Waiguru gets sixth in district XC
FERNANDINA BEACH - Clay High junior cross country runner Carlton Waiguru had one of his best times for the 3.1 mile courses he’s run and he made the effort at the right time with his sixth place finish at the district 4-2A cross country championships held Sat., Oct. 26 in Fernindina Beach.
Waiguru’s finishing time of 17 minutes, 45 seconds was one of just two runners to upset the Bolles blitzkrieg up front with the Bulldogs taking six of the top 10 finishing spots to win the team title.
Waiguru will advance to the region championships to be held Sat., Nov. 2 at the Oaks Equestrian Center in Lake City.
Fernandina Beach junior Caden Kwiatkowski at fifth and Bishop Kenny junior Michael Teal at third, plus Episcopal’s Donal Khola at ninth were all splicing the Bolles frontrunners led by winner William Brady’s 16:28 effort for top honors.
Clay finished ninth overall in team points at 212 with Luis Duran, 34th; Tristan Schultz, 44th; Luke Bybee, 53; Kason Hickman, 75th, Jason Etheridge, 76th and Joseph Powell, 77th, finishing the Blue Devil scoring. Bolles scored 22 points to win with Bishop Kenny second at 73 and Fernandina Beach third at 103.
For the girls, Bolles also won convincingly led by freshman Elizabeth Czikai’s 1909 finish and six teammates in the top 10. Clay High sophomore Madisyn Blackburn was top Blue Devil at 32nd in 23:41 with Ulyana Damme at 42nd, Gabriella Etheridge at 48th and Brena Melgard at 58th.

Eagles survive illness, injuries
to get region XC run

GAINESVILLE - With a lineup reduced in force by injury and illness, the depth of the Fleming Island High girls cross country team relied on depth to take the first step to returning to the Class 4A championship race in two weeks.
Stepping up to absorb the pressure of moving Fleming Island to next week’s region race on the same Santa Fe Community College course, sophomore Morgan Erler and freshman Anna Rafalski blazed among the likes of Chiles’ seniors Caitlin Wilkey and Alyson Churchill, who cruised to a 1-2 finish in 18:54.30 and 19:04.00 splits, respectively, as well as Creekside junior Elizabeth Iliff. The three top finishers were all stellar Class 3A finishers last year; Wilkey, seventh in 18:11.03; Churchill, ninth in 18:28.05, and Iliff, 10th in 18:23.84.
“I kind of looked around, but I was not really aware of who they were,” said Erler, noted for her ever-present smile in the heat of competition. “I’m super pumped that Anna was right behind me.”
With sophomore standout Mei Chiang, who recently got a sub-19 minute finish, on the sidelines with kinesiology tape on her shins, number two Lauren Schaudel in shorts but without her ankle brace boot and even junior Emma Millson not on the field also with a foot injury, Fleming Island girls coach Suzanne Baker shook up her lineup and relied on her two remaining veterans; junior Marisa Kortright and sophomore Grace Adams, to lead a contingency of new faces into the top 10 of the rugged new district 1-4A lineup to preserve at least one more week of competition.
Job done.
With Erler and Rafalski staying within shouting distance of the lead pack of powerhitters, Fleming Island finished sixth in the new district that featured Chiles, the team champion and defending 3A champions, on top with 41 points, followed by Mandarin at 61, Creekside, third in Class 3A last year, third at 92 and Buchholz, a familiar foe in 4A chats in cross country, fourth with 113. Niceville, sixth in 3A, finished fifth with 135 just two points ahead of Fleming Island’s 137 points.
Fleming Island got a boost with Adams and Kortright finishing together as well; 25th and 26th, to keep the Golden Eagles in the run with senior Jordan Detwiler adding the fifth finishing spot to secure the sixth place finish.
Also in the race, and with Bishop Snyder transfer Hannah Johnson leading her team with a 21:48.20 split for 43rd place, Oakleaf High’s girls teams finished just eight points; 340-348, out of 10th place to narrowly miss a region berth.
In the boys race, with Fleming Island’s senior leader Will Livesay slowed by a flu, it was senior Landon Opp turning in a stellar race to finish number two behind junior Kameron Wallizada getting the Golden Eagles a strong fourth place team finish.
Wallizada, who blasted the first mile, fell behind Nease frontrunners Bradley Bell and Justin Tackling who took first and second in a relatively mild 16:05.90 and 16:14.10, hung on to finish seventh in 16:35.60. Nease’s top runner, sophomore Rheinhardt Harrison, who ran a 15:23.20 at the FSU Invite two weeks ago, cruised in in 10th in 16:35.60. Ball ran 15:34.90 at FSU.
“I wanted a 15 time and I hit five flat in the first mile, but the course is a little tougher with the hills then it looks,” said Wallizada, who has brushed up to 16 minutes with a recent 16:07 with Livesay just 13 seconds behind him at the FSU race. “Will will be better next week and we’ll get more points up front.”
Opp, who has steadily pushed his times into the low 16 minute range while pulling teammates Jayden Scherer, Jack McDade and John Brinkman into the sub-17 arena, finished 13th in 16:55.00 after breaking from Scherer on the second lap.
It was McDade who slowly crept up to come in ahead of Scherer 23rd at 17:09.60 with Scherer 24th at 17:10.40.
Oakleaf, led by senior Ajani Stokes in 32nd in 17:16.10 and Dylan Nelson in 36th at 17:20.50, finished 10th with 291 points; a point behind Tate High, to earn their region spot next week. Bartram Trail, with four runners in the top 10 and their fifth in 12th, won with 34 points followed by Nease, Niceville and Fleming Island with Creekside fifth.
Fleming Island, 14th in 4A last year, was top returning district 1-4A school with Bartram Trail, Nease, Niceville in the top three and Creekside and Chiles below Fleming Island, all former Class 3A powerhouses; Bartram Trail fifth, Nease seventh, Niceville sixth, Creekside third and Chiles third, last year. Mandarin, seventh, and Buchholz, eighth, were returning district 1-4A schools. Buchholz was 16th in 4A last year.

