Photo Album by Jeff Adams (Over 1000 photos)
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In Florida cross country, Class 4A-Region 2 is known as the "Region of Death."
Six of the top 10 times in the state of Florida came out of the region which includes Dr. Phillips, Tampa Plant, Sarasota Riverview, St. Petersburg, Colonial, and Boone. The competition is fierce and it showed at the region finals on Friday at Lake Park in Tampa on Friday. In the boys race, the top 13 finishers broke 16:00 over a tight and winding terrain.
Colonial edged out Dr. Phillips as the teams tied over the top five spots, but Jared Lopez finished at 16:51.88 to edge out the sixth spot to give Colonial the title over Dr. Phillips. Both teams are among the six that will advance to next week’s state championship at Dade City.
Phil Duncan (Boone) jumped out midway through the race and won with a time of 15:22.73, just two seconds faster than runner-up Logan Kruse (Dr. Phillips). Duncan's teammate and good friend JL Hines finally looks back into the form we remember from last year, he was third in 15:25. Chase Sutton of Seminole also broke 15:30 to round out the top four. Despite the heat, which had many runners faltering at the end, Duncan looked fine when it was over. "I opened up a gap and I knew with about 200 to go that I could get it done," Duncan said. "I knew going in that I had a shot to win and that if I ran my race I could do it," he said. Duncan, who has an outside shot to win at the 4A state title, said he is looking for nothing less than a top 10 next week.
On the girls side, the one-two tandem of Bridget Blake and Dana Demsky (both sophomores at Dr. Phillips) paced each other until Blake pulled away at the end. They have a friendly rivalry and Demsky said she isn’t conceding anything next week.
"We push each other," Demsky said. "I stay as close as I can, but we are competitive and we love to run against each other."
It was Plant, though, that had the depth. Julia Rodriguez and Danielle Kissell finished third and fourth, respectively, but Plant also had big finishes from Katherine Ralston (7th), Caroline Gibson (13th), and Kara Halfaker (18th) to take the team title. Rodriguez and Kissell both turned in personal bests. For Plant, it marked the 16th time during coach Roy Harrison's career that the Panthers have won the region title.
Besides Plant and Dr. Phillips, Sarasota Riverview, St. Petersburg, Orlando Olympia, and Winter Park qualified for states. On the girls side, Tampa Plant, Orlando Dr. Phillips, Orlando Colonial, Winter Park, Orlando Boone, and Tampa Newsome will advance.