Originally scheduled for Saturday, October 27th, this meet was prudently moved to Monday, October 29th. That first date, unfortunately, coincided with the passing of Hurricane Sandy on its deadly, northern trajectory.
Although I taught many subjects during my career in education, meteorology was probably my favorite. And, based upon their level of enthusiasm and cooperation, I think it was that of my students also. I approached it as a low-tech, hands-on course of study—where pupils used personal observations to make forecasts. Being able to recognize changing patterns of weather, and accurately predict their outcome—often more so than the media—cemented it as a lifetime skill.
We also studied more far-ranging, and significantly more adverse weather phenomenon, such as blizzards, tornadoes, and hurricanes. That really held their interest.
To say that the administrators for whom I worked were more concerned with state aid than student safety might be speculative, but there was ample evidence of the former. On one particular occasion, while literally millions of students from school districts all up and down the East Coast were furloughed for an approaching hurricane, we were not. Even after a lifetime of coincidences, nothing created more of educational opportunity than the experience of that day.
While we awaited the buses to evacuate the school, the “powers to be” decided that I should “entertain” the masses. At one point I had almost the entire student body—and most of the faculty and staff--crammed into my room like sardines, while I did a “calming” lesson on hurricanes (Arawak for “big wind). It was rich beyond words.
Much of my planned curriculum on these tropical killers centered on prediction and preparation. Even in the early 80s, I—as well as legions of professional meteorologists and insurance actuaries—knew that a Sandy was coming. Before Sandy, we had “The Long Island Express” in 1938, as we had the 1935 “Labor Day Hurricane” before meeting Andrew (1992)—with which my son, born in the same year, shares a name--and the “other” Labor Day Hurricane, Camille, in 1969, before we did Katrina. And yet, we continue to fill in salt marshes, build on barrier beaches, and debate the causes of global warming.
I think--no, I know--that it was a very wise move to have this meet to three days later, on what turned out to be the “first day of fall.”
Varsity Girls
Like hurricanes, we knew she was coming, but we weren’t quite sure of her name. Several times this season, the Seabreeze sub-team of Elizabeth Murray and Josie Gray had “traded wins.” They were dead-even after the 5 Star Freshmen/Sophomore Meet on October 10th—Josie won that in 20:43—but then came the Terrier Invitational on October 13th, where Elizabeth ran 20:08.14, fifth best in the race, and a PR to Josie’s 21:22.33. So, in this one, it was Josie’s turn, right?
In a way, they both took a turn; Josie set a PR of 20:26.59, and Elizabeth one of 20:10.44. The difference turned out to be Orange City’s Christen Daniels (19:56 PR at Hagerty on 10/13), who “got in between them.”
“She (Elizabeth) is definitely a tough competitor,” Daniels told me. “And she’s young too,” added the junior.
Freshman, junior; they’re all young to me. But wanting to know more, I asked Christen about all that experience.
“I’ve been running track since my freshman year. I’ve tried everything, from the 4 X 4 to the mile, but settled on the mile (5:49.10 PR at the Brian Jaeger Elite Classic on April 14, 2012) and 4 X 8 (2:35.22 800 PR on March 16, 2012 at the Deltona Invitational).
“Cross country is definitely my top priority, even over track. I think it’s the feeling, and doing better every meet; improving, finishing the race. I like the challenge. In my freshman year, I started running about 30 in my first race (34:44 at the Hagerty Invitational). At the end of the year, I ran 23. (23:25.91, at the October 16, 2010 Terrier Invitational). Last year, when I ran the Districts, I ran 20:25 (flat, on 11/05/11) and I qualified for the Regionals. It was phenomenal!
“This year I would love to go to the States. I’m going to just go with the (District) race and give everything I have; just fall across the finish line.”
In this race, however, one Elizabeth Murray never gave her the chance.
“I was with her up until about that second mile,” Daniels said. “She had that second mile down.”
“I was hoping that I had enough energy to pass her,” Elizabeth answered. “She was so fast, that I didn’t know if I had enough left.
“We ran the whole race together. Around the two mile mark, I kind of had the feeling that she didn’t have anything left, so I surged a few times. She followed the first couple of times, but when she didn’t, I realized that was when I should kick. I wanted a lot of ground between us.”