Williams, Shaw get top
15s for Indians

GAINESVILLE - With a visit from former Keystone Heights High School running standout Enoch Nadler, fresh off a ninth place finish in the Toronto Marathon (26.2 miles), the Keystone Heights High boys and girls cross country teams both advanced to the region 2-2A championship race next week in Ocala with top 10 finishes Thursday afternoon in the district 3-2A
championship races at Santa Fe Community College. Regions races will be staged at The Oaks Equestrian Center in Lake City on Sat., Nov. 2.
“It’s always nice to come back and watch the school compete and I think the interest in cross country is growing not only at the school, but within Clay County,” said Nadler, who clocked a two hour, 13.04 minute finish in tournament in a race preparing him the for February U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Atlanta. “I coach with a couple of the runners and like seeing that they lead by example and both teams are following their leads.”
Nadler was a third place in Class 2A finisher in 2003 in his senior year in 15:37. Nadler was second in district 3-2A in 16:55 to Interlachen’s Jeremy Criscione before winning the region 2-2A title in 15:57 with Criscione second. In the state meet, Nadler got third in 15:37 with Criscione sixth in 15:50. Andy Biladeau of Jesuit won the 2A title in 15:21.
First up for the races were the girls where junior Camryn Williams stayed steady for the entire 3.1 mile race course to get a fourth place finish in 21:15.04 with winner Mackenzie Scordato of Citrus High clocking in at 20:21.41 with teammate Taylor Koon third in 20:49.23. Tavares High’s Adriana Montalvo took the runnerup spot in 20:37.92.
Keystone Heights, with 196 team points, would finish in ninth place with Citrus taking the team trophy at 41 points off three finishers in the top 10 and their top five in the top 15. P.K. Yonge was second at 85 with The Villages third at 103. Keystone Heights advanced to the region 2-2A championship race last year and took 12th overall led by Alex Guy, now a freshman at Florida Southern College. Guy finished sixth in the region race and 31st in Class 2A. Bolles won the Class 2A boys and girls titles.
Also finishing for the Lady Indians were Sophia Lin in 49th in 27:01.64; Brittey Mynter in 57th in 27:39.55; Ella Hutchins in 59th in 27:56.15 and Aiyana James in 72nd in 29:37.36.
For the boys, Tyler Shaw, fourth last year and 49th in last year’s region 2-2A championship race in 18:17.39, has had a handful of sub-18 minute finishes through the regular season, but suffered a minor leg injury that slowed his late season progress. Shaw gallantly finished 12th in 18:18.11 to lead the Indians after teammate Jay Payne charged from the start for an early lead, then finished in 20:16.84 for 49th.
Tyler Griffin, an eighth grader, passed Payne on the final 300 meter straightaway to the finish line to finish in 47th in 20:14.24.
The Villages took the team title with 63 points with second place finisher Austin Wyatt leading the Buffaloes. Emile Sow of Eastside High won in 16:44.51 with Wyatt at 16:45.92 in a tight race at the front.
Fourth finisher for Keystone Heights was Jerry Payne in 66th in 21:42.16 with Gabriel Buchanan fifth finisher in 69th in 21:46.76.
Tavares was second with 83 points with Eastside nabbing third at 94. Keystone Heights finished 10th with 243 points.

