The overall leader was Chris Haynes of Robert E. Lee High School while Ridgeview’s Luis Maldonaldo finished right behind Poidevant, but Deis had teammates Benjamin Bayless, Jacob Gladding and Matt Cooksey finishing in the top 11 before Ridgeview’s third finisher, Kendall Shiling, who finished 12th.
Middleburg High got a 14th place finish from sophomore Timothy Pavlisko and a 17th place by freshman Lee Mills to squeeze out sixth place as a team and also advance to regions. Middleburg’s girls took eighth behind senior Catherine Kercher’s 33rd place finish.
In the District 2-1A race held Thursday at Van Zant Park in Lake Asbury, St. Johns Country Day School standout Danielle Dunn had to chase down a quick opening surge by Providence runner Camille Jackson which opened the door for a repeat title for Meghan Roberts of P.K. Yonge in 19:45 as Dunn finished third overall in 20:17.
Teammate Mallory Bane finished fifth as the Spartans took third overall to advance to Saturday’s regional race in Tallahassee.
St. Johns’ boys’ senior Jeremy Graf ran a personal best of 18:57 to finish in the top 15 at 13th overall that gave the Spartans enough edge to place sixth as a team and also advance.
St. Johns was tied with St. Francis in team points with the top five recorded and the tie breaker was decided by sophomore Ishaan Madhok who finished just one second ahead of the sixth runner in for St. Francis to secure the sixth place.
“Though we fought into sixth place on a tie-breaker, we feel that with better races by a couple of runners, we are still the third best team going to Tallahassee from our district,” said Jay Birmingham, St. Johns coach.
“We feel that beating District 2 champion PK Yonge is possible in Tallahassee with only Maclay likely to be ahead of us,” he added.
In District 2-2A held Thursday evening at Bishop Kenny, Clay High senior Erin O’Nora had to deal with a disabled bus that eliminated a warmup prior to her race. A tearful O’Nora finished 25th and out of the top 15 which go to regions.
For the Clay boys, senior Kevin Singleton finished 19th overall.
In 4-4A competition, Orange Park senior Trent Blair finished 17th in a very fast field that had the top 15 finishers all under 17 minutes. Blair was in at 17:06 with Dominique Sykes 27th and Martinique Sykes 30th.
Junior Felicia Reeves was tops at 67th for the Orange Park girls with teammates Desirae Roberts and Deidra Scott in at 77th and 78th.
November 11th 2008 - 8:01PM