Cross country is practiced by the freest of spirits. Nowhere is that more evident than in the 5 Star Conference. Comprised of nine teams from Volusia and Flagler Counties, its athletes come in contact with each other on an almost weekly basis. In between formal events, such as beach runs, multi-team meets, the Deland Invitational, and two levels of conference championships, there is contact by Facebook, e-mails, and even some budding romances…although I have no personal knowledge of the latter. The result has become a giant web of friendships that radiate outwards, beyond their respective high schools, and even transcend the season.
Since my oldest two kids first joined the Deland team in 2003, I have been following along in their (and now their younger brother’s) wake, observing this “5 Star version” of cross country. I have come to notice how such qualities as camaraderie, compassion, and sportsmanship are at the forefront of area running events. The clock is the main competition, and each runner, in turn, supports each other, both in times of victory, and defeat. Along the way, they care enough about each other to remember personal bests, past impediments, and future goals. This is obvious at every event, and emerges in every interview.
The Master(‘s) Plan
With go-to athletes like Mandy Perkins and Brook Nebel (girls team), and Joey Elsakr and Alex Frazier (boys) gone, Spruce Creek coach Stephon Gallon had to rework his game plan. His ambitions, however, were not in the least bit compromised.
“I wanted to get the 5-Star Sweep: JV Girls, JV Boys, Varsity Girls and Varsity Boys,” he told me after the meet, while juggling team championship plaques. “I knew that it would not be easy without a superstar. I kept telling that to the kids, but also told them to keep it to themselves, not to put it on Facebook.”
It was obvious, from the number of Hawk runners packed into the front of each race, that his team, too, believed him.
Girls JV Race
One of the amazing things about this year’s Spruce Creek girls JV squad is that that they continue to emerge victorious from meets, despite having different girls finishing up front. This time, it was sophomore Tori Ehrhardt, who took a 21:38 (eighth of 378 finishers in the Girls JV White race at FLX) personal best into the race. That time would have placed her in the top half of the Boys JV finishers, or made her a top ten finisher in the Girls Varsity race in this meet.
“I knew I had a small chance (of winning), but I had an injury last week, and didn’t run on Friday (Edgewater Invitational),” she said after her stellar finish.
“I couldn’t believe it though,” she said about her win. “I’m unused to the feeling of running in front. This is the first race I’ve come in first.”
Ehrhardt wasn’t first by much; she was followed, in close succession, by Spruce Creek runners Rainey Tyner
(22:43.67), Victoria Parks (23:00.05), Savannah Parks
(no relation; 23:04.02), Faith Strasser (23:15.35), Joy Bress (23:24.15), Amanda Manholias (23:56.20), Mary Alex Bramske (24:55.18) and Sarah Elsakr (25:29). Together, they took the first nine places, and in all had 32 finishers in the race, so there was always one more white (or orange) singlet to pick up the place should one of them fall off the pace.
Rainey Tyner, who won the Edgewater Invitational four days earlier, had nothing but praise for her teammate: “Tori is an amazing runner. I’ve managed to beat her before, but just in practice.”
If there was a down side to Ehrhart’s 22:40.47 first place finish, it was that she missed the varsity’s District squad (seventh place was earned by Catherine LaStarza with a 22:24.25) by less than 16 seconds. She is, no doubt, ready to move up, if needed.
“I ran varsity in one race, and was supposed to run last Friday, but my hip was hurt.”
When the season ends for her, she will be looking ahead to the spring track season.
“I just started cross country this season. I did it to get better at the 300 hurdles. I want to break 50 seconds.”
Girls JV Team Race
First there was Spruce Creek, then more of Spruce Creek. In fact, if they could have split their squad, the first team (1-2-3-4-5; 15 points) would have been followed by their second five (in 6-7-8-9 and 11th places). Deland, however, answered with an official second (scoring 8-9-10-11-12-16-17; 50), packing their girls in impressive order, and foretelling a bright future for the Bulldogs. Only four of the conference’s teams had full squads in this race, and there were 71 finishers.
