FHSAA 3A Cross Country State Boys Race Individual Preview

The Leon boys cross country program has a rich history of individual state champions dating back to their first champion Herb Willis in 1976 as well as two multiple champion winners in Matt Mizereck and Sukhi Khosla. Current Leon sophomore Patrick Koon has the opportunity to be greater than them all and it all starts on Friday in the 3A boys race to win his first individual state title.

Koon already has the fastest 5K time ever run by a sophomore in Florida to his name at 15:05 and in dominant fashion pulled away from virtually all of the state's top runners sans Rheinhardt Harrison at the FSU Pre-State Invitational last month in 15:09 at Apalachee Regional Park. It is not out of the question especially if Rheinhardt Harrison does not go all out in the 4A race that Patrick Koon could break the course record of 14:59 by former Leon great Khosla in the 3A race. 

The 3A race for boys was expected to be one of the best individual clashes for the entire state meet at the midway point of the season with two runners on fire with their performances in Koon and Belen Jesuit senior Adam Magoulas. Magoulas had been undefeated all season including a 14:57 personal best and meet record performance at the Spanish River Invitational as well as another course record run at Holloway Park in winning the flrunners.com Invitational Race of Champions in 15:30. 

Unfortunately, Magoulas suffered a foot injury before the pre-state meet and has not raced since with the hope of holding him out to get back to racing in time for his final state cross country. It is hard to imagine even with cross-training for him to hold his fitness level over the past month to be able to challenge Koon for the win and likely going to be trying to gut up a sub 16-minute performance and top 10 or 15 finish for his squad instead.

Bad timing for the injury as Magoulas was hoping to claim his first individual state title after being a state runner-up before and having great success before he heads off to the University of Florida. He is certainly a wildcard to be entered into the individual and team race for 3A.

Nonetheless, his team already showed at the FSU Pre-State Invitational in a victory without him against not only the top teams in 3A but beating all the best teams in the state regardless of classification. Part of the reason that the Belen Jesuit boys can overcome the loss of Magoulas is due to the rise of sophomore Joshua Ruiz as one of the state's talented underclassmen runners. 

Ruiz had a modest and solid freshman year including a 16:59 best for 5K in cross country and running 9:50 for 3200 meters on the track, but has made a huge jump this fall. He is certainly the future leader of the Belen Jesuit program that got put into the lead runner role the last half of this season. Ruiz has a 15:29 5K PR from the Spanish River Invite and was the second 3A finisher at the Pre-State Invite with an 8th place time of 15:34. 

Ruiz won the 3A Region 4 Meet this past weekend at South Fork High School in 15:36. There is potential for a 1-2 finish by sophomores in the 3A race between two talented tenth graders in Koon and Ruiz.

Two other regional champions will be up near the front in Colby Robbins of Sunlake and Colsen Palmer of Fort Myers.

Robbins will be focused on matching up with the top runners from Belen Jesuit whether it's Ruiz and Magoulas or just Ruiz. Robbins was the second-highest 3A finisher at the FSU Pre-State Invite with a time of 15:36 in 10th place. The senior from Sunlake finished 9th in last year's 3A state race and is the second-highest returnee behind only Koon. 

The 3A Region 2 champion has won a total of 5 races this season and has a 15:14 5K best from Sunshine Athletic Conference East race. Robbins could have several of teammates break inside the top 10 with him at the state meet between Alex Pena and Cason Meyer.

Pena was an All-State 12th place finisher from a year ago and owns a 5K PR of 15:40 from the FSU Pre-State Invite. Meyer completed a 1-2-3 sweep by the Sunlake boys en route to their dominant regional title and is looking to break 16 minutes for the first time at the state meet with a 16:09 PR currently. 

Coming out of 3A Region 3 as the champion was Colsen Palmer of Fort Myers in a 15:58 victory against previously undefeated Kolton Pickard of Estero. Both Palmer and Pickard are capable of running well into the 15-minute range at Apalachee Regional.  The two have been racing for bragging rights for the best runner in Southwest Florida and will get another chance to face off head to head and push each other to high state meet finishes on Friday. 

Matanzas junior Zach Spooner might be the most underrated top runner to watch in the 3A field as he has quietly put together a strong season including back-to-back sub 16 minute performances in winning his district meet and finishing as a regional runner-up to Koon.  Spooner has made incredible improvements even from track season when he only had best times of 4:54 in the 1600 and 10:19 in the 3200. 

Cypress Creek's Zack Poekert has had some nice battles this season with the Sunlake boys trying to break up their formidable top 3. He was a top 15 finisher in the elite race at the FSU Pre-State Invite with a time of 15:44 in Tallahassee.