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Kelley, Johnson win Black Creek 5K

By Ray DiMonda, Correspondent
Posted 10/26/17

MIDDLEBURG - Two Black Creek 5K veterans were upended for a repeat into the winner’s circle by high school athletes as Ridgeview High cross country ace Keith Kelley topped the field Saturday at …

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Kelley, Johnson win Black Creek 5K


Posted

MIDDLEBURG - Two Black Creek 5K veterans were upended for a repeat into the winner’s circle by high school athletes as Ridgeview High cross country ace Keith Kelley topped the field Saturday at Middleburg Elementary School.

Kelley, a top runner for the Ridgeview High School cross country and track teams, ousted past winner John McColl, 35, of Middleburg, with a 17 minutes, 48.8 second split with McColl in at 18:05.0.

“It was over a lot quicker than I thought. I’ve never run this course before and didn’t know where I was going,” said Kelley. “It was the best time of this year for me, but not my best time ever. By districts next week, I hope to be near 16 by then.”

In the womens race, Orange Park running stalwart Jessica Jewell, 36, a frequent winner on the Jacksonville Grand Prix road series, got bumped to second place from Bishop Snyder High freshman Hannah Grace Johnson, 14, who won with a quick 21:17.3 split.

Johnson had been a past top three finisher for the Black Creek 5K.

““I’m going to try and shoot for a sub 21 by the end of this year,” said Johnson. “The hill was a little tough but once you got over it, it was nice.”

Finishing out the mens race, Middleburg High track coach Paul Grybb, 35, kept the elder runners in the fleet feet category with his third place 18:58.4. Grybb was followed by 50 year old Zimberlist Hester and 52 year old Kevin Huaman with Clay High cross country runner Luke Bybee, 15 taking sixth in 20:16.7.

For the rest of the womens finishers, Johnson and Jewell had a gap of nearly a minute on third place finisher Abby Klock, 28, who cruised in at 17th in 22:26.8.

Race Coordinator Patti Kohlor spoke about the sixth year of the event, a benefit race created after the shooting death of Clay Sheriff Detective David White in a drug arrest.

“This is the sixth year of the event to raise funds for continuing education scholarships for Middleburg High,” said Kohlor. “About two months after we started, Clay Sheriff Office Detective David White lost his life fighting crime in our community, so we added the Detective David White Memorial Scholarship which is our main scholarship and focus every year. We’ve given $56,000.00 to this community since 2012 which is pretty good for a little 5K.”

With the devastating effects on Black Creek from hurricane Irma, the race took on another challenge this year.

“We had a fill the buggy promo going on.” said Kohlor. “Anyone who brings five cans of food can get a buy one, get one with our raffle tickets and we’re doing good with our donations.”

The event was capped off with a kids’ fun run where Ronald McDonald showed up to get the kids started. Ronald McDonald, with his traditional gigantic red shoes, only made it out around 100 feet before he thought better of the full mile run.