Say What?! No Florida Boys Qualify?! Two Girls Make Cut.

Record-fast times proved Florida's hype wrong at the FLCC South Regionals in Charlotte, North Carolina today. Flaunting what some thought to be its best class of boys ever, Florida felt secure that it would qualify at least one male runner to Nationals (if not two or three) despite the dominant South this year. That theory proved dreadfully wrong; all of Florida's elite boys might be in attendance at Orlando's national meet, but none will be in running attire.

Florida's girls represented with two national qualifiers is Girls 1A State Champion, Kara Scanlin. This will be Kara's second go-around at the National Championship and 4A State Champion, Jessica Hellender will make her first. Scanlin was one of three Florida runners to qualify for Nationals last season.

The highest boys finisher from our great state was Ryan Deak. The sophomore finished in 10th place in a field that was the fastest Regional field ever. The entire top eight qualifiers were under 15-minutes for 5000 meters. Unfortunately, that was a little more than our boys had in them this year. Top three favorite Joe Thorne of Georgia was not able to qualify either--he has been sick this week.

We will have complete results as soon as we get them.