In light of her many successes this season, I asked Elizabeth if she had any idea if she could finish the season as conference champion.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen. The first time that I came in first—at University—I had the feeling that this could happen. At practices, I began putting in more than I did before. I really wanted this to happen.”
And guess what: like hurricane preparedness, it came in handy.
Varsity Girls Team Results
With first and third, Seabreeze got off to a good start, but then there was the 4-7-8-10-19 (plus 29 and 34) finish of Flagler-Palm Coast. (They finished first with 48.) Right behind—and between—them were the black shirts of Spruce Creek: 9-11-13-15-23-25-38 for 71 points. And in third was New Smyrna Beach with 86 (5-17-18-22-24-30-33). 61 girls and nine teams scored, including Taylor, eighth, in their first 5 Star.
Varsity Boys
Like the GV, this started out as a two-person race; however, like the last turn in a hurricane’s path, it’s all in the finish.
“I knew he was going to be a challenge,” Keneth Pineiro said of FPC’s Tom Carroll, “just from the fact that he had a very low PR; in the low 16s (16:13.93 at the previous week’s Bronco Bob race). I was just going to do my best, from start to finish. My strategy was to stay up front, and just keep up a fast pace. I was going to accelerate in the last 1000—that’s what we were practicing in the last week—and kick it in the last straightaway.”
That is pretty much how it played out. In the last mile, Keneth and Thomas “disappeared” from view behind some fencing, and they returned with Piniero in the lead.
“I think he was just trying to stay behind me and kick,” said the DeLand winner. “So I just kept getting faster and faster, until I sprinted into the chute.”
Keneth’s finish time was 16:03.46, which is about ten seconds over his best, 15:53.10 at FLR XIII—he has run two more sub-16s since—and with Carroll setting his own PR (16:07.86) while hot in pursuit, I think that if this course is accurate, it is definitely slow. In many spots it was sandy, had constant changes in direction—including some 180s around PVC pipes stuck into red ant hills—some noticeable inclines, and dizzying zig-zags all over the place. I think they both ran a “closet 15.” That was Carroll’s goal, at least.
“Sub-16 and a win,” he said later that evening. “I wanted to stay with him through two miles and take it in. But he stayed with me, then he surged with 600 to go. He got me there. It was a good race, and I PRd, but I really wanted to win my senior year.”
A fair amount of planning, and a lot of work went into that goal.
“I went to Germany—I was visiting my Mom’s side of the family—and trained there for six weeks. It was really hilly and mountainous, so I tried to build a base with long runs and fartlek. The weather was nice to run in, and really helped to build my aerobic base.”
Tom’s aspirations to win the conference meet were shared by his teammates.
“We knew for sure that we had to win,” Carroll said. “It’s been a few years since we did, but it was a senior-heavy team. We have four seniors right now, and this meet wouldn’t have been successful without a win.
“We have our district meet at the Flagler Fairgrounds. I’m looking to take the win, and a team championship.”
Varsity Boys Team Results
With five in the top ten—2-3-6-7-8—Flagler dominated with 26 points. (They also finished 15th and 24th.) DeLand got some help from fifth place finisher Kevin Gilhooly (17:14.16) and three in the 19-22-25 range to finish second. Spruce Creek, weakened by the loss of last year’s graduates, a “JV transfer,” and a series of unfortunate events, finished in third (13-14-16-18-23-31-35; 84). 66 guys and ten teams finished.
JV Girls
If the day had a bright spot for Spruce Creek, it was their Girls’ JV squad. As usual, everyone on the squad wanted to lead, but the one who wanted it most was freshman Casey Ehrhardt, sister of 2012 graduate Tori.
“She came in this weekend to watch me, but it got delayed, so she had to go back to Tampa to school.”
That “delay,” sounds a lot like Casey’s move to the front.
“I was in third, behind Leah (Glassburn, third in 23:19.02) and Anna (Kelly (second in 22:59.09) for awhile. (I took the lead) right down by the baseball field. I’ve never run this (course) before, but one of my coaches—Coach Bernardo—and my dad—Rob Ehrhardt—told me when it was the final stretch, and the chute was there. It was time to go.”
But not quite.
“I’m going to run in the open race at the Districts. Coach Gallon said, if we wanted to, we could compete there…but that’s it (for cross country).”
In the meantime….
“I’m really excited. I got second the last race, but this is the first race I’ve won!”