Scholz seventh in district XC; Broncos sixth to region

PONTE VEDRA - Middleburg High cross country coach Paul Grybb is no stranger to big results after a earlier career at Ridgeview High School where Grybb was part of numerous state meet runners with the wily veteran coach nabbing two Bronco runners in the top 10 of the district 2-3A championships held at Ponte Vedra High School on Sat., Oct. 26.
“We had a tremendous day on Saturday across the board and seem to be peaking at the right time,” said Grybb. “The girls qualified for region for the first time in 16 years, and boys qualified for the first time in 11 years, so there were a lot of happy folks on the bus on the way home. We’ve definitely surprised some teams in the area.”
In the girls race, Middleburg junior Emma Mussante ran a strong 11th place in 21:03.79 to lead the Lady Broncos with Ridgeview senior Anna Magruder a few clicks behind her in 15th place in 21:34.81.
“I guess I have modeled my approach at Middleburg in a similar fashion to Ridgeview in the sense of just trying to build excitement and interest in the program,” said Grybb. “We had strong teams at Ridgeview because we had great kids- kids who ran for each other, competed to get better, and were really driven.”
Top 15 individual runners and top eight teams advance to region championships on Sat., Oct. 26.
Senior John Scholz was top Bronco finisher with a seventh place surge at 17 minutes, 46.87 seconds, but it was junior teammate Robert Nogales’s eighth place finish in 17:52.38 that got the Broncos a sixth place team finish. The finish puts the Broncos on a bus to the region 1-2A championships to be held Sat., Oct. 26 in Lake City at the Oaks Equestrian Center.
“John’s been our leader all season, so he went out hard and took care of business,” said Grybb. “Robert is new to the sport this season.
He spent this fall really learning what he was capable of- steadily improving throughout the season, developing his racing strategies and such. This Saturday everything fell perfectly into place for him and everything really ‘clicked’.”
Up front, Ponte Vedra’s Cameron Heinz won the boys title at 16:59.61 as the only sub-17 minute finisher as the finish line became a flurry of fast feet for the next 10 finishers.
From Ridgeview, Dominick Frietze, a junior, made the top 30 that advance with a 15th place finish in 18:02.41 with teammate Jose Paolo Miguel Garcia 20th in 18:22.82. Ridgeview finished eighth in team points.
Orange Park finished 13th led by Noe Benitez’s 80th place in 21:05.16.
For the girls race, St. Augustine High powered to the front with the first three finishers ahead of two Ponte Vedra runners giving the Yellow Jackets a close 37-49 winning gap over the Lady Sharks. Matanzas finished third at 112.
With 186 team points, Middleburg finished eighth ahead of Ridgeview at ninth.
Orange Park senior Emma Brown led the Raiders with a 29th place finish in 22:38.00.