JACKSONVILLE - Fleming Island senior cross country runner Ava Hendrix has been running just off the shoulder of teammate Brooke Reynolds for most of the 2024 season, but the roles got flipped Saturday at the New World Fall Spectacular at the Cecil Field Golf Course with Hendrix pulling away from Reynolds to set a new school cross country record with her 18 minutes, 40 seconds time for 26th place.
"She has had fast times in the past, but has not had one like this," said Fleming Island coach Dave Allen. "Sometimes, a race like this, with everyone fast, just kind of pulls you along and makes you run faster if you don't think about it."
Hendrix has been hovering in the low 19-minute range with Reynolds, also a swim team member for Fleming Island, pushing in 49th place in 19:17.
"We're going to run hard through districts and then start a bit of a taper to be rested for regions," said Allen. "Ponte Vedra is always tough and a rival and we got them a few years ago at regions on this Panama City course."
For the top spot, Spruce Creek senior Mackenzie Roy turned the tables on defending Class 4A champion Alyson Johnson of Creekside with a course record 17:14 split with Johnson coming in third at 17:23 behind North Bay Haven's Margaret Bartlow, just five seconds behind Roy. Bartlow was fourth in last year's Class 2A race. Bartlow, though, was not running officially to put Johnson second overall.
In the boys elite race, led by the 3A defending champions Belen Jesuit Prep machine's Marcelo Mantecon, second in Class 3A last year behind Leon's three-time champion Patrick Koon, now at Stanford, in 14:49 and with four runners in the top 10, the top 50 finishers were under 16 minutes with Fleming Island nabbing two runners in the group; Jacob Campbell in 39th in 15:50 and Andrew Boyer in 43rd in 15:54.
"We had a lot of personal best runs from both the girls and boys teams," said Allen. "Marcos Serrano had a sub-17 minute run with our top seven guys all under 18 minutes. Jacob Sanders and Jack Pugh just missed with a 17:05 and 17:14 for them. We want to have a good pack under 17 by regions."
Just out of the 16-minute group, Oakleaf sophomore Jack Strombeck finished 69th in 16:15 for one of his fastest times of the year, but the star for Oakleaf was freshman Luke Janke who clipped his first sub-17 finish with a 16:44 time for 118th place.
In the team scores, for the girls, Creekside got sisters Alyson and Sydney Johnson both in the top 10; second and fourth places, to put Creekside on top with 84 points with Bishop Kenny second at 163 and Ponte Vedra third at 169. Fleming Island's girls finished 20th with 499 points.
Running as an individual scorer was St. Johns Country Day School senior Rebecca Stratton who finished 78th in a new record of 19:43.
For the boy's race, Belen Jesuit scored an incredible 28 points with five runners in the top 10 with Buchholz a distant second with 160 and Chiles third with 270. Fleming Island was 18th with 478 points with Oakleaf 30th with 790.
One final area race is the postponed Matanzas Invitational on Wed., Oct. 23 at Matanzas High School, at 5 p.m.

District Races Schedule

District 1-4A: OHS, at Bartram Trail, Sat., Sat., Nov. 2, 4:30 p.m.

District 2-3A: CHS, FIHS, OPHS, RHS, MHS at Middleburg, Sat., Nov. 2, 8 a.m.

District 2-2A: Keystone Heights at Bishop Kenny, Mon., Oct. 28 at 5:30 a.m.

District 2-1A: SJCDS at Apalachee (Tallahassee) Wed., Oct. 30, 9 a.m.

Regions Races