Mark Mutz

A look at the Top 500 Florida high school boys XC 5K's of All-Time.

A look at the All Time Top 500 FL Boy & Girl Times From Foot Locker South.

Check out the top 1,000 Florida boys performances all-time at the Champs (formerly Foot Locker) South Regional in Charlotte.

Just for fun we ran our track season statistics to determine the most popular athletes in Florida.

Last week the FHSAA held a celebration for this year’s top Florida scholar-athletes at the Academic All-State Awards Banquet, which took place on June 18th. The banquet brings together 12 male and 12 female athletes from around Florida, honoring and recognizing them for their exemplary academic achievements, commendable service to their community and dedication towards athletic excellence.

Blue and orange runs ramped in the Mutz household. The tradition will continue when Lakeland Christian senior Mark Mutz heads to the University of Florida. Mutz will become the sixth member of his family to become a Gator, but the first to go there for both academics and athletics. He says it was a decision that came down to the final hours.

We already knew we had the BEST kids in the state competing in our sport. And we were already SO proud, but shoot! In reviewing the list of the FHSAA Academic All-State Team we see a lot of familiar names. In reviewing it more closely, we see that only two of the twenty-four total members do not count a track & field or cross country varsity letter to their credit. Pretty impressive.

We conclude our 2011 cross country coverage by honoring the top male harriers of the season. Congratulations to our 2011 All Flrunners Boys Cross Country Team.

Here are my picks and thoughts on Saturday's meet. Links to meet info and other coverage inside also.

Here are my picks and thoughts on Saturday's meet. Links to meet info and other coverage inside also.

A region-by-region preview of what to look for at the regional championship this weekend and who we're likely to see at the state meet.

Heading into the District week, a couple of our volunteer pollsters went the extra mile and did a set of Pre-District Rankings even though they had this week off to prepare for the Pre-Region and Pre-State Rankings over the next two weeks.

Mark Mutz and Mallory White both kicked it into high gear for Lakeland Christian to win the 5K Polk County cross-country Championships Saturday morning around the soggy, slow course at Lake Region Senior. (via PolkPreps.com)  

The host team, Lakeland Christian, sweeps individually as Mallory White (18:53) and Mark Mutz (15:34) win Jim Ryun Invitaitonal. The LCS girls also won and George Jenkins took the boys team title.

Lindsey Enders broke the 5-year old state meet record of Caroline Kennedy with her 12-10 vault. Trinity Prep wrapped up their boys team title after an impressive 1-2-3 finish in the 3200. Justin Osking tossed a US #5 193-10 discus. Gebben makes it four-in-a-row for the 300 Hurdles.