MIDDLEBURG - With their top three runners—Andrew Boyer, Marcos Serrano and JP Strombeck—finishing within five seconds of each other, the Fleming Island High boys cross country team won the district 2-3A cross country title in dominating fashion against a handful of state ranked competitors.

Next, the runners will travel to Cecil Field's New World Golf cross country course for their region meets with the venue hosting regions 1-1A (SJCDS boys and girls in; 9:30 a.m.), 1-2A (Keystone Heights girls and boys in; 8 a.m.), 1-3A (10:30 a.m.) and 1-4A (8:30 a.m.) in a cross country title fest on Friday, Nov. 14.

"Andrew has been running stronger at this point of the season and we have Jacob Sanders back in the lineup after an injury," said Fleming Island coach Jason Poole. "We are getting out top six guys all pack running all the way to state."

For the team points, Fleming Island came away with just 40 points for the team title with Boyer in fifth at 16:38.6, Serrano in sixth at 16:41.3 and Strombeck in seventh at 16:43.2 to give the Golden Eagles a decided advantage over the challenge of Ponte Vedra who had the top two finishers in Miles Wick and Luke Ross in 16:21.8 and 16:28.1.

"The course got a little beat up after the girls ran first and there more mud spots than when we first got here," Boyer said. "Our goal was to stay with guys we have had finish in the top 10 of previous races and try to take out one or two of them at the finish."

Serrano opened the first mile with the early leaders with Boyer and Strombeck in the chase pack and number four Luke Janke at the tail end of the chase pack. Janke would finish in 10th place as the fourth finisher in 17:19.6 with Ryder Muyres 12th as number five in 17:27.4. Sanders, who had an injured shoulder and missed the second half of the season, returned at last week's JV Invitational at Bishop Kenny.

"I'm still a little tight when I'm running and you can see my arm swing is a little off," said Sanders, who still finished 17:45.3 for an 18th place finish. "I kept my cardio up during the rehab with swimming and biking so the drop off would not be too bad."

Behind the Golden Eagles, a surprisingly tough Matanzas team took second with 53 points with St. Augustine third and Ponte Vedra fourth. Matanzas had a third-place finisher in Blaine Vogel in 16:30.8 ahead of St. Augustine's Cole Swesey in fourth, and ahead of Boyer in 16:36.6.

For the region spots, Middleburg had a strong fifth place team finish with Daniel Johnson in at 21st in 17:51.3 and Michael Breeding, a Bronco wrestler, in at 25th in 17:59.3 giving Coach Ken Yancey a good point total.

"Michael started running about three months ago as a cross-country guy," Yancey said. "He's a wrestler and was just entering his wrestling season and wanted some more cardio. He helped us tremendously and I'm sure cross country will help his wrestling."

Advancing to regions with individual selections was Ridgeview Robert Petrosky with a 36th place finish in 18:36.1. Clay High's William Rios was in at 48th in 19:02.1.

For the girls race at Middleburg, Fleming Island and Middleburg will both advance to the regions with the Golden Eagles taking fifth behind a fifth-place finish from cross country/swim dual athlete Brooke Reynolds and the Broncos finishing eighth off a spectacular freshman season by Lauren Rosset in 16th in 20:46.1.

Middleburg finished just ahead of Clay for the coveted eighth team spot. Reynolds earned a state meet ticket with the Fleming Island girls swimming team after her regions in that sport on Tuesday.

Also earning a region ticket with a 20:23.9 finish for ninth place was Ridgeview senior Emily Turner while Clay High sophomore Annalies Hovda was second individual qualifier in 43rd in 22:36.0.