Some like it hot. For the rest of the 600, the short, flat turf seemed like a grass-green layer of metal, re-radiating the early morning, early fall sunlight like one huge parabolic reflector. No sooner had the blood-red sun risen above the distant trees than it melted through the ground-hugging fog and turned Sperling Sports Complex into a giant solarium. (By then, was there anyone left who was foolish enough to believe that running in the morning is any different than doing so at any other time of day in Florida?) Seen from the four-sided viewing tower, they reminded one of a long line of bugs, scurrying to and fro to escape the beam of the invisible magnifying glass that caused their discomfort.
Girls Varsity
Twelve year old Julie Wollrath seemed immune to the torturous taunts of Helios (or was it his mischievous son Phaeton?) rising from the east in his chariot of fire. The seventh-grader wasn’t the least bit fazed by the effects of energy-draining heat and humidity. Streaking about under dawn’s first light, she was like Eos (in Greek mythology the sister of the aforementioned sun-god), quite out of reach of her 145 pursuers.
“I was going to follow the leaders. Olivia Papa (Winter Park; second in 19:54.41) was on the starting line. Shelby Hayes was supposed to be here, but didn’t show,” explained Wollrath, running for Holy Trinity. “It was harder, though, to run not having anyone push you.”
Julie is following in the footsteps of her father, Robert, and her brother Ryan (17th in the Boys Varsity in 17:33.66), who are also runners.
“I ran at Covenant Christian as a sixth grader. I also ran a couple of races this summer. At the Firecracker 5K in Melbourne (July fourth) I ran 19:44, and at the Pizza Run in Viera a 19:44.”
Her best time, however, was a 19:03 at Katie Caples (September 20th at Bishop Kenny High School), good for fourth overall. However, “This is the first race I’ve ever won.”
Girls Varsity Team Race
Led by Wollrath’s overall first place finish, Holy Trinity made a strong showing in placing all seven of their runners in the top 25 (1-8-10-15-17-23-24 for 51 points), but Winter Park’s 3-4-5-9 (22-25-29) was too much to overcome and WP won with 43 points.
Boys Varsity
Mainland’s Chris Rudloff had quite a streak going at Sperling. Winning both the DeLand Invitational and 5 Star Conference Championship in 2007 and 2008, he came in to the 2009 DeLand Invitational as an odds-on favorite to extend that streak.
“I didn’t know any of the schools…I mean I knew the local ones, but not the private ones,” he said after the race. “for the most part I usually lean back, but I decided to push it. It all comes down to who wants it the most….”
John-Logan Hines (Boone), however, had done his homework.
“I knew about the two guys who were with Trinity, and Chris Rudloff from Mainland. I just wanted to be conservative, stay with them and let them do all the work.”
A small lead pack went through the mile in under five, but by two (10:30), only three were left.
“I put on a surge at three miles and dropped the Trinity (Prep) guy (Griffin Jaworski, third in 16:24.4). I let the Mainland guy catch up with me and do some of the work.”
Coming around the touch line of the furthest soccer field, Rudloff tried to shed the Boone runner with a kick that hasn’t failed him at Sperling in two years. This time, however, his gas tank was empty.
“I wanted a negative split in the last mile; I was able to find it in myself to kick it in and win,” concluded Hines. The results: John-Logan first in 16:05.51, Rudloff second in 16:10.61. Between them, Trinity Prep and Holy Trinity placed six in the next seven.
Boys Varsity Team Race
13 runners in the top 50 had Trinity on their singlet (out of the fourteen running), so it comes as no surprise that it was pretty much a two team race. Trinity Prep (3-5-7-8-21-50-53) had a “better bunch,” however, and won with 44 points. Holy Trinity finished second with 70 (4-9-13-16-28-32-40), surviving a scare from Boone (1-12-15-22-27-41-51; 77) seven points back.
Girls JV Race
“It was really hot, and I ran alone,” summarized winner Grace Kucera (Holy Trinity, Sr.). But my coach (Doug Butler) told me I could probably win the race. I had two good workouts this week and was hoping he was right.
“We ran six repeat 800s on Tuesday--which I did in around 2:55--and 20/40s on Wednesday. We run hard for 20 seconds, then easy for 40 seconds. We keep this up for twenty minutes.”
Kucera is familiar with Sperling. “I ran it when I was in seventh and eighth grade, but haven’t run it since. It’s a good course, but it was really, really, really hot!” Her time, 21:16.47 is well off her 19:18 PR run last August in the Pizza Race, and her 19:37 at the 2008 State Meet.
Girls JV Team Race
Only Winter Park’s Katya Groff (seventh in 22:32), prevented Holy Trinity from sweeping the first seven places; HT took first through sixth, plus eighth and ninth. They won with 15.
Boys JV Race
Perhaps the fact that Warner’s Billy Young found himself in unfamiliar territory--he usually runs varsity--led him to go out a leeetle too fast. Freshman Tristan Kattenberg was more than happy to take advantage of the mistake.
“I passed him at about the 1 ½ mile point,” explained the winner from Holy Trinity (18:26.68). “He went out really fast and I caught up.”
“It was the first time I’ve ever won a race. I’m really happy about it. But I wanted to ‘hit the wall’ at the finish line and have nothing left…be completely done. Today, I could still walk, so I had something left.”
Perhaps he will have “better aim” next week at the Greater American, in North Carolina, at which he will be competing for the varsity.
Boys JV Team Race
I challenge anyone to guess the team title solely by studying the individual names/teams and their places. Things were pretty much scrambled until Vicki Lowenstein’s laptop spit out the results: Rockledge 55 (3-6-10-15-21-38-39), Trinity Prep 75 (7-9-13-16-30-37-41), and Boone 77 (4-11-17-19-26-27-29).
Footnotes: We come, we run (or watch), and then we pack up and leave. Long after most of us have arrived at home, showered, and eaten, the race director, his wife, his team, fellow coaches and volunteers are still cleaning up at the race site. This was just what happened at the DeLand Invitational, after which I hosted a pool party for the local team. Thus, I was reminded by a late-arriving, hungry, and exhausted Jim and Vicki Lowenstein, who arrived well after the rest of the guests, just how much work goes into a cross country invitational…and they have two more to go: the 5 Star Conference Championship (Tuesday [a school day], October 27th), and their Districts (Saturday, November 7th)! Next time around--no matter who is the race director--be sure to acknowledge their efforts with a “Thank you!”--and do your part in cleaning up. Pick up your share of the trash, ask if you can take in some flags, stakes, or cones, and in so doing help to shorten a day that, for them, probably began hours before your bus left the school.
