Thursday, August 24, 2023

Who opened the LCS middle school cross-country season with wins?

As a fan of athletics, do you prefer fast times or stiff competition? Are records your thing? Or racing?

Charlotte Sikes
Charlotte Sikes

You could have had both at the ARPXC Middle School Cross-Country Invitational, the opening meet of Leon County Schools' middle school cross-country season. In the girl's 3K, Swift Creek seventh-grader Charlotte Sikes threw down a meet record 11:31, winning the race for the second year in a row. In the boys' 3K, Fairview eighth-grader Emari Thomas sprinted on the homestretch to pull out a narrow victory, running 11:13. The Deerlake girls scored 24 points to take the team title for the third year in a row, while the Montford boys put up 41 points and nabbed their first ARPXC Invitational win.


The meet was on Wednesday evening, 23 August 2023, which is still summer in Tallahassee, Florida. If there was any doubt about the season, a quick glance at the thermometer would have dispelled it. It was hot enough that the meet was delayed half an hour, so the girls' race didn't start till 6:30 PM--by which time the temperature had dipped to 92°F.

Emily Molen
Chloe Molen

Charlotte Sikes set an early pace in the girls' 3K that was just as torrid. The Swift Creek seventh-grader went right to the front, shadowed by to Deerlake eighth-graders, Chloe Molen and Honesty Daniel. Sikes may have won the girls' race at the 2022 meet, but Molen had won it in 2021.


By the end of the first kilometer, though, Sikes had broken contact with her pursuers. During the second kilometer Sikes extended her lead and Molen pulled away from Daniel. Daniel, in turn, was overtaken by Deerlake seventh-grader Emma-Claire Tanenbaum. Only the distances between the top four runners changed during the final kilometer--Sikes finished with an 11:30 win, Molen was second in 12:08, Tanenbaum third in 12:15, and Daniel fourth in 12:33. Sikes' time was four seconds faster than her own winning time in the previous year's race.

Emma-Claire Tanenbaum
Emma-Claire Tanenbaum

"I feel awesome!" said Sikes after the race. "It's a real great course and my favorite place to run."


After Molen, Tanenbaum, and Daniel, eighth-grader Madeline Brockmeier also broke into the top ten for Deerlake, placing sixth n 13:31. Buck eighth-grader Allie Davenport completed the scoring for Deerlake, placing ninth overall in 14:01. With five scorers across the finish line, the Deerlake girls had a mathematically unbeatable 24 points and the ARPXC Invitational title. The Bucks had not only won the meet for the third year in a row, they had also won their fifteenth straight meet in LCS cross-country competition--a streak that goes back to 2020.

Honesty Daniel
Honesty Daniel

Sikes and Swift Creek were second in the team standings with 49 points. The Raa Rams, led by seventh-grader Brixton Mendez (8th, 13:58), were third with 77 points.


84 athletes representing 10 schools finished the girls' 3K.


2023 ARPXC Invitational Team Standings, Girls
  1. Deerlake, 24
  2. Swift Creek, 49
  3. Raa, 77
  4. Montford, 93
  5. Cobb, 153
  6. Fort Braden, 197
  7. Fairview, 199
  8. Griffin, 239
  9. Woodville, NTS
    Nims, NTS

Top Ten Girls, 2023 ARPXC Invitational
  1. 11:30.12, Charlotte Sikes (Swift Creek) 7
  2. 12:07.75, Chloe Molen (Deerlake) 8
  3. 12:14.33, Emma-Claire Tanenbaum (Deerlake) 7
  4. 12:32.26, Honesty Daniel (Deerlake) 8
  5. 12:35.19, Alexis Mayfield (Swift Creek) 8
  6. 13:30.17, Madeline Brockmeier (Deerlake) 8
  7. 13:36.58, Andrea Jimenez (Montford) 7
  8. 13:57.23, Brixton Menendez (Raa) 7
  9. 14:00.77, Allie Davenport (Deerlake) 8
  10. 14:04.52, Yujeong Lee (Deerlake) 7

"The heat! The heat!" exclaimed Charlotte Sikes. "And of course, when the boys ran, the whole course was in shade."

