The North Florida teams displayed their talents this weekend at the 2018 Big Bend Invitational. Hosted at the state meet course, these performances are great predictors of what is to come later on this season.
Girls Race:
Niceville sophomore, Lillian Holtery, battled the mud on the Apalachee Regional Park course to win the race in a time of 18:52.
Holtery had a fantastic track season, running a PR of 5:03 in the 1600m and placing third at the state meet, a few months prior.
Joining Holtery at the top was a sea of crimson and blue. Chiles took the next four places of the race with Emily Culley (19:08), Caitlin Wilkey (19:11), Abby Schrobilgen (19:25), and transfer Alyson Churchill (19:36), all sub 19:40. Talk about depth.
Challenging Chiles was no other than Bolles HS. Bolles had it's top five girls in front of Chiles' number five. With 3 eighth graders: Ella Mickler, Jillian Candelino, and Elizabeth Csikai leading the team, it would be a close battle. Bolles had five girls sub 20:20.
Chiles took the 27 point win with Bolles as the runner up with 48 points. These performances put Chiles and Bolles at the top of the rankings across all classifications.
Seeing the depth of both of these teams, this early, and on the state course, is a strong indicator of the strength of the teams going into the rest of the regular season and championship season.
Boys Race:
Maclay junior, Junious Brown, took the boys win in a time of 17:00. This time was 46 seconds faster this year compared to the same meet the year prior.
With a 1:59 800m PR and 4:35 1600m, Brown is a competitor you do not want on your shoulder at the end of the race. This speed helped Brown take the nine-second victory with Xander Peacock, a sophomore out of Blountstown, taking second place in a time of 17:09.
Niceville had it's three runners: Christian Aubert (17:38), Jake Dever (17:39), Gabriel Bohler (17:42) in front of Chile's number two runner. Niceville took the win with a 46 point victory.
Chiles was led by Connor Phillips (17:16) and Ben Kirbo (17:43) for the team runner-up finish.
More Coverage:
2018 Big Bend Cross Country Invitational Results