Sunlake's Christian Hindman had the fastest 5K performance of the season among all freshmen in the state of Florida this past cross country season with a 16:05.
Vote below for the Florida freshmen boys XC runner of the year by December 17th at 9 PM ET.
The nominees include:
Damian Spurrier (Wildwood) - Spurrier was the lone freshman to earn All-State honors at the state meet with his 16th place finish in the 1A race (race winner was ineligible for All-State individual honors) while also running a 5K personal best of 16:31 with his race in Tallahassee. Spurrier's time was the fastest state meet performance by any freshman by 15 seconds.
Christian Hindman (Sunlake) - Hindman was consistently one of the state's fastest freshmen including the fastest performance by any ninth grader this year from his 16:05 performance at North Port in the 4A Region 2 race for 10th place. Hindman ran sub 17 minutes in 5 of his 6 races including two races in the 16:40's at Apalachee Regional Park in the FSU Pre-State Invitational (100th, 16:49) and FHSAA 4A state race (43rd, 16:46).
Walker White (Providence School) - After a third-place finish in last year's FLYRA Middle School State Championships, White was one of the better ninth graders at the high school level coming out of the Jacksonville area at Providence School. White ran his 16:43 5K PR at the New World Fall Spectacular in a sixth-place finish. He also finished second in his district meet, and fifth in his regional meet before a 32nd-place finish of 16:56 in the 1A state race as the third fastest freshmen time on the day.
Tim Rutten (Gulliver Prep) - Rutten was one of the top freshmen from South Florida this year including top 10 finishers at the King of the Hill Invitational and Spanish River Invitational during the regular season before finishing 5th in his district meet and 9th in his regional meet. He had his best race at the state meet by breaking 17 minutes for the first time with a 35th-place finishing effort of 16:58 in the 2A state race.
Max Purvis (Tampa Jesuit) - While Purvis did not break 17 minutes at the state meet (56th, 17:12) in the 3A race, he had already gone sub 17 earlier the season at Apalachee Regional Park in a stellar race at the FSU Pre-State Invitational with a 42nd place finish of 16:59 in the select race. Purvis had the fifth-fastest state meet time among ninth graders despite being 13 seconds off his Pre-State race.
Who was the Florida freshmen boys XC runner of the year?
Sunlake's Christian Hindman had the fastest 5K performance of the season among all freshmen in the state of Florida this past cross country season with a 16:05.
Vote below for the Florida freshmen boys XC runner of the year by December 17th at 9 PM ET.
