On Thursday evening at the Zak Lukas Invitational hosted at Lake McKethan in Brooksville, two runners from Cambridge Christian recorded Florida's fastest 5K times so far in this young cross country season.
On a unique course for a cross country course being on a primarily paved road (nearly 3 miles of course) in the park that surrounds Lake McKenthan and on shaded wooded paths throughout, Eliana Black and Braxton Legg blitzed the course from the gun to shoot for lifetime best times.
Black, coming off her monumental win at the Cecil Field Summer Classic against many of the state's top ranked runners in a 17:46 course record on Friday night, executed a similar race plan on Thursday at Lake McKethan blazing out a hot pace from the gun.
She never slowed down as the 9th grader crossed the line in another course record as well as a school record time of 17:23. Black's performance is the 10th fastest 5K run nationally this cross country season.
Meanwhile, the talented triathlete Legg was going to have to a great head to head battle with last year's race winner Riley Novack of Montverde Academy, who ran 15:07 on a course last year that was slightly altered and shortened due to flooding.
The two had just raced head to head just last week at Cecil Field when Legg (4th, 15:43) finished three seconds ahead of Novack (6th, 15:46). Legg did not make it as close of race this week though as shot out from the gun with a 4:37 first mile split to separate and continue to create a larger gap hitting two miles in 9:30.
While Novack was just 5 seconds off his time from Cecil Field last week as the runner-up at 15:51, Legg was 29 seconds faster throwing down a state leading winning time of 15:14 at Cecil Field Summer Classic.
Important to note that Novack missed a good portion of his summer training and has only been training for a month since a deviated septum surgery, but has quickly made up ground to be considered a state title contender in 2A this fall with preseason favorite Aidan Ryan of Bolles also on the mend from a summer injury.
Meanwhile, another state title contender but in 1A will be Legg. He shared after the race on Thursday, that he might not officially be able to win a state title as he potentially has a conflict with a triathlon competition out of the country as he was selected to represent Team USA during the week of the regional meets.
But Legg still could compete in the 1A state race if his Cambridge Christian team qualifies for the state meet and still win the race, but not be recognized by the FHSAA as the official champion or onto the awards podium similar to situation that happened to Timber Creek's Amber Schulz in winning the 2020 FHSAA 4A girls state race after missing her regional meet due to injury.
The Cambridge Christian boys made it a sweep of the team titles with their girls tallying a low team score of 29 points and averaging 16:30 as a squad. They could be a team on the rise to challenge for a top 2 podium spot at the state meet in November.
After putting their top 7 runners all in the top 10 places, the Cambridge girls were decisive team winners with a speedy team average of 19 minutes flat including Black, Madeleine Gear (2nd, 18:15), Avery Pham (5th, 19:26), Amirah Johnson (6th, 19:30), Madelyn Spadaro (8th, 20:27), Kaiya Budwick (9th, 20:28), and Micah Friedman (10th, 20:44).
Pham and Johnson in particular have stepped up this season to solidify the lineup for the reigning 1A state champion girls' squad.
Breaking up a sweep of the top four places by the Cambridge girls were Montverde Academy senior Carly McNatt (3rd, 18:49) and River Ridge senior Summerlynn Kingston (4th, 19:00).
It was a breakthrough personal best time for Kingston dropping 45 seconds from winning her home invitational this past Saturday in 19:45.
Meanwhile, McNatt was one of the nation's top tier distance runners and dominant at the state level as an 8th grader and 9th grader, but has had some setbacks in the last two years including only racing once as a junior to a stress fracture in her hip.
She has made an inspirational return to running this fall after the tough setbacks as she is now at a new school of Montverde Academy after coming over from IMG Academy. She dipped under 19 minutes on Thursday and finishing third behind only Cambridge Christian's Black and Gear.