Casey’s time, 22:57.07, is a personal best.
JV Girls Team Results
It would seem that Casey’s excitement was shared by her teammates. Six of them scored in the top ten (1-2-3-4-7-8), and Creek scored a miniscule 17 points to win. DeLand had 50 (5-6-10-14-15-17-19) for second, and New Smyrna Beach was third (9-13-16-18-21-22-34; 77). 75 girls and six teams get into the results.
JV Boys
Judging from his nonchalant racing style, Brandon Marris was not quite as excited as Casey.
“I should be running varsity, but my grades were bad last year, so I couldn’t run until a report card came out. So this is my first race this year.”
It will also be his last, at least in cross country.
“I can’t run districts because of the four meet rule, so I’m going to start training seriously, and then run track. So far, I’ve run a little bit, but not any hard training. Today, I was just trying to run a 17, like I’m used to.”
He made it, though judging from the way his lungs reacted, just barely.
“It was the cold air,” he said in between hacking coughs. “Every time I run in the cold, I cough. It’s bad.”
This time, 17:54.05 was plenty good enough to win.
“I ran a lot better last year. I ran low 17s twice; once at Conference at FPC (17:09.90 on October 26, 2011), and then at Regionals (17:09.40 on November 12, 2011).”
JV Boys Team Results
Like they did in two of their other three races, FPC overwhelmed the BJV field, this time with the first seven of their finishers in the in the top 11--2-3-4-7-8-9-11—for 24 points. Spruce Creek had all but one of the other top ten finishers (1-6-9-15-19-20-27) to score 50, and Seabreeze was third with 87 (12-13-14-18-30-31-35). 122 runners and nine teams were scored.
5 Star Coach of the Year
By the time things were wrapping up at 7:45 PM, everyone but his wife had forgotten to acknowledge the 5 Star coach who had orchestrated a complete turnaround of his distance program. (Thus ending Spruce Creek’s Y2K grip on the conference.) Okay, so a warm kiss was better on cold lips than that faux-metal trophy anyway. Unlike the kiss, however, I stopped Dave Halliday with a cold stare.
“Now is it my turn?” I asked.
After first taking a quick glance over his right shoulder at the last bus in the parking lot, he laughed, but stayed.
Realizing I only had time for one question, I made it a good one.
“Do you feel that the pendulum is finally swinging back in your direction?”
He grinned.
“On the girls side,” he began, “we knew that with some ‘new blood,’ we were closing the gap in track last year; second to Spruce Creek in the Conference (99.50 to Spruce Creek’s 291 on 3/20/12), and 2nd to Mandarin in the Districts (130 to 198 at the 4A D-1 on April 18, 2012). If we could take that track momentum into cross country, we believed that we could at least duplicate what we did in track.
“We had some good girls, girls who put in time and effort over the summer. And they were young. Almost the entire team was made up of sophomores. We opened up the season excited about that, and at Spikes and Spurs and UF we ran well. Then we hit a little plateau in the middle, a rough spot at the end of September, early October. But basically, since Bartram Trail on the 13th-- then Middleburg on the 20th, and here today—in that three week span, we’ve seen a nice gradual team improvement in times.
“It’s not a peak yet, though. We ran mile repeats on Friday, and a good eight miler in the howling wind on Saturday, when no one else was running. So we are just now going to begin backing off.
“This is the best girls team since ’09, when we tied for eighth in the State Meet.” (Both FPC and Mandarin had 295 points.)
“On the guys’ side, we felt that we were going to have a good squad prior to the season, but we’ve been missing some people. Ashton Garrett, a sophomore and our #3 guy, has been out since the second of September with a broken foot, but he has a chance of coming back.
“Now, on paper, they are in the top three or four in the Region, and top seven or eight in the state. If we don’t make it, it will be a big let-down. We should be a solid (Boys) team in the Region without the pressure, and be able to just run relaxed. Last year, we should have made it, but we were too tight.
“(Tonight) I think we won the JV Boys pretty handily.” (At the time of this interview, accurate JVB results were not yet available.) “We have about ten guys who are at 18 or under, so we have a lot of depth.
“I call the last seven or eight years a rough spot. I feel this is where we are supposed to be. I’m hoping it is the start of another nice run.”
A winning coach couldn’t have said it better.