JACKSONVILLE - In basketball most times, it is a sixth man that becomes a key player on the hardwood, but Friday, in the region 1-3A cross country championship race held at the New World Golf Course at Cecil Field, it was the sixth man of Fleming Island finishers—senior Jacob Sanders—who emerged as the unexpected hero as the Golden Eagles took the team title in a flurry of activity at the scoring table to determine the champion after a 75-75 score off the first runners to finish for both teams.

"Chiles finished with a 1-2 finish up top, but our Andrew Boyer had a great third place finish with Marcos Serrano and JP Strombeck in at seventh and eighth to kind of balance out the scoring," said Fleming Island coach Dave Allen. "We knew it was going to be close at that point and we had to wait to see where our fourth and fifth guys were."

In cross country, the top five runners across the finish line normally finish the team scoring. Fleming Island had its top three in before Chiles' number three and four emerging in 10th and 23rd. It would be up to either Ryder Muhres, Sanders or Luke Janke to make the difference.

"Really the big difference was Jacob Sanders being able to recover from shoulder surgery quickly and rehabbing like crazy to be able to run what he did today," Allen said. "Luke Janke had a bad day in the heat and dust and Sanders ran strong."

With Muhres in at 28th and Janke falling to 43rd, it was Sanders at 31st just two seconds away from Muhres who secured the team title.

"To come back from a surgery, though on his shoulder, and to run under 17 just four weeks later is a testimony of his toughness and his rehab regimen working," Allen said.

Chiles had a runner in front of Janke, but behind Sanders.

"It's tough to have five or six guys all run strong on every Saturday," Allen said. "We have a strong eight-man lineup that, on any given race, can be interchangeable."

In the girls Class 3A race, Fleming Island's girls finished seventh to automatically advanced as a top eight team finisher.

Fleming Island junior Brooke Reynolds executed a two-sport weekend with a region cross country race 12th place finish and a state swimming meet on Saturday as part of a ninth-place overall finish by the Fleming Island girls team.

"I did it last year and it's just a matter of cooling down, recovering, traveling smart and eating right," said Reynolds, who was 12th in 19:38.19 to lead the Golden Eagles with Karissa Lou second finisher at 38th in 21:07.64.

"My legs are a little tired, but I'm okay," said Reynolds at the state swim meet in Ocala last Saturday.

In the Class 3A girls race, there was to be a brewing matchup between Ridgeview senior Emily Turner and Middleburg freshman Lauren Rosset for one of the four coveted individual qualifiers to advance to the state meet.

"I just ran to stay ahead of her and I figured that would get me one of the four individual spots," said Turner, who finished ahead of Rosset, 21st place versus 24th for Rosset, to earn her state ticket. "It wasn't my best time, but I was competing almost directly with her. She's going to be a great runner for Middleburg the next few years."

Turner clocked in at 20:20.61 with Rosset in at 20:28.98.

For Middleburg's boys, the Broncos had senior Daniel Johnson finishing his career with a strong 50th in 17:20.53 with teammate Adam Ruoss in at 71st in 18:01.62. Bronco wrestler Michael Breeding added a 76th place finish in 18:07.27 having joined the team just three months ago.

"Middleburg athletes are always tough and scrappy and Breeding added a bit of wrestling toughness to the boys team," said Yancey, who has Middleburg head wrestling coach Coll Robertson as an assistant coach for the team.
For the Broncos boys and girls teams, finishes of 12th of 16 teams for the boys and 14th of 16 teams for the girls, was more than coaches Paul Grybb and Kenneth Yancey could ask for.

"Both of these teams just did what not many Middleburg teams have done in the last decade," Grybb said. "We came in ranked 16th and both teams showed some toughness and grit to get to 14th and 12th. There is a new standard for Middleburg High cross country. The seniors here have set a great bar for future Broncos runners."

Clay High had sophomore Annaliese Hovda and William Rios in the Class 3A race as well with Hovda 64th in 22:11.12 and Rios 84th in 18:26.29.

In Class 1A, the St. Johns Country Day School boys and girls teams both advanced to the state race with freshman Kate Staten leading the Lady Spartans with an eighth-place finish in 19:46.23 while the boys got a 34th-35th finish from Nathan Kipnis and Arlo Kistner to get their ticket to the state meet. The Spartans girls finished fifth while the boys finished just four points ahead of Seacoast Collegiate for the eighth spot.

In Class 2A, Keystone Heights High seventh grader Ryleigh Thomas just missed earning an individual ticket with her 38h place finish in 20:42.77. Thomas was fifth in the running for the top four individuals invited to the state meet.

Teammate Melody Tyre, a sophomore, was 43rd in 20:53.24. For the boys, Keystone Heights got a 37-38 finish from Noah Yara and Hunter Sheppard in 17:20.34 and 17:22.08, to finish 11th in team scores.