Boys JV Race
At the mile marker, which leader and eventual winner Alex Koblick passed in 5:21, he and his teammates occupied the first eight places, followed by a Flagler runner, then Spruce Creek in the next five. They were pumped. None, however, was more motivated than the senior who won.
“I had a pretty decent chance to win,” he said. “I want to get back on varsity. That was my goal for today.
“We had a meet on Friday, and I was eighth overall (by time), and we understand on the team that the top seven are varsity.”
With practices being run at a different gear in the past few weeks, all of SC’s runners are looking forward to better times ahead.
“At the beginning of the year we do a lot of distance. As the year wears on, we gradually decrease distance and increase the speed work.
“My goals are to make Districts, reach Regionals, and then go on to States.”
Koblick, who ran a much tougher course at 5 Star than he did at the FLX Race of Champions (where he ran a 17:36 PR; 139th overall and fifth on his team), nonetheless passed two in 11:21 en route to his 18:25.54 first place in the JV race. He and teammate Brian Bartleson (second in 18:51.69) were the only two finishers other than those in the Boys Varsity, to break 19 for 5K.
Boys JV Team Race
Although Spruce Creek’s long white line had a few green dashes in it by the finish line (FPC’s Roger Romero was third in 19:00.83, Deland’s Taylor Gunderson fifth in 19:07.75, and FPC’s Joseph Alter seventh in 19:23.99), Spruce Creek placed their first seven in the top ten to win with a skimpy 17 points (1-2-3-5-6-7-8). Mainland (10-12-13-16-20-22-28; 71) edged Deland (4-14-17-19-25-27-31; 79). (Flagler was short of the necessary number to run as a team.) 92 boys and five teams competed in this race.
Varsity Girls Race
The saying, “Progress, slow and steady, wins the race,” pretty much sums up Flagler-Palm Coast’s Danielle Hagin’s record in the 5 Star Conference Championship. In the 2007 meet, her first, she ran 23:20.15 and finished thirteenth. In 2008, she moved up to fifth and improved her time to 20:51.37. This year, she again improved both her time and place, plus added a couple of milestones.
“Honestly, before the race I didn’t go out to win, just to race people,” she said. “At two miles I thought I could, so I said (to myself), ‘Let’s go!’”
Leading the field in the early going was Zoe Volenec, of Spruce Creek. “I expected Julia (Schorner, also from FPC) to come up,” she said. “I honestly thought she (Danielle) was sacrificing herself in the first mile, but she obviously wasn’t.”
Hagins seemed tentative in her description of the race, but, in reality, was far from it.
“Every time I would pass her (Volenec), she would come back and pass me. A little bit after two miles, I picked it up and passed her. I was half nervous that she would come back, but I picked it up and widened the gap.”
By the finish, that gap was pretty close to 200 meters. At three miles, Danielle could see the finish clock through the crowd. The time was in the mid-19s, and suddenly she had a new target.
“I was actually saying, ‘Come on, come on.’ I wanted to be under 20.”
She was just about as close as a runner can get, and still be under: 19:59.92. Along with that time came the 2009
5 Star Conference Girls Varsity Championship.
In third place was her teammate, Julia Schorner (20:38.83), and sandwiched in between them was Zoe Volenec (20:32.75). Except for Seabreeze’s Kelly Brownrigg (tenth in 21:50.96), the rest of the top ten were either from Spruce Creek or Flagler.
Girls Varsity Team Race
Through the first few places, Spruce Creek and Flagler seemed to trade the lead. The Hawks, however, with all five scorers in the top seven, were simply too deep for Flagler. The final score was Spruce Creek 24 (2-4-5-6-7-9-13), Flagler 35 (1-3-8-11-12-15-20). Mainland (14-17-21-28-32-39; 112) was two points better than Deland (16-22-23-24-29-31-36; 114), and finished third. 46 runners competed, and six teams scored.
