Workout Wednesday visit with the Leon High School cross country team featuring Florida's top ranked cross country runner in Patrick Koon as he cranks out 10 x 800 meter repeats with his #5 ranked squad in the 3A classification. Not a single senior in their lineup including Koon, so plenty to look forward to not only to finish this season, but the next season as well.
Not to be overlooked though are the Leon girls cross country team, which is one of their better squads in recent history as we just saw Lillee Tang win the 3A Region 1 title in a signature victory this past weekend in Gainesville. With their 1-2 punch of Tang and another 18 minute 5K runner in Lily Moore, the Leon girls finished as a competitive runner-up to the defending state champions from Ponte Vedra and head into the state meet ranked #3 in the classification.
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Long-time Leon coach Andrew Wils has now coached three athletes to national elite status with Koon following in the footsteps of past greats from the program in Sukhi Khosla and Matt Mizereck.
One of his training philosophies is doing the same workouts at the same places over the course of the season to easily track his runners developments as was the case with the 800 meter repeats at Miccosukee Greenway Trail in Tallahassee that is a regular staple weekly on Tuesdays for the Leon program during the season.
His star runner and junior Patrick Koon started at 2:32 for his first repeat and gradually worked his way down to run 2:17 on his final and 10th 800 meter repeat.
After having to race this past weekend under the weather and intentionally holding back at the regional meet, Koon will be back on the same course at Apalachee Regional Park that he broke the course record at the FSU Pre-State Invitational earlier this season with a 14:50 performance looking to repeat as the FHSAA 3A state champion on Saturday.