Riley Novack, a senior from Montverde Academy, competed on Saturday in San Diego, California at the Champs Sport Cross Country Championships as the lone representative and qualifier from the state of Florida. A somewhat surprising qualifier considering that Novack did not win a state title during his high school career nor at any point of the season had been considered the state's best runner, Novack finished up an amazing post-stretch stretch of races finishing 35th overall in the field of the nation's 40 best high school cross country runners with a time of 15:57.3.
After being the sixth qualifier at the South Regional in Charlotte two weeks ago, Novack was the sixth finisher as well for the South Region in the national race as well. It was Novack's first time racing in a national class field like the Champs (formerly Foot Locker) Cross Country Nationals. Novack hit the first mile in 4:49 while in 36th place and split 10:09 at the two mile mark in 10:09.5.
Novack will take a short break from racing, but look for him to jump in some indoor races this winter with his Montverde Academy team and look to better his new recent 3200 PR of 9:10 from the flrunners.com PR Festival On The Track last month as well as dip further under 4:20 in the 1600 meter run. He also remains unsigned by a college, so will likely use the upcoming break to take more official visits and make a decision sooner than later.