Boys Varsity Race
When it comes to 5 Star races, it seems that Chris Rudloff can do no wrong. For the past three years, the other teams have thrown everything they could at him, with the same result.
This time, the challenge on Rudloff, although incidental, was by a couple of Deland runners. The first, freshman CJ Westfall, took off at a torrid opening pace, and although he eventually slowed to a six minute per mile pace, he managed to “encourage” Rudloff and the rest of the eventual leading runners to pick up the pace.
“I told myself that I wasn’t going to sprint out and lead the race,” Chris explained. “I wanted to take the lead at one mile and bump up (the pace),” admitted Rudloff.
“It was kind of instinctual,” CJ said. “I thought it would help my time a lot. I wanted to PR, and I did…by a minute: 18:43.3. I lost the lead at 1K to Andrew (Epifanio, of Deland).”
“I went out right behind Rudloff, and just made sure that I was following his pace,” Epifanio added. “I tried to make sure that my mile and two mile times were on pace for a 16. The Spruce Creek kids who ran with me—Nick and Greg—helped keep my pace steady and on target. I was glad they were there.
“When they fell off, I just tried to focus on maintaining my pace off Rudloff. He ran a great race, and kept a steady pace without anyone to help.”
Epifanio, finishing second, ran his first sub-17 in 16:46.84. Ironically, it came on one of the slower courses on the circuit.
The other sub-17 was accomplished by Spruce Creek’s Nick Kutyn. He finished in 16:56.76.
“Greg (Nick’s Spruce Creek teammate) was up there with him (Rudloff). I caught up to them at about the mile (passed in 5:07). Because he was with me, I ran faster than I normally would have in the middle of a race.”
Rudloff takes it from there: “I knew Greg was on my tail and he was going to tag along. When we came up to the second loop I could hear him breathing, but I didn’t want to look back. I try not to do that.
“When I was coming in to the small second loop, I couldn’t hear him anymore.”
Around they went, the hare and the hounds, until the last left turn and an approximately 400 meter straightaway to the finish. Despite a big crowd leaning out on the course to get a better look at a sprinting Rudloff, Chris was able to locate and fix his attention on the finish clock and kicked it in. His 16:20.74 is not only his fastest 5K at the conference championship, but also the third fastest 5 Star Conference Championship time ever, behind Justin Harbor’s 15:49 (2003) and 15:54 (2004). (Rudloff ran a 16:11 at this year’s Deland Invitational, also held on this same Sperling course, while chasing Boone’s John Logan Hines [16:06] September 26th.)
Chris Rudloff now joins an elite “club” of “threepeat” 5 Star Varsity Champions from this past decade. Flagler’s Matt Cianciulli won from 1999 to 2001 (when the course was three miles long), Justin Harbor added his name when he won from 2003 to 2005, Tiffany Urquardt (Seabreeze) dominated from 2001-2003, and Mandy Perkins (Spruce Creek) joined with performances from 2006 to 2008.
(Incidentally, if anyone out there in runningdom can add results from 1986-1997, and the years prior to 1985, please feel free to upload them to this website.)
Boys Varsity Team Race
And the winner was…Spruce Creek. Their 3-6-8-10 (13-16-17) was countered by Flagler’s (4-5) 11-14-15-19 and 28. On paper, however, SC’s nine point lead somehow seemed a lot bigger than in the heat of competition. A steady chorus of “Sweep…sweep…sweep!” interrupted the awards ceremony as throngs of SC runners sought each other out in an ebb and flow of bodies jumping and shouting, in celebration of their coach Stephon Gallon’s “vision quest.” Mainland, with Chris Rudloff finishing first and foreign exchange student Hiro Tsuchida twelfth, came in third (1-12-26-27-35-38-39; 101), outkicking Deland by five (2-20-24-29-31-34-40; 106) and New Smyrna Beach by eight (7-22-23-25-32-33-46; 109). 52 runners and seven full teams finished.