY, who was 5th at NXN, Wallace had a monster day.


Chmiel took it out from the gun and never looked back running a personal best of 16:50.31, but Wallace also clocked a new PR by THIRTY seconds on the WakeMed course. A course that is also home to NXNSE. Her new state leading time was nearly five seconds better than third place Kaitlynn Wolfe of Blacksburg and ranks as the 14th best mark all-time according to our FLRunners.com database sandwiched between Karen Xiang's 17:20 from Foot Locker South in 2013 and Lily William's 17:29 from the Jesse Owens Classic in 2011.

Florida saw two other athletes, Rafaella Gibbons, and Wallace's teammate Emily Culley also make the top twenty. Gibbons was 12th in 18:10.60, her second best time of the season behind her 18:05.20 at the Wingfoot XC Classic in Georgia. Culley was 17th in the 18:33.30, beating her PR by .20 from the Buffalo Invitational.



Equally as impressive as Wallace's individual showing, was the team performance. The Timberwolves finished second behind one of the best teams in the southeast, Blacksburg out of Virginia 115 to 143. Wallace was second while teammates Emily Culley (17th) and sophomore Caitlin Wilkey (28th) gave the squad three in the top 30 and a team average of 18:49. The Winter Park girls headlined by Gibbons were 14th in the 23 team field.

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