Emari Thomas
Emari Thomas

The sun may have been a bit lower during the boys' 3K, but the temperatures weren't much lower. Nevertheless, Emari Thomas went out hard from the start. The Fairview eighth-grader had a 50-meter lead on the field by the end of the first kilometer; he was still 50 meters ahead at the two-kilometer mark. Then Montford seventh-grader Jack Nottingham began to close.


During the final kilometer, Nottingham pulled even with Thomas. The two were still racing neck-and-neck with 200 meters to go. On the homestretch, Apalachee Regional Park's notorious downhill charge to the finish line, Thomas broke away from Nottingham to get the win, 11:13 to 11:18. Seventh-grader Jacob Hassell of Deerlake held off Raa eighth-grader Carson Weiss to take third, 11:30 to 11:34.

Jack Nottingham, Emari Thomas
Jack Nottingham and Emari Thomas

Nottingham was only the first of three Montford athletes in the top ten; the other two were sixth-graders Chase Sims (6th, 12:07) and Isaiah Renn (9th, 12:18). Montford's two remaining scorers were eighth-graders Jack Getman (11th, 12:27) and Stokes Bryan (13th, 12:39), giving the Mustang boys 41 points and the team title.


Weiss and the Raa Rams were second in the team standings with 50 points. Led by Jacob Hassell, Deerlake, ARPXC Invitational champions in 2021 and 2022, took third with 60 points.

Jacob Hassell, Carson Weiss
Jacob Hassell and Carson Weiss

133 athletes representing 10 schools finished the boys' 3K at the 2023 ARPXC Invitational. Brian Corbin timed and scored the meet.


2023 ARPXC Invitational Team Standings, Boys
  1. Montford, 41
  2. Raa, 50
  3. Deerlake, 60
  4. Swift Creek, 119
  5. Fairview, 127
  6. Cobb, 166
  7. Fort Braden, 211
  8. Griffin, 245
  9. Nims, 262
  10. Woodville, NTS

Top Ten Boys, 2023 ARPXC Invitational
  1. 11:12.79, Emari Thomas (Fairview) 8
  2. 11:17.12, Jack Nottingham (Montford) 7
  3. 11:29.61, Jacob Hassell (Deerlake) 7
  4. 11:33.92, Carson Weiss (Raa) 8
  5. 11:53.09, Nicholas Hassell (Deerlake) 7
  6. 12:06.56, Chase Simms (Montford) 6
  7. 12:07.51, Emerson Gandy (Raa) 7
  8. 12:11.30, Joshua Agbali (Fairview) 8
  9. 12:17.81, Isaiah Renn (Montford) 6
  10. 12:25.52, Alden Weiss (Raa) 8

ARPXC Invitational Champions
2015 - 2023
Girls
DateTeam ChampIndividual Champ
2 September 2015Swift Creek, 2612:34.24, Alyson Churchill (Swift Creek) 8
7 September 2016Canceled due to hurricane damage
7 September 2017Deerlake, 3713:05.25, Paige Churchill (Swift Creek) 7
30 August 2018Swift Creek, 3612:51.04, Maya Tang (Deerlake) 8
29 August 2019Montford, 4012:43.44, Skye Williams (Montford) 8
26 August 2021Deerlake, 1812:36.11, Chloe Molen (Deerlake ) 6
24 August 2022Deerlake, 2911:33.97, Charlotte Sikes (Swift Creek) 6
23 August 2023Deerlake, 2411:30.12, Charlotte Sikes (Swift Creek) 7
Boys
DateTeam ChampIndividual Champ
2 September 2015Rained Out
7 September 2016Canceled due to hurricane damage
7 September 2017Deerlake, 3411:07.71, Patrick Koon (Fairview) 6
30 August 2018Rained Out
29 August 2019Fairview, 4110:31.55, Patrick Koon (Fairview) 8
26 August 2021Deerlake, 4911:27.50, Jonathan Kiros (Deerlake ) 7
24 August 2022Deerlake, 4810:29.66, Caio Zacchi (Nims) 8
23 August 2023Montford, 4111:12.79, Emari Thomas (Fairview) 8
The 2015 races were two miles. In later years the athletes raced three kilometers.


Links
#2979
Bookmark and Share
Posted by Herb Wills at 3:00 PM
Labels: , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)